Impact of Social Media and Peer Pressure on Eating Behaviors of Adolescents

Social media is the site used everywhere around the world to interact and communicate with people. The most used social media networks include Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Social networks usage is negatively associated with the eating choices of students, and it has made lifestyle sedentary.Objectives: The main aim of the study was to determine how the use of social media is linked with the eating habits of students. The secondary objective was to determine how peer choices affected eating choices in students.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 100 university of Lahore students for period of 3 months ranging from 18 to 25 years. Information on how social media and peer pressure influence eating behaviors in students was collected using a questionnaire through purposive sampling technique.Results: The results revealed that the majority of participants were female i.e., 89% and 11% were male. About 43% participants were using Instagram, whereas about 70% participants were using cell phone before laying down. 39% participants were using internet for 10 hours while 30% participants for whole day. Majority 29% participant crave junk food while watching social media, and 74% participants consumed junk food with friends. Adolescents are influenced by peer pressure as 40% participants ate 3 meals and 24% participants ate 4 meals per day with friends.Conclusion: Social media and peer pressure has greatly affected the lifestyle and eating choices of students. Our youth has decreased enjoying healthy meals with family. Thus, future nutrition programs must focus on promoting healthy eating behavior among our youth.

A network that is designed and helps people to interact, communicate and use websites where they can share their videos, images, music and ideas with other people is termed as social media.There are different examples of social media that are famous among people such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tiktok.These social networks are available anywhere and can be used anytime with the availability of internet or Wi-Fi on cell phones.[1] The best time for developing healthy eating habits is from 18 to 25 years of age but the problem arises and results in adults with bad eating habits as adults start using more social media during this time period.The use of social media becomes priority of students in this age group.[2] Most of the times students or youngsters nd friends of their age and they think that others are always having the same opinion for everything like their own but sometimes they have to face rejection and they feel depressed.They are highly in uenced by their friend's circle.[3] Due to continuous usage of social media the health of adolescents is affecting day by day such as watching more television or using more cellphones is resulting in decreased physical activity and increasing the risk of bad sleep patterns and increased weight.Due to more usage of cellphones the duration of sleep is also observed to be decreased in this age group.[4]   on these networks too. 1 Now days' using social media is becoming part of daily life.It has become di cult for university students to spend a single day without social media however students using social media can do multitasking on smartphones that means they are able to do more than one work on social media that is also bene cial for them.
[5] The health of students is greatly affected as during this age they are already trying to cope up with different stressed conditions, trying to balance and manage studies and family relations so, these things become their priority and they focus less on maintaining good eating habits

M E T H O D S
A Cross sectional study design was opted to elucidate data from studentsof University of Lahore about how social media is adversely in uencing the eating habits.Sample size of 100 was allocated for the study, data was collected through purposive sampling technique.Students ranging from18-25 years of both gender males and females were participants of the study.Pregnant, lactating women and disabled personswere not included in the study.
The results revealed that the majority of participants were female i.e., 89% and 11% were male of the total population.(Figure 1)  Different activities were reported among participants before going to bed.About 70% participants were using cell phonebefore lying down.Analysis showed that 39% of the participants were using internet for 10 hoursa day.The results showed that participants used social network quite often andabout 43% participants were using Instagram.

P R O F O U N D E F F E C T O F S O C I A L M E D I A F R E Q U E N C Y S o c i a l N e t w o r k U s a g e
I n s t a g r a m 4 3 Table 2: Profound effect of social media on Adolescents The results showed the association between the use of social media and food craving, 50% participants cravedfor junk food,38% participants were watching tness programs on social media.Majority 74% participants were impressed by other body physique and 33% comparedtheirbody physique with celebrities.According to results 67% participants watched recipes on social media and thought that they are healthy for them.(Table 3)

I N F L U E N C E O F S O C I A L M E D I A O N D A I L Y L I V E S A C T I V I T I E S
F The result showed that74% participants preferred junk food with friends, 43%participant's friends eating choices hadeffect on their health, 20% participant's friends eating choices had no affect their health and 37% participants were those who thought that their eating choices were affected sometimes by their friends.35% participantswere trying food items after seeing them on social media and 37% participants did not try a food item after watching it on social media and 28% participants often tried food item after seeing it on social media.(Table 4) and social media usage (P < 0.001).7Current study showed that 39% participants were using internet for 10 hours, 30% participants for whole day, 27% for 3 hours and 4% for 2 hours a day and 33% participants become hungrier while using social media, 29% participants craved junk food while watching social media, 26% participants remained same or in normal frequency and 12% participants forgot eating food while using social media A study conducted by Fatma TayhanKartal in 2020 for detection of relationship between eating disorders, internet or smartphone addiction in college students showed similar results to the current study, 13% of students were having internet addiction and the prevalence of eating disorders in students with potential internet addiction was 36.4% (p<0.05).
[9] Current study stated that74% participants consumed junk food with friends, 18% participants preferred homemade food, 5% baked food and 3% participants consumed beverages and sugary food with friends.Another study similar to current study was conducted by Nadia Barberis et al., on healthy, binge eating behaviors and the motivational processes underlying peer pressure in 2021.
The main aim of the study was to see how peer pressure had in uence on the dietary habits and overeating.Results showed that peer pressure changes our dietary patterns and had effect on overeating habits.Overall, peer pressure was directly related to binge eating.14 In current study it was seen that 74% participants were impressed by other body physique and round about 26% participant were not impressed by others body physique in the total population.The frequency of the participants who compared body physique with celebrities was 33%, 55% participant did not compare body physique with celebrities and 12% participants often watched celebrities on social media and compared their body physique with them.A study conducted by ShannenTadena et al., in 2020 to nd the In uence of social media a nity on eating attitudes and body dissatisfaction in Philippine adolescents showed that social media not only affected eating habits but also showed p o s i t i ve a t t i t u d e towa rd s p h ys i q u e d i s a p p r ova l (p<0.001The current study was aimed to nd the in uence of social media and peer pressure on eating behaviors in students. The results revealed that the majority of participants were female i.e. 89% and 11% were male.However, study c o n d u c t e d i n 2 0 2 0 b y Fa t m a T a y h a n K a r t a l a n d NurcanYabancıAyhan to see relationship between eating disorders, internet and smartphone addiction in college students showed that 321= (73%) were females and 116= (27%) were males out of 437 participants.[9] In current study about 43% participants were using Instagram, 29% were using WhatsApp, 16% were using YouTube, 11% were using Snapchat and only 1% was using twitter.Cross-sectional study that was conducted by Jaime E et al., in 2016 in order to nd association between social media use and eating concerns among US young adults showed that 53% of adults from age 18-29 years used mostly Instagram and 49% of Instagram users used the site daily.There was signi cant positive overall link between the eating patterns, concerns Social media plays both positive and negative effects on health of adolescents.It is a fact that social media is very bene cial as it keeps us in contact with everyone all over the world and provides us with the latest information but everything has its drawbacks too and the most common drawback is that youth has decreased spending time and enjoying healthy meals with their families.They have moved on from these healthy eating habits and become reserved to their peer circle that is majorly in uencing their health as they are more focused towards junk food.The health care professionals should motivate the healthy eating behaviors in the students.Educational programs should be designed to promote healthy habits in the adolescents.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Gender of ParticipantsMinimum height of the participant in study was 4 feet 8 inches and maximum height 6 feet.36 kg was the minimum weight of the participant in the study and 89 kg was the maximum weight.The minimum age of the participant was 18 years and 26 years was the maximum age.13 kg/m2 square was the minimum BMI that was severely underweight and 34 kg/m2 was the maximum BMI of the participant that was obese.The mean standard deviation for height of the participants was 5.428± 0.2555, the mean standard deviation for weight of the participants was 58.56± 11.071, the mean standard deviation for age was 21.97± 1.381 and the m e a n s t a n d a rd d ev i a t i o n fo r BM I wa s 2 2 .001 0 ± 4.21089.(Table1)

Table 4 :
In uence of Peer Pressure on Eating Behavior of Adolescents D I S C U S S I O N C O N C L U S I O N Prevalence of the most famous social networks among students is 95% own a smartphone, 51% use Facebook, 85% use YouTube, 72% use Instagram, 69% use Snapchat and they are mostly friends following each other Sarcona A et al., in 2017ution and interventions of dietary habits.[14]Al-sheyabN,GharaibehT,KheirallahK in 2018 conducted research on the relationship between peer pressure and risk of eating disorders among adolescents in Jordan.The results showed that peer effect on eating habits in the adolescents had poor eating and normal eating habits was important.It concluded that health care professionals should motivate the healthy eating behaviors in the students.[15]TadenaS,KangS,Kim J in 2020 conducted research on the In uence of social media a nity on eating attitudes and body dissatisfaction in Philippine adolescents.The results showed the factors that affecting eating habits were physique disapproval and social media devices,it concluded that educational programs should be designed to promote the healthy dietary habits in the Philippine adolescents.[16]SarconaAetal., in 2017conducted research on differences in eating behavior, physical activity, and health-related lifestyle choices between users and nonusers of mobile health apps.The results revealed that students who were using health apps were more diet conscious than students who had no apps usage.[17]QutteinaYet al., in 2019conducted study on relationship between social media use and disordered eating behavior among female university students in Qatar.
behaviors, the motivational processes underlying peer pressure.The result revealed that peer pressure had in uence on the dietary habits and overeating.Results further concluded that investigating contextual and PBMJ VOL.4 Issue 2 Jul-Dec 2021 motivational factors played