Media Body Image

How do you look to yourself? When you walk past a mirror, do you stop and stare? Are your first thoughts “Dang, I look good” or “I could be look better in this area”? These questions are designed to make you think about how you feel about yourself self-consciously. According to Carolyn Ross of PsychCentral, “Currently 80% of women in the U.S are dissatisfied with their appearance. “ If you are not satisfied with your body in anyway, that may be because you answer have been influenced by social media. For example, if you were flipping through a magazine, you would come across not only skinny models but sections on dieting and exercise as well. Seeing this may trigger thoughts of uncertainty in one’s self and cause you to develop a negative body image outlook. Even though there hasn’t been a single declared cause to the dissatisfaction of the body or eating disorders, research has proven that is it a big contributor to the fact. Many studies have shown how social media has been linked to many people being unsatisfied with themselves. Social media is becoming a chronic problem when it comes to body image distortion or negative body imaging because these can lead some individuals into an unhealthy state. Some of these outcomes being anxiety, depression, and eating disorders amongst women.

Older generations don’t realize how much technology has affected this generation of teenagers, along with the social media that comes along with the technology. As stated in “How Social Media Changed Teens’ Lives Forever”; “Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem.” (Ashley Black, Thomas Atseff and Colleen Kaveney) While many parents think social media is just a way to connect with others, many teenagers take it for granted. For example, “quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online”, is what a teenager felt about social media and what it has done to her. Though many think that social media is a great way to connect, teenagers take it to another level.

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.

There are countless sources that show research on how girls’ body image is destroyed over time on social media. By middle school, 40-70 percent of students do not like how two or more of their body parts look (NYC). Over 70 percent of students out of highschool admit that they feel worse about their bodies after looking at their social media (Klein). It has also been found the body image hits “rock

“ Over fifty percent of 9 and 10 year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet(3), even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that only 18 percent of adolescents are really overweight. About 80 percent of girls in this age group say that they have dieted in an attempt to lose weight.”--Mirror Mirror Eating Disorder Help. Unrealistic body images on social media can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression in adolescents.

As technology editing tools have become even more prevalent, many feel the need to excessively use photoshop before they share an image online. In a pervasive world where images of unrealistic standards fuel the media on how one should look, social media has one of the most significant impacts on body dissatisfaction. Throughout the last decade, social media has become one of the most common and favored ways for people to communicate, connect, and share. Thus, there have been many debates and discussions on whether the media has a positive or a negative impact on the way an individual perceives him or herself. As the rapid growth of smartphone usage among adolescents and adults has increased, social media has become an essential part of one’s daily life. In today's society, when most adolescents and adults turn on their smartphones, often times, the first thing they will refer to is a social media site. It has become a place where they are exposed to news, images, and expectations. Often times, these images, ideals, and expectations are ingrained in their brain and bombarded with what is considered to be beautiful. Moreover, these unrealistic standards will often lead to a form of comparison, influencing them to take extreme measures. Although social media serves as a platform where people can connect, communicate, and share, it has a negative impact on one’s body image, because it can lead to a lack of self confidence and severe

Communication barriers are not the only issue that has been brought on by social media. Extensive social media use has also been known to affect a person’s self-esteem. Some individuals suffer from a low self-esteem and limit themselves to social media in hopes to create a different image of them. According to Charles Cooley, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Morine, 2009). For some teens and young adults, social media may help them open up and achieve a higher self-esteem. On the other hand, social media on other teens and young adults may have a completely opposite effect. In an article titled, Is Facebook Making Your Child Depressed, it is stated that social media websites such as Facebook “can create a skewed reality that makes teens feel alienated” (PR, 2012). When a person, that is not completely happy with their life, goes onto social media and reads all about other people enjoying a multitude of activities and enjoying their lives this could

To begin, body image is affected by social media. When men and women see ads and magazines with people with perfect bodies that are impossible to get, it lowers self esteem about their body image. In addition, these images are mostly photoshopped also. Patrick Kelleher, from the article “No body is perfect: is it possible to be happy with our bodies when we are constantly being bombarded with images of perfection?” explains “The images we see get stuck in our head, it makes everyone think they need to look like that.” (Kelleher). The text says that social media makes it impossible to feel good about are bodies. In fact, the images we see are photoshopped, but no one knows that. Women and men get distracted from these pictures and makes them obsessed with trying to look like that. This can also lead to eating disorders and anxiety. People get affected by social media when images get stuck in our heads. What social media doesn't show is imperfect bodies. In

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

After debating whether social media has a positive or negative effect on teens, it has been concluded that social media has a negative impact on the developing teenager. Social media can be a great tool at times, by being a means to communicate with friends, classmates, and family members; It can also help spread your ideas, hobbies and life experiences. But after reading the article Studies Offer Mixed Messages On Social Media’s Effects On Young People, By The Baltimore Sun, it explains how social media has a negative effect on teens by causing them to compete (to have a better social media feed), change their body to fit into society (the ideal body shape) and the way it can makes someone feel.

As smartphone and media editing tools have become easier to use, many people have felt the need to go on a photoshop epidemic every time they upload an image to the world of social media. In a pervasive world where images of unrealistic standards fuel over the media on how one should look, social media has one of the biggest impacts in body dissatisfaction in today’s society. Throughout the last generation, social media has become one of the most common and favored ways to communicate, connect, and share. With the rapid growth of smartphone usage among adolescents and teenagers, social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have become an essential part to their daily live. Today, when adolescent and teenagers turn on their smartphones, often times, the first thing they will refer to is a social media site. It has become a place where they are exposed to news, images, and expectations. Thus, often times, these images and expectations are Although social media can help boost and motivate one’s confidence serves as a platform where people can connect, communicate, and share, it has a negative impact on one’s body image because it can lead to lack of self confidence, health problems,, and depression.

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

Many teenagers and young adults, especially women, suffer from a negative body image or an eating disorder due to the deception of mass media. Unrealistic beauty and body standards can be the cause of low self-esteem, which in return can cause many harmful diseases/eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating, and obesity. Most of these medical problems occur in high schools and modeling agencies. Young females and males use social media to compare their life and body to the images they see online, many of which are filtered and edited, causing their followers to only see what they want them to see. Mass media has become an issue ever since smartphones and the internet have become more easily accessible. It is important because, so many health issues are occurring do to the mass media. Educating younger generations about the deception social media provides is important because we can raise awareness of the issues social media is causing.

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

Within the last 10 years, there are even more messages to contend with on a daily basis, thanks to social media. There was a time not so long ago, were girls may have started eating healthier in order to be “bikini ready”, and guys may have hit the gym an extra day or too. But now, because social media is such a big part of our society app’s like; Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and other apps, kids are exposed to a whole new world of what the “perfect” body should look like. It’s not just celebrities anymore that push the idea of human perfection, it’s their peers posting pictures of themselves and one another for the world to see and comment on. What’s worse, is that this instant interaction and almost anonymous interaction leave kids anxious about looking “perfect” in their