OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of social media use on eating disorders and to explore the pathways of eating disorders in people with normal/abnormal perceptions of their weight. METHODS: The Eating Disorder Examination Self-Assessment Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Chinese Frost Perfectionism Questionnaire, and the Self-Objectification Questionnaire were used to investigate 240 Chinese social media users. RESULTS: Social media use and self-esteem were direct predictors of eating disorders, and body mass index partially mediated the relationship between social media use and eating disorders; perfectionism and self-objectification fully chain-mediated the relationship between social media use and eating disorders. For the non-normally perceived group, low self-esteem and perfectionism were the most significant factors in the formation of eating disorders, whereas the level of eating disorders in the normally perceived group was mainly influenced by body mass index, perfectionism and media use. CONCLUSION: The formation of eating disorder tendencies is a dynamic process,