New social media harm for teenagers .. What is it?

A new study confirmed the dangers of "unsafe use" of social media, as it linked the increased use of it by adolescents to their disruption in their eating behaviors, so how does that happen?

An American study stated that the odds of missing meals and other eating disorders increase in adolescents who use social media.

The study included 996 teens in the seventh and eighth grade, with an average age of 13 years, where they were asked questions about their use of these methods such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr, in addition to asking about their eating behaviors, the size of their concern about their weight and shape, binge attacks or missing some meals they had , And if they do strenuous exercise.

Among the study participants - published in the International Journal of Nutritional Disorders - about 75% of girls and 70% of boys had at least one account on a social media site.

As for eating behaviors, 52% of girls reported that they experienced at least one disorder in their eating, compared to 45% among boys.

The odds of adopting disruptive feeding behaviors and the likelihood of recurring behaviors increased with increasing social media accounts, compared to adolescents who did not have any accounts on these sites.

"We have a belief that the use of social media encourages young people to compare themselves with their peers and with others, especially with regard to appearance at an age when adolescents are very vulnerable to their peers," said study superintendent of the research, Australian University of Flinders University, Simon Willich.

However, the study was not primarily designed to demonstrate that the use of social media directly contributes to problems regarding adolescents' perceptions of themselves or eating disorders.

Professor Jason Nagata, a professor in the Department of Adolescent and Young Medicine at the University of California, USA, recommends that parents who believe their children have problems with their own vision and food-related behavior seek help from professionals. He also added that parents should try to keep lines of communication with their children open regarding safe use of social media.