How Does Social Media Impact On Body Image

According to recent research, the tremendous exposure to the media has a negative impact in the consumers and their health, as well as their body image. The ideal body image that is seen by today’s society is tall, thin, muscular, and fit. It is constantly advertised in various forms of media including, such as televisions, magazines, internet, and smartphone devices, which make others feel insecure about appearance and health. The constant reinforcement of the ideal body image throughout the media negatively impacts society through self-esteem, rise of self-enhancements, and health. There are many different factors that play a role in obtaining the ideal body image that meets the society’s norm.

Throughout the recent decades, people have been obsessing more and more over their bodies and physical appearances. In the mainstream media, people described as “attractive” are the ones with thin figures, long hair, and perfect complexions (Media’s Influence on Beauty). If one is pleasing to the eye, one is accepted in society. However, the standards that social media is placing on body image today is becoming a big controversy. The media is responsible for creating the epitome of beauty and the perfect body image. “Images portrayed by the media tend to make people strive to be someone else's idea of perfect while subconsciously ignoring their own goals” (The Media and Body Image). People are suffering

Today’s world has a problem with body image issues. Especially in younger girls and women. They are told by everyone that they are not good enough, not skinny enough, and even not pretty enough. Everyone see’s the super skinny models on the cover of magazines, and on tv, and wants to look just like them. But, what many people do not realize is that it is all fake, and they are harming themselves, not helping.

Approximately 80% of U.S. women don’t like how they look. The number of women who feel confident in their body is dwindling quickly and is being fueled by edited pictures they are comparing themselves to on social media. In the article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” by Rachel Simmons in Time magazine she tells of the risk for everyone to feel self conscious about their bodies. However, those most at risk are teenage girls who spend a significant amount of time on any form of social media. In response to the article, I agree with the information about body confidence and its negative effects on body image of teenage girls. I also discuss how logos and pathos strengthen the article and what would make it a stronger and more credible source for information on teen body image.

Due to the increase in popularity of social media, today’s generation is bombarded with unrealistic standards when it comes to beauty. When young people today first turn on their cellphones, more often than not, they refer to a social media site. Whether it’s the ever-popular Instagram, where people can post pictures and followers can “like” to show their approval or post comments. Or, whether it’s Twitter, where people can post witty or inspiring or informational things for their followers to see and can be retweeted or favourited. Or they could click on the little blue Facebook icon, where all of the above can happen. These are some of the most popular social media outlets today because young people are

We each perceive ourselves very differently. Not everyone sees themselves in a positive light. Everyone has something they would like to change about themselves. May it be their nose, eyes, mouth, hair, etc. The one that is chosen mostly is their body. Our body is very important in our eyes. We see it as a treasure that should be taken care of and kept in shape. No one however can say they are truly happy with themselves until they feel like they are able to keep a good body image of themselves. Social media however, has caused female’s body image to be distorted with the help of magazines, commercials, and celebrities.

Throughout history, of ancient civilizations to modern advertising, bodies or women have been associated as objects of beauty. Currently children are maturing faster by wearing makeup at earlier ages. Walking the streets of Manhattan and Queens i see young girls experimenting with wearing makeup and different fashion trends due to the current ads of fashion. The fashion industry today is promoting the generation of today that looks are more important than personality or skill. Eating disorders are rising to new heights day by day. Among women, feeling fat is becoming a metaphor for feeling powerless. Shockingly, girls who start wearing makeup at an early age are also at high risk of developing cancer such as breast cancer being the highest. Childhood is no longer being

This is why depression and suicide rates have sky-rocketed over the past few years. Society purposely sets the line of “social correctness” to such a high level that people tend to go such extreme levels to reach an unobtainable thing. All to often a person will not feel satisfied until she looks and acts exactly how the newest sociable standard has put into place. This will cause people to go out and do irrational things; things such as complete facial reconstruction to match “the world’s hottest female”. The catch to this standard is that it is completely and utterly unobtainable. Those who are not rich or have no care about what is deemed as “perfection” may often get batten down by those who follow the constraints of society. This can often lead to the belief they will never be able to reach personal satisfaction. This can lead to a variety of issues from eating disorders, to depression, and in very severe cases even

Social media has become a massive part of teenagers lives, the majority of us have either a Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat etc..This is why so many young people are impacted and influenced by how media portrays people, especially celebrities and models. So many celebrities are idolized by thousands of people eg: the Kardashians and Victoria's Secret models. Many girls want curves

Experts are saying that kids are growing up with more anxiety in addition to less self-esteem due to the fact Social media. Social media can make or break someone. Social media can cause people to feel ashamed of their body image along with being afraid of being bullied. Social media can also help people establish new friends and express yourself by communicating your feelings. Social media has numerous effects on teens such as body image as well as bullying, but can also help people with communicating with others.

It is obvious that in today’s society social media has taken the general public by storm. This addition of social media into an already complicated world can be in many ways beneficial and in many ways detrimental. Based on a variety of research, the detrimental aspects of social media in people’s lives is focused very concentratedly on insecurity and self esteem issues. This is something that causes mental downfall but can also decrease physical health as well. It is important that society looks into this relationship between social media and the public health and recognizes it so that it can be possible that the technological social world can be used for all the good things that it offers instead of being a major source of health issues.

In continuation, the media also has a negative influence because of how popular social media is becoming, and what people say can really affect a person in a harming way. In social media many people post pictures in order to get some sort of praise from others so they can feel more confident on how they look (Simmons). Many people have become obsessed with social media and constantly post pictures because they have low self-esteem and need approval from others to feel happy (Simmons). Researchers discovered that female college students use social media platforms as a way to explain their self-worth by having people judge them on their appearance (Simmons). To further, explain, people who are obsessed with their image result to using photoshop to alter the way they look to become, in their opinion more beautiful (Simmons). Furthermore, if someone does not fit that body image, instead of explaining that it is fine to have a normal body, people attack and cyberbully the person for not being thin (Simmons). People on social media judge their beauty based on the amount of likes and retweets they get, and they believe that if they were to focus more on how their appearance is they will be able to become more beautiful (Simmons). Teenagers and adults view social media as if it is some sort of hierarchy that ranks them for their beauty depending on how popular their photos are (Simmons). It bothers people so much to get a large amount of like that they take multiple pictures to

In the 21st century, social media plays a massive part in every single person’s life. It influences our everyday activity: the way we speak, the way we see things and sometimes even the way we think. Likewise, it is responsible for creating the significance behind the words ‘body image’, and plays an important role in shaping our self confidence and awareness for others. It is commonly used to describe an individuals body type and appearance. However the term ‘standards’ is a little more complicated and is what society thinks is the ‘ideal’ body type.

Kelsey Hibberd, author of “Does Social Media Impact on Body Image?” states that television and magazines are the ones who normally portray the perfect ideal body image, but to her social media has more effect to the way someone feels and see’s their body image. Kelsey did not like her middle school. Kelsey knew she would be bullied on Facebook about the way she looked. When Kelsey was in her adolescence she could barely handle the comments people made about her image. Kelsey was taller than most kids and chubby. She would constantly worry about her facial features. In her mind, everything was about her image to others. Eventually, Kelsey did not want to eat and changed her image dying her hair. Kelsey started talking to other teens and teacher in schools about body image. She teaches them the hazards of having a lot of friends on Facebook and consequences of comparing themselves to others. Twitter, Facebook, apps, WhatsApp, are some of the social media used for people to interact with each other at any time. Kelsey thinks that social media makes it easy to know so much about others life’s and spread their appearance. She claims body image affects all ages, even as young as five. Another campaign called “Be Real: Body Confidence for Everyone” tries to change people’s mind about how they perceive their self. On Social media, the photographs are not always truthful. Pictures can be changed to enhance the way someone looks. Dr. Diedrichs asked children to raise their hands if

Some people argue the fact that social media is a positive influence on body image and self-perceptions. The problem with that though is that there is not enough body inclusive and positive body images or messages out there at the moment, some of the few are really just ploys to sell products and others just miss the mark completely. There is the potential for this to become the norm rather than the damaging and destructive messages that are sent as of right now. When bringing up the positive side of social media the evidence used is Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” as their sole point but just one campaign isn’t enough to completely change the way social media is used. On the other end, there was the Victoria Secret “Love Your Body” campaign that used stick-thin supermodels to promote loving your body just the way it is. They didn’t want to change their branding or approach enough and ended up receiving backlash as it still perpetuated an unrealistic beauty standard. Even Lane Bryant got in the action and decided to attack Victoria Secret by launching their “I’m No Angel” campaign. Including 0-12 sized models in the campaign to promote equality between all sizes. “The advertising executives at Lane Bryant may believe the body-positive message behind the campaign, but they're still hawking a product at the end of the day. And there's something disingenuous about fabricating cultural talking points to sell bras” (Crocker).