Body Image E11: How Social Media Affects Body Image

Most of us have figured out the first part on our own—social media has a way of making us feel worse about ourselves. But new research on the effects of social media on body image introduce a twist: we have a lot more power than we think. Despite the negative impacts of idealized images and relentless confidence-sapping messaging, social media also has the potential to be a powerful tool for good, if we apply some careful strategy to the way we use it. Lisa gathers family and friends in the Council of Moms with Gina James and Emilie Campbell, to get firsthand perspectives of social media changing the way we relate to our bodies. Body image researcher Dr. Jessica Alleva joins the conversation with fascinating results from studies which tested the ability for body image to improve, and the way social media fits into that equation. Social media guru Alison Faulkner shares her dramatic experience with body image and traumatic injury, how the demands of social media shaped her body image, and how she took back the reigns in order to heal, and share that healing with others.