AUTHOR: Tessa Cuchelkar
Introduction
It is well known today that social media negatively influences many aspects surrounding appearances and self-esteem, yet many today still scroll through social media for hours and hours on end. For many female adolescents especially, social media has had a ubiquitous influence on their self-perception, with social media contributing to issues such as body dysmorphia (BDD) and eating disorders. However, recent research actually suggests indirect linkages between social media and cancer. One of the more prominent beliefs found in modern media surrounds the “need to be tan”, causing people with lighter skin tones to be increasingly self-conscious, seeking ways to combat this. One of the most common ways to darken ones’ skin tone is through indoor tanning. Indoor tanning is a very dangerous behavior, as it has direct linkages to an increased risk of skin cancer. Despite the rising rates of skin cancer, many still seek out these treatments, arguing the benefits outweigh the perceived risk of cancer. For this reason, the correlations between social media, adolescents’ beliefs surrounding cancer, and behaviors around indoor tanning are of increasing importance in research. A recent study run by Jessica Gall Myrick, Seth M. Noar, Dannielle Kelley and Alexandra E. Zeitany (2017) sought to dive deeper into these phenomena. The primary goal of the study was to explore how media use influences adolescent females’ beliefs regarding indoor tanning and in turn, beliefs regarding the risk of cancer. Specifically, the study focused on the relationship between different types of media use, in order to gain a holistic understanding, as well as tanning-related outcome expectations and indoor tanning likelihood.
Methods
In order to investigate this phenomenon deeper, the researchers conducted a survey with 510 adolescent females, aged 15 to 18, from 3 Southeastern U.S. public high schools. The survey consisted of items that concerned a variety of topics, such as media habits, beliefs regarding indoor tanning, and future intentions surrounding tanning. Patients reported their media usage with different types of media such as entertainment media (TV/movies), news media, and social media. Additionally, the participants reported media communication such as texting and calling others. The researchers then asked about tanning beliefs, indoor tanning being the specific focus, with questions concerning a variety of elements such as confidence, perceived self-image, as well as more negative beliefs such as perceived health risk and skin damage/cancer. Lastly, the survey evaluated participants’ intention to continue to utilize indoor tanning treatment in the future.
With the results, the researchers used statistical methods to analyze responses for common themes, patterns and connections between media use and the intentions and beliefs regarding indoor tanning.
Results
The study overall found trends in how media use affected female adolescents’ attitudes towards indoor tanning. Overall, the study found a correlation between time consumption of media and attitudes towards tanning, finding that the more time participants spent consuming media, the more likely they were to hold positive beliefs regarding tanning indoors, often seeing it as a way to improve their confidence. Arguably more importantly, higher media exposure was often correlated with fewer negative beliefs regarding tanning, such as risks of skin damage and cancer. However, the study also found that these effects varied depending on the type of media consumed. Social media and communicative media were strongly correlated with the more positive tanning beliefs, whereas mass media (such as news programs and entertainment media) were found to lessen tanning expectations and linked to a lower likelihood of intending to tan indoors, as perceived risk was found. It is important to note, however, that the researchers did not directly find a correlation between indoor tanning use and social media exposure, only finding that increased exposure to social media made tanning appear more enticing.
Conclusions + Implications
Overall, the findings of the study have important implications for future research and public health efforts aimed at reducing indoor tanning as well as reducing skin cancer risk for adolescents and females as a whole. Social media platforms appear to promote inaccurate beauty expectations and reinforce the appeal of certain treatments, in this case that being indoor tanning, while minimizing perceived risk. While mass media appears to have effects opposite to that of social media, the realms of influence of both types of media are vastly different, with mass media often lacking the engagement it needs to combat these beliefs and educate about risks. As a result, future interventions should prioritize social media campaigns in order to shine light on the dangers of skin cancer, and challenge harmful perceptions which minimize these risks by promoting accurate health information. By using this study as a basis to spark change and reform, and tailor messages to modern adolescent media behavior, public health campaigns have the ability to become increasingly more effective in encouraging healthier choices among teens, combatting the pressures to conform to these unrealistic expectations that present harmful consequences, and help prevent cancer.
Journal Article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48591449
