They say that time goes by fast. Envision your last birthday, your last vacation, your last feeling of bliss. In comparison, 52 minutes seems like an incredibly short amount of time -a mere 3200 seconds of your life. 

Unfortunately we live in a world which determines someone's value based on an inconceivable number staring back at them on the scale. From billboards to magazines to extreme diets to daily conversations it seems like thinness is something everyone wants; regardless of the means taken to achieve it. 

Many people see a glamorized side of anorexia through social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Tumblr which contain a plethora of posts glorifying thinness. Despite efforts from these apps to hide harmful content, this content is still very much present. The New York Times reported , "When a Twitter user views accounts that promote eating disorders, Twitter recommends topics like “fashion models,” “fitness apps & trackers” and “mindful eating.” This is detrimental because people mindlessly consume content from these apps and with the absence of a system to bar dangerous content from reaching the wrong audiences, more people can fall victim to eating disorders. 

Angela Y. Lee, a writer at the Pacific Standard shared her experience with Tumblr saying, "I wished the Internet could teach me how to look beautiful, how to lose weight. And the Internet delivered, slipping me tantalizingly easy advice on how to survive on 300 calories a day and how to starve the right way." This reveals a devastating reality that many can relate to: the role social media's promotion of eating disorders has played in the public's perception of beauty, self-image, self-worth, and the wicked correlation between them. There is nothing glamorous or beautiful about losing your menstruation, constantly feeling cold, or your hair falling out. In a world where being thin is the standard, many people don't care or notice that it's an issue until you're at the point of hospitalization, only then it's seen as a problem.

Attention must be brought to the untold side of anorexia because this is more than a trend, this is a psychiatric illness whose mortality rate is 12 times higher than the death rate for all causes of death for females 15-25 years old.  Glamorizing this disease is dangerous because it's not just about being thin; there are serious long-term consequences. So the next time you see the newest diet that guarantees "quick results", the next time someone comments on your appearance, or the next time you see someone and wish you looked like them, remember that 52 minutes is a short amount of time. Every 52 minutes, someone dies from a complication of an eating disorder - 10,200 deaths per year. 

Works Cited

ANAD. “Eating Disorder Statistics: General & Diversity Stats: Anad.” National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 9 Mar. 2022, anad.org/eating-disorders-statistics/.

Conger, Kate, et al. “Eating Disorders and Social Media Prove Difficult to Untangle.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2021, nytimes.com/2021/10/22/technology/social-media-eating-disorders.html.

Lee, Angela Y. “Tumblr Helped Me Plan My Eating Disorder. Then It Helped Me Heal.” Pacific Standard, Pacific Standard, 29 Apr. 2019, psmag.com/ideas/tumblr-helped-me-plan-my-eating-disorder-then-it-helped-me-heal.

Mayo Clinic. “Anorexia Nervosa.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Feb. 2018, mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia-nervosa/symptoms-causes/syc-20353591.