Even if there is a long history of celebrating muscled physiques, no form of media has disrupted how young men view their bodies quite like the insatiable voyeurism and staged exhibitionism that fuels platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
“Social media is really where young men experience evaluations of their appearance from others,” said Veya Seekis, a lecturer at the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. “The more men view their bodies as objects for public display, the more they fear being negatively evaluated, which so often triggers compulsive exercising and other ‘healthy’ behaviors that can end up having an impact on their well-being.”
For three years, Dr. Seekis has been collecting data on the social-media habits of 303 undergraduate men and 198 high school boys in Australia. She has found, in part, that exposure to images of archetypal masculine physiques was linked to low body esteem in young men and an increased desire to become more muscular.
It’s a fitness feedback loop that has ensnared Johnny Edwin, 22, a linebacker-size scaffolder from British Columbia, Canada. He said that when he was in high school, he would spend hours glued to YouTube channels like that of Chris Jones, a self-described exercise guru known as Beastmode Jones.
“Social media, and the pressure to live up to those guys and have that manly-looking physique, has completely taken over my life,” said Mr. Edwin, who still watches weight lifting videos on YouTube.
Three years ago, Mr. Edwin started uploading his own gym-training content on TikTok under the user name Big Boy Yonny, where he has more than 12,000 followers. “Even though people are saying I look good or whatever, I know I’ll never have a perfect body,” he said. “If I gain any weight now, I’m not going to look as good, which means I’ll lose followers.”
