Social media's role in deepening eating disorders among Argentine youth

Experts warn that social media platforms contribute to worsening body image issues and eating disorders among young people in Argentina, through algorithm-driven echo chambers and relentless exposure to idealised bodies.

Social media can shape how young people see their bodies, and for some it can sharpen existing eating disorders into something more severe. In Argentina, where specialists say the problem is particularly acute, clinicians and users interviewed by LA NACION describe a culture of constant comparison, algorithmic repetition and pressure to perform wellness online as part of everyday life.

For Gastón, a 24-year-old university student, the effect began with what looked like harmless advice: step counts, restrictive food rules and a stream of “before and after” transformations. He says that over time the content pulled him into anxiety, frustration and obsessive food monitoring, until a viral digestive tea left him dehydrated and unwell. He eventually stopped using it after his mother intervened. Another user, Federico, 25, says he constantly tries to improve his appearance, from skin to hair, because social media keeps presenting an ever tighter version of what counts as an ideal body.

Specialists say that response is not accidental. Research published in PubMed found that people with eating disorders often experience algorithms as if they were steering them deeper into dieting and mental health content, reinforcing unhealthy behaviours and body image concerns. A separate study from USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute found that social media can build feedback loops around eating disorder material, trapping vulnerable users in pro-anorexia echo chambers and intensifying negative self-comparisons, especially among younger people.

The logic of the platforms matters, according to those experts. Likes, comments, follows and video replays do more than signal approval: they train recommendation systems and reward users with fresh bursts of the same material. A qualitative study on echo chambers found that continuous exposure to similar content can normalise disordered eating and create pressure to conform to unrealistic body standards, while a broader review of social media and eating disorders concluded that highly visual platforms are particularly linked with the onset or worsening of these behaviours among adolescents.

That helps explain why the ideal has shifted rather than disappeared. Where earlier generations were exposed mainly to magazine covers or television, young users now carry a personalised feed in their pockets. The result is a more persistent kind of comparison, with images of thinness, muscle and “clean eating” returning again and again. Researchers have also noted that this can affect women and men differently, with body pressure now often expressed through extreme fitness, low body fat or hyper-muscularity rather than only thinness.

The challenge is not limited to what is explicitly pro-anorexia. A review published in the USF digital repository argues that media messages about attractiveness can be internalised and then shape body dissatisfaction and eating dysfunction, while another review on social media as a “portal” into distorted body ideals says algorithmic systems can keep users inside toxic loops that normalise extreme behaviour. In practice, that means even ordinary-looking fitness or wellness accounts can intensify self-surveillance when they present one version of health as the only acceptable one.

LA NACION also reported that, when asked about the issue, Argentina’s Health Ministry said eating disorders are not part of the country’s mandatory disease reporting system and that it does not have specific national statistics to measure the scale of the problem. TikTok and Meta say they remove harmful content and offer search safeguards, but the newspaper’s own tests found that problematic material can still be easy to reach. For clinicians and families, the conclusion is stark: the gap between what platforms say they do and what teenagers actually see remains wide.