The Impact of Social Media Use on Social Comparison and Body Images of Young Adult Males

With the rise of social networking sites, young people are utilizing social platforms as an on-going avenue for comparison, specifically with regard to body image. Although issues of body image are often attributed to females, males struggle to live up to societal ideals of what a man should look like. This study highlights the body image comparisons that exist with young men and provides insight into the detrimental impact and consequences these comparisons can have on young men as they grow into adulthood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between social media use and body image concerns as it pertains to young adult males. Participants for this study were undergraduate male students ages 18-20 who were recruited from two secular colleges, a Christian university, as well as through a random sampling from a post sent out on Facebook. The sample size is 126 participants. The instrumentation used in this study is the Body Comparison Scale (BCS), Male Body Attitudes Scale (MBAS), and Social Media Intensity Scale (SMIS), a scale derived from the Facebook Intensity Scale (FBI). This study utilized a quantitative, correlational design. The study used multiple predictor variables (social media use, number of friends/followers, and time spent on social media), one criterion variable (body image), and one moderator variable (social comparison). After all of the data was collected through Qualtrics, it was analyzed using a multiple regression analysis to measure the correlation between the social media predictor variables and body image. In addition, three separate multiple regression analyses were conducted in order to examine the moderator effects