Young women no longer compare themselves to celebrities in glossy magazines but fret about how they look on Facebook instead , according to a study . They use pictures on the social networking site to gauge their own appearance and see how they measure up against friends . Facebook consumes 40 per cent of the time young women spend online , psychologists at the University of New South Wales in Australia found . Comparison site : A study found women compared themselves to their friends on Facebook rather than celebrities in magazines . The study , of 150 college students and staff aged 17 to 25 , found they read magazines ‘ infrequently ’ but checked Facebook every few hours . The women preferred Facebook as a means of judging themselves because they could compare their looks with peers similar to them and see how they had changed over time . The research comes the same week as an Australian mother received a poison pen letter from a Facebook friend because of her regular updates about her baby daughter . Jade Ruthven , 33 , from Perth , was told she was ' p*****g a lot of people off ' with her constant statuses about daughter Addison . Measuring up : Women aged 17 to 25 were found to judge themselves alongside pictures of friends rather than celebrities in magazines . She got her own back on the unidentified 'friends ' by forwarding it onto comedian Em Rusciano - who shared it with her thousands of followers on social media . Writing in the journal Psychology Of Women Quarterly , researcher Jasmine Fardouly advised women at risk of low self-esteem to post fewer pictures of themselves online and avoid following people who upload them too frequently .
Australian study found women spend 40 % of online time on Facebook . College students aged Quarterly said they read magazines 'infrequently ' Preferred Facebook to compare looks and check appearances over time .