A qualitative exploration of Belgian adolescents’ and young adults’ views on idealized and body positive content on social media

Social media significantly impacts youth body image, yet its complexities require further exploration. Prior research often focuses on one type of content, neglecting how adolescents experience both harmful (e.g., idealized) and beneficial (e.g., body positive) content simultaneously. To address this, 34 individual interviews were conducted with adolescents (N = 20) and young adults (N = 14) (Mage = 18.88, SD = 2.72, girls/women = 19) to explore their experiences with appearance content and awareness of mixed appearance content on social media. Thematic analysis revealed six key themes, each containing subthemes: (a) harmful appearance content, (b) beneficial appearance content, (c) mixed appearance content, (d) self-posting behaviors, (e) youth recommendations, and (f) platform recommendations. Respondents reported that idealized content often triggers unhealthy body comparisons, but many downplayed its personal impact, suggesting a third-person effect, with boys and men particularly minimizing social media's influence. Some individuals, especially those with high internalization of beauty ideals, resisted body positive content due to internalized weight stigma, but most viewed BoPo content positively. Youth faced challenges reconciling idealized and BoPo content, highlighting the need for consistent BoPo messaging. Further, when exploring self-posting behaviors, a curated understanding of authenticity emerged, where authenticity is valued only if it conforms to a certain level of visual perfection. Lastly, recommendations included enhancing media literacy, improving content control, removing appearance-altering filters, promoting BoPo content, and filtering harmful content through algorithms.