Have you ever been doom-scrolling on social media and come across a post promoting specific diets or magical low-calorie foods? If you answered yes, then you are definitely not alone. With social media being such a big part of our teenage lives, most of our free time is spent consuming whatever content is pushed out onto our for-you-pages.
But what happens when these posts begin to promote misleading and dangerous beauty standards and diet content? When scrolling upon this type of content, you may think to yourself, this is clearly a marketing stunt, why would anyone listen to this anyways; however, influencers grow more and more creative every day and the dangers of these posts may not be as simple to recognize as you may think. This article will dive deep into just how much these seemingly harmless posts impact our generation.
The Shift From Traditional Marketing to Influencers
Food marketing has changed a LOT over the years. Instead of companies using TV commercials or ads in magazines, they now pay social media influencers (who, by the way, are really just normal people like you) to promote their products on their social media platforms to their young audience. Whether you believe it or not, you have most likely fallen victim to these influencers and companies without batting an eye. Since influencers seem more relatable and trustworthy, teenagers are much more likely to listen to them or even copy them, for better or for worse.
Imagine opening TikTok after a long day at school and seeing never-ending “what I eat in a day” videos, posted by influencers who believe eating three almonds and an iced coffee for breakfast is normal. Sounds crazy right? It is—but unfortunately this is the reality for many teenagers on the daily who start to believe these unrealistic eating habits and beauty standards are normal. Suddenly, without even realizing it, these teens start to pick up the same habits and have once again become a victim to food marketing on social media.
The Effects on Teenagers
Research has connected social media to disordered eating behaviors and unrealistic body expectations among teenagers. Over time, constantly seeing dieting content, calorie counting, and unrealistic body standards can seriously affect our self-esteem and create unhealthy relationships with food. Some teenagers may begin comparing themselves to influencers and feel pressured to look or eat a certain way just to fit in. This can lead to anxiety, insecurity, and potentially dangerous eating habits that can take over your mental and physical health.
This problem is only growing worse because the algorithm in social media apps keeps recommending the same type of content over and over and over again, until it has filled your mind with all of these harmful ideas. One minute you could be watching a GRWM (get ready with me) video, and the next your entire feed is trying to convince you to take this detoxifying weight-loss powder that will magically solve all of your problems overnight.
Marketing Disguised As Advice
One of the biggest problems with influencer marketing is that the advertisements barely even look like advertisements anymore. Influencers have quite literally become professionals at mixing in promotional content with their daily vlogs, making it seem like they genuinely use these products every day. Because the content seems personal to the creator and relatable for the viewers, many teenagers trust the recommendations without even realizing these creators are being paid to essentially play pretend with new products in their daily content. Even researchers agree with this and explain how unhealthy food marketing has become extremely common online and often targets younger audiences through reliable social media trends.
Conclusion
Overall, as often as social media influencers promote “realness” and “transparency,” many of them are—to put it simply—fake. While some influencers genuinely promote positive messages, many of them push unrealistic standards just for a check, most likely without even realizing the serious damage they’re doing to our impressionable minds. I think we can all agree that social media is not going anywhere anytime soon, so it is important that we, and all teenagers, are able to recognize when influencers are disguising their paid promotional content as advice instead of simply believing and blindly following everything we see.
