Interview of Kianna

The video of the self is an interview of Kianna and her best friend, April who are 12 years old along with Kianna's mother. Questions about the self were asked to both girls. Seemingly normal and healthy understandings of themselves were portrayed by the two twelve year old adolescents. Citing that their friends are number one in their lives and that their friends know them best. They both explained that it is important to them to "fit in" however not to any extent such as some of the girls that they go to school with. Some girls in their school have eating disorders, these girls count calories and diet even though they are skinny says Kianna and April. Kianna's mother provides a good example of how one should be healthy giving Kianna good advice on how to eat and work out in a healthy manner. Kiannas mother also explains that the current role models for young girls in the media today are not a good example for these young susceptible girls who at this time of internal investigation tend to conform to what the media and their friends portray. This is not realistic and can lead to eating disorders among other problems with teenage girls.

Social media helps fuel some eating disorders. According to the article titled the same in USA Today, social media heightens exposure to a culture of eating disorders. Interviewed in the article is a 27 year old woman who is a former bulimic of many years. The severity of her illness was pretty severe suffering from 12 to 25 years old she was hospitalized on numerous occasions and has lasting negative effects from bulimia some of which being, dental erosion, swollen glands, and loss of her period. This woman, Donna, avoids Facebook and Insta-gram among other social media sources because they are very image driven. Some websites labeled "pro-ana" (pro-anorexia) and "pro-mia" (pro-bullimia) are said to be a promotion of these disorders as a life style choice. The article cites a few studies that show correlations between the use of social media and risk of developing negative body images and eating disorders.

A Study of Concurrent and Prospective Analyses of Peer, Television, and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls was conducted in 2012. Of a sample of 237 girls ranging in age from 10 to 17 with a mean age of 14.11 researchers suggest that only peer competition not television or social media use, predicted negative outcomes. Negative out comes being the risk or presence of body dissatisfaction. However, they did note that social media had a small predictive relationship with peer competition, suggesting that social media could be used to carry out such competition.

In the news article we have a very negative view of social media almost being labeled as a cause for eating disorders in adolescent girls. However I don't feel that "pro-ana" and "pro-mia" sites that they describe in the article can be considered general social media and the existence of these sites were kind of shocking to me. From the view of the two girls, Kianna and April, in the video they were well aware that the images they see in social media and on TV are not real representations of how they should look.