"NetGirls" Summary

"NetGirls: The Internet, Facebook, and Body Image Concern in Adolescent Girls" is a study that explored the effect of social media/the internet on body image perception in young girls between the ages of 13 and 15. This included over 1,000 female freshman and sophomores in high school, which can be some of the best or some of the worst years of a young girl's life in terms of body image and confidence; these years can shape their personality for years to come. Not including school work, girls this age spend about 1.5 hours each day on the internet, most of which are sites with distorted and objectified representations of the female body. Through a serious of surverys, researched determined how long the girls spend per on the internet per day, which sites they use the most,  how many MySpace or Facebook "friends" they have, what they contribute "beauty" to, and how they feel about themselves. The study revealed that 95.9% of the girls had access to the internet in their home. The time spent on the internet had a significant correlation to their internalization of the thin ideal, body surveillance, and their drive for thinness. This relationship between body image issues and internet usage was even more prevalent in the girls that spent more time on Facebook specifically. The connection was even stronger than researchers predicted, and the study as a whole gives a look into the mind of young girls. Results showed that the "Internet represents a potent socio-cultural medium of relevance to the body image of adolescent girls," which is something that young girls should be aware of. If these things are connected, then a reduction in social media usage should reduce these problems in girls who are facing them. That may be difficult for some girls to do, but in serious cases it might be a beneficial option.