Social Media, another possible path to skin cancer

Instagram and Snapchat users have positive attitudes about tanning and more frequently tanned intentionally within the last year.
Lisa Abbot and our team at Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia has studied the relationship between Social Media, Selfies and Tanning. Younger Australians and females feel more attractive when tanned and tanned intentionally in the last year. But a stronger association was found with the use of Instagram and Snapchat compared to Facebook or Twitter. 40% of regular Instagram users have tanned intentionally in the last year compared to 14% of rarely or never users. In fact, 65% of Australians that post selfies feel more attractive when tanned compared to 44% of those that do not post photographs.
Our study has been recently published in the Australasian Journal of Dermatology.
More research is needed into the use of social media platforms as a route through which to counter the deeply entrenched tanned ideal.