Social Media’s Effects on Eating Disorders: Portrayed Through Art

My March Madness project was inspired by the driving question: How can art be used to help portray the effect of social media and societal standards on eating disorders? However, to reach this question in the first place, I was influenced over quarantine because I, much like millions of others, was spending more time on social media and my phone than ever before. I found myself seeing and consuming a lot more content about bodies, the way they ‘should look’, and what is ‘healthy’. This content began to affect my mental health personally and to influence the way I viewed myself as well. This interest was then combined with my artistic hobby, one that I have indulged in since I was young, creating a combined project questioning social media’s role in eating disorders through art.  I chose to use art to answer my guiding question because I feel that it is a more inclusive and interactive form of communication, one that often leaves a greater impact on me than isolated written work. I initially planned to create an infographic, a large drawing, and three sculptures. However, as the year progressed I found my project to be more ambitious than I had expected, leading me to evict the sculptures from my project due to difficulty, failure at creating them, and time constraints. This decision did allow me to focus my attention on the other parts of my project, improving their quality greatly.  In addition, I approached my project with enthusiasm that soon began to fade as I worked more and more on my project, being overcome with stress rather than enjoyment for my work. It became more of a chore than a pleasure, but eventually, as I began to dive deeper into my research I rediscovered my ability to educate others on topics that I had just educated myself about, regaining my interest in my project altogether.  My project has come to a cumulative end of one in-depth infographic and one large drawing depicting a variety of visual representations for my poster, allowing me to learn bundles of information regarding eating disorders and social media as separate topics and as they intersect. Should I continue my project in the near future, I would plan to give the sculptures another try, this time fueled by patience and the relief of the absence of time constraints. I would do so in order to further portray my project and its educational purposes, enhancing its presentation as well. In conclusion, my March Madness project focuses on topics that remain extremely relevant in our world that revolves around the consumption and usage of media, depicting important topics through an accessible medium.