Acta Informatica Pragensia 2022, 11(1), 62-79 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aip.1667072

Body Image Esteem and Photo Manipulation Among Social Media Users

Hai Chung Pham ORCID...1, Lien Nguyen2, Tuan Anh Vu3, Phuong Tran2
1 School of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 336 Nguyen Trai Str., Hanoi, Vietnam
2 Hanoi University, Km9, Nguyen Trai Road, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi, Vietnam
3 University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway Ultimo, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia

When interacting with each other virtually on social media sites, users may potentially encounter their own “self-presence”. To improve their physical self-presence on social media, users might resolve to curate themselves to match their ideal perceptions of themselves and others. This study examines the intention to alter one’s factual self in real life whilst contemplating the on-line self on social media. Data were derived from a social survey of Vietnamese adults. The results indicate the remarkable mediating relationship from the level of editing self-images to three choices of intention to change the body image in real life. Nevertheless, this paper does not provide enough evidence to confirm any link connecting distal intentions (D-intentions), proximal intentions (P-intentions) and motor intentions (M-intentions) with private self-consciousness, with the latter as the moderator variable. This study, therefore, might provide an exclusive idea of how online behaviour can be related to one’s offline behaviour in terms of body image. With an understanding of this aspect, many implications can be found in regard to applications/programmes in research, development and marketing.

Keywords: Photo manipulation; Social media; Human-internet interaction; Body image.

Received: August 24, 2021; Revised: November 7, 2021; Accepted: November 27, 2021; Prepublished online: November 28, 2021; Published: March 13, 2022  Show citation

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Chung Pham, H., Nguyen, L., Vu, T.A., & Tran, P. (2022). Body Image Esteem and Photo Manipulation Among Social Media Users. Acta Informatica Pragensia, 11(1), 62-79. doi: 10.18267/j.aip.166
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