Instagram isn't just potentially harmful for teenage girls' body image, but experts say the social platform can lead to teen boys developing eating disorders, too.
Dr. Jason Nagata, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF, noted in a San Francisco Chronicle piece on Monday that hospitalizations for teenagers with eating disorders have doubled at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase has cut across gender lines, Nagata said, as boys attempt to achieve the masculine body ideal.
"I think it's easier for parents, teachers and even physicians to miss eating disorders in boys because we're used to just looking for weight loss, restrictive behaviors and vomiting," Nagata said in an interview Monday night with KCBS Radio's Jeff Bell and Patti Reising.
"But, actually, the idealized body image for boys is to become bigger and muscular," he added. "So some of the boys with eating disorders actually are working out for 5-10 hours a day, taking steroids or other supplements and other behaviors that are to enhance their muscularity that may not necessarily be flagged as eating disorder behavior."
The National Eating Disorders Association estimates men account for a third of the 30 million Americans who experience eating disorders at some point in their lives. Nearly 30% of high school boys in 2015 reported trying to get bigger, including almost 40% of boys who were normal weight by Body Mass Index.
Those problems have gotten worse in the pandemic, Nagata said, as social media use has dramatically spiked. He wrote that, on Instagram and other platforms, "boys' bodies are on display now more than ever," pointing to research that teenage boys are less likely to have private accounts than girls. Boys are also more likely to post full-body pictures, which are rewarded with more engagement when showing muscularity and leanness.
This year, Facebook and Instagram users were given the option to hide public like counts. Facebook said it hoped to "depressurize" some users' experiences. The social media giant also paused plans to develop a kid-focused version of Instagram for children under the age of 13 following pushback.
Nagata said parents and adults should be on the lookout for teen boys becoming "preoccupied or even obsessed with" how they look, or how much they weigh, eat and exercise "in a way that’s worsening their quality of life."
"Many teens may start to withdraw from activities they normally enjoy, or even stop eating with their family or friends because they have certain dietary restrictions," he said. "Or, even if they're just exercising all the time. We have a lot of teens who are on sports teams and do team practice, but then also will do their own individual exercises excessively."
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