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Weight-normative messaging predominates on TikTok—A qualitative content analysis
Several young adults and adolescents are using the social networking site TikTok. Posts on food, nutrition, and weight are common on TikTok. Still, not much is known about the information they include or if specialists are presenting it. Finding recurring patterns in TikTok postings on food, nutrition, and weight was the aim of this analytic study by Minadeo & Pope (2022). Ten commonly used hashtags relating to food, weight, and nutrition, totaling over a billion views each, were selected, and 1000 TikTok videos from those hashtags were downloaded and examined using template analysis. The selected hashtags were additionally used to retrieve the top 100 most-watched videos. Each video was then coded for major topics by two coders. The promotion of weight reduction in several articles, the use of food to attain thinness and health, and the shortage of knowledgeable voices offering dietary advice were some of the significant issues noted through content analysis. Less than 3% of postings were classified as weight-inclusive, and the bulk gave a weight-normative health perspective. Adolescent and young adult white women wrote the majority of the posts. Most of the information on TikTok about nutrition was weight normative, which, the authors comment, may encourage disordered eating patterns and body dissatisfaction in the platform’s youthful user base. One way to combat the pervasive weight-normative social media content might be to assist people with identifying reliable nutrition facts and remove triggering items from their social media feeds. [NPID: Social media, TikTok, nutrition posts, eating disorder, body dysmorphia, adolescent health]
Year: 2022
