Social and Personal Consequences of Fatness on Social Media

This report delves into the social and personal consequences of how fatness is represented on social media platforms. The author, a student at the University, examines the impact of negative portrayals, fat shaming, and stereotypical representations of overweight and obese individuals. The report highlights the negative effects on mental health, including poor self-esteem and depression, while also acknowledging the potential of social media for health promotion through awareness campaigns and encouragement of healthy behaviors. The author emphasizes the need for increased social support and the prevention of discriminatory attitudes towards fat individuals, drawing on research to support their arguments and personal reflections.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
What are the social and personal consequences of how fatness is represented on social media?
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTHCARE
Personal thoughts
Social resources have been identified valuable in bringing about behavioural changes,
in relation to health promotion. I believe that use of social media helps in increasing
engagement of the participants and also acts in the form of a cost-effective tool for offering
support to individuals who manifest the intention of reducing excess body weight. However, I
feel that fat shaming is quite pervasive among social media users, particularly Facebook and
Twitter and creates a negative effect on obese and overweight people, thus making them feel
discriminated and stereotyped.
It has often been found that obese and overweight individuals are represented in a
negative manner in social media and they are commonly portrayed as unappealing, less
desirable, indolent, and unapproachable (Chou, Prestin & Kunath, 2014). This creates
significant negative impact on their mental health and makes them suffer from poor self-
esteem and depression, regarding their body appearance and image. However, I also hold the
notion that health awareness campaigns that are conducted in social media act in the form of
population-level intervention and help in management of obesity, by increasing the awareness
and understanding of the users about the ill effects of obesity, and associated health risks.
Social media has also been found to encourage users to show adherence to healthy eating
behaviour, and also motivates them to perform regular physical exercise, thus creating a
positive impact on their health (Jane, Hagger, Foster, Ho & Pal, 2018).
Nonetheless, the negative attitudes and derogatory comments towards obese and
overweight people are more prevalent in social media. Therefore, efforts need to be taken in
order to increase social support and prevent the manifestation of discriminating or stereotypic
attitudes towards fat individuals.

2HEALTHCARE
References
Chou, W. Y. S., Prestin, A., & Kunath, S. (2014). Obesity in social media: a mixed methods
analysis. Translational behavioral medicine, 4(3), 314-323. doi: 10.1007/s13142-014-
0256-1
Jane, M., Hagger, M., Foster, J., Ho, S., & Pal, S. (2018). Social media for health promotion
and weight management: a critical debate. BMC public health, 18(1), 932.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5837-3