Social networks as an inspiration source or reason of lower self - confidence - What impact can Instagram have on body image perception

The issue of the ideal of beauty presented in the media has been a worldwide phenomenon for several decades. After the origin of digital media, interest in researching this issue has expanded even more, and researchers are coming to new insights and conclusions. Body perception and satisfaction are important factors in self-concept. The subject of this diploma thesis, which I dare not call pure autoetnography, but rather qualitative research using my own self-reflection, is to bring a new perspective to the question of the media's effect on the perception of own body image. Through in-depth interviews that describe in detail several experiences with various forms of eating disorders is to think about the impact of Instagram on this topic. The main conclusion of the research is that none of the respondents confirmed Instagram as a trigger of the disease. Respondents call Instagram as coercive and harmful at a time when their psyche is already broken in some way. In that moment, most respondents described this social network as toxic and dangerous. However, despite all the negative experiences that most of them describe in the research, and which I went through as the author by myself, none of the respondents came to the conclusion that she should leave this platform at all