How Does Social Media Affect Women

We live in an era ruled by social media, primarily when it comes to teenagers, social media is used for everything. From communicating with family and friends to being used as a news outlet, and even advertisement for business and companies. This article is titled “Social Media: What's Not to Like,” written by Alison Pearce Stevens. The topic of this essay is the effect social media can have on teenagers. Social media, on one hand, can be used as a great way to share with the world and boost teens’ self-esteem. On the other hand, social media can be used as a place for bullying, body shaming and can cause depression or even suicide in teens.

When scrolling through your Instagram feed or watching Snapchat stories of classmates and friends, it can be very difficult and sometimes impossible to not feel jealous or discouraged. These days, teens post nearly every aspect of their lives on social media. You see everything from what someone ate for breakfast, what workout they did that day, to what cute new outfit they have on for their fancy family dinner that night. A wide range of pressures arises with social media usage. Teens feel they always need to be available, many gain reassurance from likes and shares, and they are faced with the struggle of keeping up with the constant image of a “perfect life”. This is very dangerous because many teens are experiencing discomfort in their own skin when they compare themselves to others. It is difficult not to judge yourself and others when you are constantly viewing what your classmates, friends, and celebrities are doing. When interviewing a friend, Brayden Xilas who has been personally impacted by social media, she said “There has become an unspoken competition for teens to prove they have the best life through social media”. Friends and classmates are constantly trying to “one up” each other which causes a lot of stress for people to always be doing something worthy of sharing on social media.

Melissa Healy, a reporter of the Los Angeles Times, in the article Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such A Bad Idea, claims that kids who spend lots of time on social media are not the least well-adjusted, but psychologically healthiest. Healy supports her argument by demonstrating how social media is beneficial to a teen’s health. According to a three-year Digital Youth Project, when teengars use social media, it helps them develop important social skills such as communication, grappling with social norms, and developing technical skills. Psychology professor Kaveri Subrahmanyam describes that teens behave the same between offline relationships and online ones, so most teens will use the internet safely. The author’s purpose is

Social media creates an ideal body image in an adolescent’s mind that affects them in various ways. Having an ideal body image can lower self-esteem in some adolescents’ creating eating disorders, and this idea of getting plastic surgery as they get older. Social media is steadily increasing and has heavily influenced adolescent’s to be more aware of their body figure. As a result, many adolescent’s have developed low self-esteem due to the fact that social media continues promoting fit women and creating the idea that women need to be thin to be loved or accepted by society; this can cause harm to adolescent’s because they feel the need to fit in to society.

Social media sites are a few of the most visited sites every day. Everyone wants to know what everyone else is up to. People can follow their favorite celebrities every move and see what their friends are doing with every update. Few people go days without checking their online profiles on popular social media sites such as, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Many people joined these networks to keep up with old friends from the past and keep contact with everyone in their life and young people use them every day to check status updates and post selfies. In the article, " The upside of selfies: Social media isn't all bad for kids", Kelly Wallace claims that social media has a positive effect on young people. However, research shows that social media impacts young people’s emotional health negatively.

Media is everywhere, and what the sources contain effect people from all walks of life but the issue of body image is one thing that seems to stay in constant attention. Psychologists found there was a strong association linking social media use to body image concerns, dieting, body surveillance, a drive for thinness, and self-objectication in adolescents. One study found that female college students who spend their time posting, commenting on, and comparing themselves to photos on Facebook were more likely to link their self-worth to their looks (How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror by Rachel Simmons). Even though girls report more body image disturbance then boys, it has been shown that both genders are equally

In today’s society it is being brought to the public’s attention more often than before that women deserve to be treated fairly. It is discussed on social media and has been viewed on television advertisements. The feminine product seller, always, advertised a commercial. A director named Lauren Greenfield asked girls if they have had some kind of setback when trying to accomplish something because they were a girl. All of them said yes and explained their thoughts. Another advertisement was by Levi jeans and singer/songwriter, Alicia Keys. The setting took place in Brooklyn, New York and she was shown smiling and walking on the sidewalk, interacting with her fans. Also, other women were dancing, and one girl was jumping for joy in the air. Her song 28 Thousand Days was also being played throughout the commercial. Although these two advertisements are trying to sell a product, they are actually influencing women in a positive way.

From music videos and television, to billboards and magazines, the media has continued to grow and evolve over time into the monstrosity it is today. Everyone sees the media, and it cannot be escaped. Defined by its easy access, media exposure to billboards, magazines, T.V., and movies reach all over the world. Because of the influence in the media, many younger ladies feel the need to attract attention by showing off their bodies, trying new styles of clothes, shoes, makeup and trying to be unique as possible, while still trying to “fit in” with the popular. The media has an extreme impact on the society of younger women that is both positive and negative on  what they believe, and how they appear and behave.

As a result of the pressures to obtain the image portrayed in the media, we start to develop low self esteem and body related issues. For instance, the models and movie stars on television all influence our mindset believe or not. We see their clear skin, thin physics and idealize them. Some become obsessed with the idea of “perfection” and start to alter their own appearance to reach it. Eating disorders have dramatically increased over the years due to the media’s effect on people’s minds. Examples of negative teen body image are everywhere. There are several forms of media; such as television, print, broadcast, radio, talk, and the internet. Social network sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube are all outlets teenagers go to

Social media has become one of the most popular sources of communication for the upcoming generation. For young people growing up in today’s society, social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have provided pictures and news that have become the first thing that their eyes see in the morning and the last thing that they see before bed. These pictures have provided unrealistic standards as to what is considered beautiful in today’s society. As young people refer to these images as a form of comparison, it has created harmful circumstances. These influences on the lives of young people have forced them to take extreme measures and in some cases, has been the cause of death. Social media in today’s society has proven to

Think of your sister or your cousin or any other girl you love. What would you say if I told you that girls as young as five want to diet and worry that they are not good enough for society. Right now everywhere young girls on social media are being told what they need to look and act like and told what a girl is and is not. Social media is harmful to young girls because it tells them they are imperfect which leads to low self-esteem and eating disorders. The media tells girls what they must do to become “fit for society” and make them believe they must fit themselves into society's mold or face failure. social media only shows a stereotypical woman while shaming flaws and advocating against differences social media lower self-esteem

Approximately a half million teens in the US struggle with eating disorders or disordered eating. Eating disorders are any range of psychological conditions of unusual or abnormal eating habits such as overeating, starvation, or both. Eating disorders are caused by genetics, psychological problems, and environmental factors. Social media is an environmental factor that has many damaging effects on self-image and is also one of the main causes of eating disorders. Opposing views claim that social media isn’t a huge factor in the development of eating disorders (Karges 1) and that if social media did affect the development of an eating disorder, it would be categorized under the psychological problems instead of environmental factors. This is wrong because many studies show that the more time someone spends on social media, the higher their chances of developing an eating disorder are, so social media is able to influence eating disorders. Social media is also a factor

Social media heightens that exposure.” ( Rojas, 2014). Social media such as: Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are icon obsessed. There is easy access to these social medias that promotes anorexia. Some social media such as Tumblr create small communities that often are used as a support system. Typically it’s where tips are exchanged or where messages are send to help encourage users to continue being deprived of food. Also, Instagram helps promote anorexia by allowing hashtags that supports such acts by using #thinspiration or #proana which helps feeds into anorexia. However, people with anorexia don’t view it as a disorder but rather as a lifestyle. It has a domino effect because the more you look into these website the more you get access or tips from other going through the same procedure which typically trigger or encourages unhealthy eating

Ellen DeGeneres couldn’t have said it better, “Beauty is about being comfortable in your own skin. It 's about knowing and accepting who you are.” Imagine yourself in a world where everyone was confident with his or her looks. How different would your life be? No need for makeup or stressing to maintain a certain image. Just think of all the time you’d save just being confident with who you are! Statistics show that over 50% of teenage girls are self conscious about their looks. Social Media is negatively affecting confidence in woman and distorting what true beauty really is. Apps like Instagram and Twitter constantly lie to women about what true beauty is.

In today’s society it has been brought to the public’s attention more often than before that women deserve to be treated fairly. It is discussed on social media and has been viewed on television advertisements. The feminine product seller, always, advertised a commercial. A director named Lauren Greenfield asked a group of girls if they have had some kind of setback when trying to accomplish something because they were a girl. All of them said yes and explained their thoughts. Another advertisement was by Levi jeans and singer/songwriter, Alicia Keys. The setting took place in Brooklyn, New York and she was shown smiling and walking on the sidewalk, interacting with her fans. Also, other women were dancing, and one girl was jumping for joy in the air. Her song 28 Thousand Days was also being played throughout the commercial. Although these two advertisements are trying to sell a product, they are actually influencing women in a positive way.