The Effect of Social Media on Female's Appearance Anxiety

: As social media has become a platform for females to obtain information, communicate online and show themselves, its influence on females’ body image is also increasing, affecting females’ appearance anxiety. In this case, this article concerned female appearance anxiety on social media. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying logic of females’ appearance anxiety on social media and give suggestions for rectification. Based on 176 questionnaires, this paper found that the appearance anxiety of Chinese females who use social media is not that serious. At the same time, females’ appearance anxiety on social media has a closely positive impact on three independent variables: social media use, social comparison on social media, and socio-cultural factors. But there was no significant association with four control variables: personality, BMI, age and education. This proves that female, regardless of their appearance or education, experience appearance anxiety and dissatisfaction with their body or appearance. This phenomenon is common and may gradually develop into a social problem. Social media should put in place appropriate controls to manage speech and establish health platforms to help females ease their appearance anxiety.