Fitspiration on Visual Social Media

This PhD-led project focuses on Fitspiration (a combination of fitness and inspiration) content on visual social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. It examines several aspects related to Fitspiration, including the extent of exposure to such content, exercise motivation, exercise behaviour, and the use of filters. The data is collected through quantitative questionnaires distributed to Swiss-German adolescents who are daily social media users. The aim of this project is to gain a deeper understanding of how Fitspiration content is perceived, with particular attention to differences between health-focused and appearance-focused Fitspiration content. 

In the first phase of this project, a scoping review was conducted to synthesise existing research on Fitspiration content on social media and the use of digital enhancements. The second phase, currently underway, involves collecting empirical data from Swiss-German adolescents regarding their exposure to Fitspiration content, their exercise motivation and behaviour, as well as their perception and use of filters on social media. Building on these two stages, the next step is to analyse the social media content (e.g., TikTok videos) to which adolescents are exposed on a daily basis in order to determine their actual, real-world exposure to Fitspiration content.