Role of Media Literacy in Spreading Body Positivity and in Preventing Eating Disorder

“Eating disorders” refers to a group of complicated mental health concerns that can have a substantial impact on individual’s health and social functioning. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classifies it as “feeding and eating disorders” (DSM-5). Eating disorders can create both emotional pain and serious medical issues due to the physical nature of their characteristic symptoms. Furthermore, of all mental disorders, they have the highest fatality rate. I discovered that by educating people about the condition and how the media plays a role in it, we can prevent them from succumbing to it. We should implement a program in schools that encourages young individuals to think critically. Because the media play such an essential role in the spread of eating disorders, media literacy activism and advocacy should be a part of prevention and treatment. While reading these papers, I noticed a few limitations, such as lack of accessibility because many social media platforms require a paid subscription, which is prohibitively expensive for social college students; Because some people lack the time and finances to maintain their social media accounts, not everyone has equal access to those networks. All of these researches had a very small sample size as its still a topic of discussion.