Negative Effects Of Social Media

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

That ideal body image that these Medias create can be very hard to develop. Philippa Roxby, a health reporter from BBC News, she visited different schools and talked to 12- and 13-year-olds about their social media and how easily images could be altered, and have added effects to improve themselves. She explains, “’I ask them to shut their eyes and put their hand up if they have ever enhanced an image on Facebook.’ They usually all put up their hands. One girl said every image she uploaded had been altered” (Roxby). By allowing teenagers at a young age create their social media accounts, it can cause them to access a point where they are not content with the way they look. If people access social media at too young of an age if can build them to lose

(Weiner 2) Claire Mysko an award winning author and expert on body image, leadership and media literacy explains: “While social media is not the cause of low self-esteem, it has all the right elements to contribute to it. Social media creates an environment where disordered thoughts and behaviors really thrive”. (Weiner 2) For most young women with constant use and easy accessibility social media can become an addiction and the ability to become outlet that can either build up / destroy women’s self-esteem. A recent survey of more than 1000 girls in the United States ages 8-17 sponsored by the dove self- esteem fund, showed that 7 in 10 girls surveyed believed that when it came to issues including beauty and body image they did not “measure up.” Only 10 percent found themselves to be “pretty enough.”(Sweeney 3) Among women over 18 looking at themselves in the mirror, research indicates the at least 80% are unhappy with that they see. (Fox 5) We are society literally obsessed with being beautiful. Unfortunately female dissatisfaction with appearance or a poor body image being at an early. The latest survey show that young girls are going on diets because they think they are fat and unattractive. (Fox 5) In one American survey 81 % of ten year old girls had already dieted at least once. (Fox 5) By 13 at least 50% of girls are

Having social media in today's generation has become one of the most popular sources of communication. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have a huge impact on young teens. Since social media is a way to network with people and friends, provide entertainment, sharing opinion or comments, etc., most often times it is the first and last thing the younger generation would see right before bed or when they wake up. For example, Instagram is a way to share photos about oneself or about anything. Most people would post "trendy" picture of what a perfect body might be or what is perceived as beautiful. But what teenagers might not know is not everything you see on social media is true. Pictures may be deceptive. These pictures have provided unrealistic standards as to what is considered beautiful in today’s society. By establishing unattainable standards of beauty and bodily perfection, the media drive ordinary people to dissatisfaction with their body images like what movie I will be talking about in this essay, “The DUFF.” The dissatisfaction can results in resorts to drastic measures, and even disorders of behavior, as people try to achieve these unreachable goals.

Social media can negatively impact some adolescent girls and young women's body image. This is because media shows unrealistic beauty standards through the use of photoshop and using underweight models. Social media can be negative in a multitude of ways, however, I think that the way people are portrayed online can cause young girls’ distress and feel like they are not good enough. Social media can have a negative impact on women's self-esteem and self-worth along with their body image and satisfaction with their body. I believe that social media can have a negative impact on young girls self-esteem and body image.

Another issue of late has been the increase of social media activity as a means to validate appearance. Though mainstream media does a lot to give people of all ages unrealistic standards of beauty, it has been social media, lately, that has been having a profound impact on the way kids see themselves. Media such as instagram and snapchat have lead to an increased focus on peer validation of physical appearance as a means of living up to society’s standards. Through this need for validation, and the possibility for a lack thereof, many younger children have found themselves facing unrealistic body standards at a younger age. Kids use social media as a way to see if they are up to their peers’ standards, and if they are not, they can tell through the lack of validation or even the negative reactions. The article also notes that “Body image doesn't just happen. It's a complex phenomenon influenced by many factors, including parents, peers, and social contexts” (Common Sense Media. Common Sense Media, Inc., 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.), and as such it is clear that social media can play a significant role in the way kids are learning to perceive themselves. It’s clear to me that media, in all it’s forms, has come to have an impact on the way people perceive themselves, seeing as such a huge part of media is the feedback that is received on

As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Many women and men often find themselves obsessed with comparison to others. People often look at themselves in the mirror and think that they are not good enough, and that they are not pretty or skinny. Social media plays a huge role in this. Celebrities’ photos can be so fake and edited on social media to the point where the photo does not even look like them. Young women and girls spend so much time on social media and this is all they see. It is no wonder that their self esteem is so low. They are looking at pictures of unrealistic bodies for hours and hours on end. A recent poll by CNN stated that, Thirty five percent of young women and girls, are worried about other

To love yourself for who you truly are, is a goal many adolescents strive to achieve. However, this goal is being pushed further aside, consequently due to social media's influence. The teenage society could not be hidden from the time era where many underestimate who we are. Unfortunately, social media has taken an immense part of harming teen’s body image. The “perfect body” image that has spread all over social media has shattered teenager’s point of view on self beauty. Social media portrays its images as the “must have” body, without the assertion of being realistic.

For the impressionable teenage female, body image has unfortunately become a complex and troubled concept in today’s society. Adolescent girls have been experiencing body image disturbances due to the self-evaluation of appearance conflicting with mental and physical health. Excessive amounts of exposure to social media has been proven to profoundly interfere with a female’s confidence—ultimately resulting in a multitude of body image dissatisfactions. When teenagers are exposed to magazines and social media networks that promote the ideal body, this, more often than not, leads to depression, lowered self-esteem, or even eating disorders. If the media were to include and beautify more of the so-called normal or average women, it is believed that females would no longer feel pressured to look a certain way in order to be deemed beautiful.

The latest controversy in social media is the negative effect that it is having on young women’s body image. Young women always feel the need to be accepted by their peers. They want to always appear to be beautiful with a model typed figure and perfect face but at what cost? These women are

Schummer, and Selden, H.) All people have body images, and they stress about if and how much they will fit in with what’s considered “normal,” “acceptable,” or “attractive” based on how they feel about themselves or how others react when they see them. Anna Lavis states that “As a person grows and especially when they hit their adolescent years, body image becomes a huge part of their self-esteem and self-image.” ( Eli, K., and Ulijaszek, S.) This is where discrimination comes in, because of social media like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and others that provide us the anonymity to judge one another. Human Diseases and Conditions says that “Nowadays there is too much focus on physical appearance that it is causing body image problems, and that women and young girls are especially affected by this as they are constantly bombarded with images of how they “should” look. (Batten, P. Schummer, and Selden, H.) “It has been argued that within a patriarchal society, women have been traditionally disempowered due to the physical ‘inferiority’ of the female body.” (Whitehead, K., & Kurz, T.) People with average bodies look at movie stars, internet “celebrities”, and models in magazines and then think of themselves as “fat” compared to the images they see. This is leading to a large number of young people embracing the cult-like “religion” of participating in anorexic and bulimic habits while their bodies are still growing.

Throughout the years, technology has evolved into something people cannot live without. Mixed in with all of the improvements, social media has become a major asset in the lives of people. Social media can include websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but can also include video games and magazines. However, social media is not always genuine. In the mindset of adolescents, these medias help to create unrealistic ideas of who they are and who they should be. As if going through puberty isn’t difficult enough, teenagers are raised to face these phony thoughts everyday. One of the top problems that boys and girls experience is the way they view their body; commonly referred to as “body image.” Our media-saturated world provides many

1. Kids have a new vision of what they should compare their appearance and personalities to. They examine the features of their body, more than anything else in their lives. It is now a trend to eat less to achieve the physical standards that social media had put into children 's minds through advertisements on social networking sites. As shown when a study was taken of girls in the age group of fourteen to fifteen were asked about eating habits, weight loss, and overall physical being. The study concluded that because of social media trends cyberbullying increased and self-esteem decrease. “Two thirds of 15-year-old girls said they were ‘too fat’ and 14 percent said they’d had nothing to eat or drink for breakfast” (Cohen). These percentages represent that social media is creating a false physical standard in young girls, and even causing kids of a very young age to stop eating. The more this generations adolescents use and abuse social networking sites the more body shaming happens and physical appearance issues occur. These children want to be the norm at such an extent that they would physically starve themselves in order to reach the media 's standards.

Bombarded constantly by distorted images and a false representation of reality, teenagers, regardless of their race or gender, will face the same social standards that one needs to achieve in order to be judged as an enticing individual. Examining the effects of social media, such as Instagram, that it has on an adolescent's body image, technology controls a very powerful aspect in society, depicting unrealistic images of beauty. Social media, is in essence, creating negative effects that impact beauty and body standards.The aftermath are weight loss pills, starvation, cosmetic surgeries that have become far too common in the past decades.

One social media app that people use to stay in touch with the world is Instagram. Instagram is a popular social networking platform that allows its users to document their lives through pictures and videos; however, it takes a toll on one’s mental health. According to the Royal Society for Public Health, Instagram is “the most detrimental to young people’s mental health and wellbeing.” The report also states that “rates of depression and anxiety have increased 70% in the past 25 years” (RSPH), which is around the time that people began using social media. In today’s generation, Instagram models such as Alexis Ren, post revealing pictures, which leave their followers feeling envious and inadequate. The majority of these models promote unhealthy body images, since a lot of them are underweight and edit their pictures.