Social Media: A New Approach to Weight Loss
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Junior
Major
Public & Community Health
Minor
Business Administration
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Kala Chakradhar
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
The primary response to the obesity epidemic has been stigma related to weight or blaming people who are obese for being obese, and this response is not working. This attitude even causes a lot of harm which means that there needs to be a new approach to the obesity epidemic. Social media could be just the approach since it is widely used; it can be used to reach populations experiencing obesity; and it can be used as an intrapersonal accountability tool to help individuals lose weight, it can be used as an interpersonal emotional support system to help individuals in their weight loss journeys, and it can be used to build or develop an online community in the form of similar individuals that have comparable life experiences (obesity and dieting) and share the same goals (weight-loss and health). The study examines several public Instagram accounts to see how social media can help individuals experiencing obesity with losing weight. The Instagram accounts of focus were selected due to the fact that they were all experiencing obesity, following the Ketogenic Diet, trying to lose weight, and were chronicling about it on Instagram. Concerning methodologies, the idea is to use qualitative observation in which secondary research or the individual postings on these accounts are tracked and logged from the past several weeks to ascertain how social media can help individuals who are obese with weight loss, so retrospective data collection would be utilized.
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Honors College Senior Theses
Social Media: A New Approach to Weight Loss
The primary response to the obesity epidemic has been stigma related to weight or blaming people who are obese for being obese, and this response is not working. This attitude even causes a lot of harm which means that there needs to be a new approach to the obesity epidemic. Social media could be just the approach since it is widely used; it can be used to reach populations experiencing obesity; and it can be used as an intrapersonal accountability tool to help individuals lose weight, it can be used as an interpersonal emotional support system to help individuals in their weight loss journeys, and it can be used to build or develop an online community in the form of similar individuals that have comparable life experiences (obesity and dieting) and share the same goals (weight-loss and health). The study examines several public Instagram accounts to see how social media can help individuals experiencing obesity with losing weight. The Instagram accounts of focus were selected due to the fact that they were all experiencing obesity, following the Ketogenic Diet, trying to lose weight, and were chronicling about it on Instagram. Concerning methodologies, the idea is to use qualitative observation in which secondary research or the individual postings on these accounts are tracked and logged from the past several weeks to ascertain how social media can help individuals who are obese with weight loss, so retrospective data collection would be utilized.