How Does Social Media Have A Negative Effect On Body Image

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.

Throughout history, body image has been determined by various factors, one of them being the media. In the article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror,” written by Rachel Simmons, she shares the story of a woman who admits to being afraid of leaving her apartment without putting on makeup. “I don’t get to choose how I’m going to leave my apartment today,” one young woman told me, “If I could, my body would look different. But I cant choose which picture makes my arms look thinner” (Simmons). One word: Fear. The woman fears the opinion of others. She second guesses herself before she steps foot outside her apartment building. It displays the lack of confidence she has towards herself as an individual and the control the media has over her. The author goes on to discuss how teenagers look up to social media by obsessing over how many likes

Our girls grown seeing these models and advertisements thinking that's how they have to look, which is unreal, so they start to think that they're not pretty. Then we have those girls growing up with low self-esteem. However, as these girls are growing up they don't know that the women in those pictures don't even look like that in reality, they're constantly comparing themselves to images of women that aren't even

Many people have a habit of asking others on the internet for opinions on what they look like. This creates body image anxieties. At the same time, women were being more objectified in media, with an extreme emphasis placed on their bodies (Klein). Some people believe that the answer to body anxiety is to give a bigger range of body examples in the media. Dr. Phillipa Diedrichs, University of West of England’s Centre for Appearance Research, said,“The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are self-objectify.” Media is everywhere, so telling them to ignore it is not going to work. Steps could be taken to help girls to not compare themselves to the unrealistic

As this generation has easy access to social media, culminating to 95.9% of girls having access to the internet, it is no wonder that these girls have easy access to view these “ideal” images. There is a cause and effect, which can be seen through sites like Facebook and Instagram, as users are more prone to body obsession than non-users. Second, no one is immune to these beauty ideals, even the women who started it all. The women who post these photos, have internal problems as well, such as eating disorders and unhealthy fitness habits. These “role models” are achieving these beauty ideals in unhealthy ways, which is not a positive message to send to viewers. Third, we have massive studies and data to show the damages of social media, but it is the individual stories that people can

But on this canvas, people tend to paint beautiful lies about themselves, blotting over the imperfections. Now, this may not seem like such a bad thing. What’s wrong with people telling lies here and there if it boosts their self-confidence? But that’s where researchers are finding the problem. “”The onslaught of Photoshopped images gives us a false standard to aspire to," she says. “We know logically we'll never look like those women-but those images are powerful in shaping our expectations of ourselves.” …says relationship expert Natasha Burton, author of 101 Quizzes for Couples.” (Tomko) The phenomenon that people are finding to be true is that the constant bombardment of seemingly perfect people is making people wonder why they aren’t as perfect as the people they see in the pictures. And it’s not just social media. Society in general has this proclivity towards perfection. People that fall out of that sphere of perfection that the media projects begin to feel inadequate about themselves. “Girls already insecure about their weight can feel even worse when they compare themselves to ultrathin models” (Thin Fashion Models). This insecurity and self-loathing may even lead to eating disorders, like anorexia and bulimia. Media puts so much pressure on people, especially young girls, to strive to be something they’re not simply because they were taught that it was the only way they would be loved or cared about. “While

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

There is no denying that social media: Instagram and Tumblr, has a significant influence on all of us. The current effects of social media have increased dramatically among young women aged between 15 and 25. As stated in the study by (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008) that the high exposure to social media portraying the thin-ideal body may be linked to body image disturbance in young women. They used a meta-analysis examined experimental and correlation studies testing the links between media exposure to young women's body dissatisfaction and the unconscious behavior towards having a thin ideal body. The results by (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008) support the claim that high exposure to social media images depicting the thin-ideal body is related to

In this day and age, the epidemic of these so called ‘beauty’ standards is only getting worse and worse. Because of photo modification, low self esteem in regular everyday people is starting to become something that is nearly considered normal. Today, 42% of girls from age 5-8 want to be skinnier, 52% of girls aged 9 to 13 feel better when they are dieting and by the age of 17, 78% of girls are unhappy with their own bodies. Think about

The unrealistic standards of beauty is hurting this generation of what the media and society thinks a girl has to look like, for many years the media has been trying to construct the ideal image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. They believe there only beautiful if they have long legs, great hair, and curves in the right places (HuffingtonPost2017). Which is not the influence that we want to carry down to future generations of girls who feel like they must live up to the expectations of girls who have the “perfect body”. With media apps being popular in the 21st century, there was a survey done on some of the top media apps, their study #statusofmind surveyed almost 1,500 young people aged 14 to 24 on how certain media apps impact health ( CableNewsNetwork 2017). Body images statistics say 80% of woman say images,

In today’s society, the public is exposed to technology at even younger ages than ever before. Everywhere you go these days you see kids even as little as three holding their parent’s phones or even their own, watching videos or playing games. But as said in the article Does Social media impact on body image by Philippa Roxby, as kids start becoming teenagers their technological uses advance and they start to rely on social media sites for new sources of communication, and their main channel to the outside world. Based on studies conducted by psychologists they have come up with a conclusion that social media has a direct relationship to body image concerns. I believe that in today’s society we should focus on promoting self-confidence as most of the adolescents have a very low assurance of their own bodies. Although a study conducted in the article The Upside of Selfies: Social media isn’t all bad for kids by Kelly Wallace says that a survey which resulted in 52% of the teens saying that social media positively influences them. Even though social media platforms have some beneficial aspects such as they make people want to go on diets, exercise, and eating healthy, the teenagers don’t really look/understand the negative aspects of it. The impacts that are carried with social media are mostly negative such as fancying teenagers to lose confidence in themselves and has become a toxic mirror to them. The visual platforms impact

Since the growth of media and the internet, people have been greatly exposed to a specific standard of beauty. Seeing these high expectations of having a perfect body, unblemished skin, great hair, designer clothes, etc.; individuals are concerned with their appearance. In most cases, people wish to change their appearance, not for themselves, but to appeal to others. Media portrayals of beauty have a negative effect on just about everyone, however teenagers are the ones affected the most. Teens allow technology to take over their lives, provoking them to be heavily influenced by what they see. Everyone has had a fair share of insecurities due to comparing oneself to others based on appearances. Magazines, television, social media, and ads display individuals that are considered appealing to the eyes of viewers. A common component in all these media sources are the thin, unflawed models presenting themselves or a product. Although those types of models are favorable to look at, they are not common or diverse. Regular people have flaws on and off camera.

As we evolve to become a more online base society, the standard of beauty being portrayed in the media today is influencing many aspects of our generation. Research has concluded that females concerned with weight and body image has reached epidemic proportions and this concern is now considered a normal part of female life. This affects the self-esteem of today’s youth and adults as models are setting unrealistic standards which no one can realistically achieve. This is a topic which is becoming more recognized and talked about but who is at blame? What are specific aspects that are being affected during critical teen development and how is this changing how teens think? How does the high standard of beauty currently found in the media harm today’s generation? Who is at blame? Women today are being socially constructed to look a certain way. The theories and concepts of the mass media approach to socialization, social comparison theory, stigma, race, and ethnicity can be used to analyze this ongoing phenomenon.

Have you ever noticed that your friends and family strive to appear a certain way? The way they pose for pictures on Instagram or Snapchat, or what they say on Facebook and Twitter?. All of this has to do with the society in which we live in. In the 1950’s, women believed that how women on the television dressed and acted was how they needed to be. That has never changed. Today’s teens have the images they see on television and social media that make them feel as if they have to have the appearance of models and celebrities they see. Because social media has such a great impact on today’s teens, they believe they have to be skinny or possess a certain trait just to fit in, so their self esteem no longer exists.

A large part of today’s society is very impressionable. With the media and social media at every corner, from supermarket shelves to your very own phone, the media has a way of influencing how we live our daily lives. Amongst everyone, young women are the most impressionable, this contributing to the rise in “[e]lective cosmetic surgeries, particularly breast implant surgeries among young women, have risen steadily since the year 2000” (Stephanie E. Moser, and Leona S. Aiken, n.pag.). Young women often find themselves comparing themselves to models in magazines or even to their close peers, social media being the hub for anyone to upload images onto social network sites like twitter, facebook, instagram, and so on. Seeing all these things often leaves these teens feeling as if they’re not up to par with society’s standards,