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If I spent less time on
social media would improve my body image.

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Good question.

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More than 90% of adolescents spend 3 hours
a day or more on social media.

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An adolescent is a vulnerable period
for the development of body image issues.

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So to get a better understanding
of these relationship ups,

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we conducted an experiment.

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We assigned 220 youth
to one of two groups,

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an intervention group
that was required to reduce social media

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to one hour per day, or a control group

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that had no restrictions
on social media use.

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We measured social media use every day
objectively by the participants sending us

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screenshots with screen trackers
embedded in their social media use.

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We measured them for seven days to get
a stable measure of social media use,

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and participants filled out questionnaires
online about their body image

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during that baseline period before
the intervention and four weeks later,

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results showed that the intervention group
showed significant improvements

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in body image, most notably
appearance, esteem and weight esteem.

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Whereas the control group
showed no change in body image.

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And this discovery is important
as results would suggest

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that reducing social media to
about one hour a day may play an important

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component in the treatment and prevention
of body image issues in youth.

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In a nutshell, when it comes to social
media, use less is more.