Essay on Photo-shopped Lies

Within the past few decades, technology has completely transformed. The height and talent of today’s technology has completely changed America and its views. Technology has completely changed and expanded over the past 20 years. Within the past decade a new form of editing technology was created, and that technology is Photoshop. Photoshop is a software used to alter images. In todays day and age, photoshop has become the norm. It is everywhere and it cannot be escaped. Photoshop is used on everything and everyone, and it is affecting us at an extremely negative rate. Due to the works of Photoshop being used on every single media platform, society has adapted to the perfection in photos that were altered by Photoshop. What the world sees when they look at a photoshopped picture is what a company views as perfection, and this image creates an unhealthy comparison between the viewer, the image, and those around them. With Photoshop, images are altered beyond recognition. The Photoshop software takes away any blemish and flaw, and it can make the model used in the photo unrealistically thin, and by this it creates an unachievable body image. When these images are viewed by society, they only see the photo, and they don’t see the hours and hours spent altering the image to actually make them appear this way. So, when society, especially young children and young adults, see these insanely altered images they see something that isn’t real. They see someone that isn’t realistic,

Photoshop, is almost always used in today’s media but many people refuse to see or believe it. The more photoshop the media uses the lower the self esteem, higher the depressions rates and an increase in eating disorders and mental illnesses. So why does the media still use photoshop when it is so harmful? How does it really affect girls and teenagers? What can prevent these effects of Photoshop? Photoshop has harmed high school girls to the point where 30% of them have an eating disorder (Vaynshteyn).

The article discussion the importance of beauty to make Conrad in today’s society. Growing up as a teenager, American girls get exposed cosmetic treatments. Any surgery can be dangerous and cause fatal deaths. Statistics proves teenager are more likely to receive nose jobs and breast implants before turning 21 of age. Sandra Boodman confirmed that girls tends to compare themselves to models image not knowing its plastic work. This article also outlines the safety guidelines of plastic surgery. This website provide me with great information and statistics that is helpful. I chose this article because it is a common topic growing up as a teenager.

Furthermore, cosmetic surgery promotes an unhealthy body image. Often the media omits the negative aspects of cosmetic surgery and only shows the best results and reviews. Consequently, deceiving the viewers into believing that cosmetic surgery has no unsatisfactory results. Plastic surgeon Leo denotes, “Many times, patients come to me quoting glowing reviews they have read on blogs, not realizing that these posts may be sponsored and may not highlight all the risks involved in a medical surgery.” (Straits Times). Teens especially if they have low self-esteem can easily be influenced by these deceptive advertisements. These false advertisements create false perceptions, especially if

Besides Photoshop, plastic surgery is a permanent way to change any physical characteristic. There are things one can change, without having to go through any knife or injection— the way they dress, hairstyles, and working out. When it comes to our image plastic surgery has provided an easy yet dangerous solution to fix what one considers their imperfection/ flaw. It is not only adults; teens are also getting cosmetic surgery which only is deteriorating the youth. Stated in the article Pretty Unreal, “Last year in the United States, more than 300,000 teens are 18 or younger had some sort of cosmetic surgery done” (Mehta, Sparling. 288). An increasing number of teens are getting cosmetic procedures done; plastic surgery has become common with in different age groups and families. Personally in my family I know many teens and adults that have gotten plastic surgery, liposuction, nose jobs, to butt jobs. I believe that teens my age should not be worrying about getting procedures done because there are many risks involved. Adolescence is taken away due to constantly worrying about physical image.

First lets look at the history of eating disorders. The very first case of an eating disorder diagnosed was actually a male. In 1689, Dr. Richard Morton described a case of “nervous consumption” in a 16-year-old male and he was prescribed restraint from

As a child growing up, you tend to look around and see what you believe is normal. As young as 2 years old, girls are seen playing with Barbie dolls and boys are playing with action figures. It may seem like just child’s play but these young children are being slowly influenced into thinking that slim bodies for girls and muscular bodies for boys are more accepted than other body shapes. As they grow into teenagers, models, talk show hosts,

Drexler uses statistics from a pediatrics report which quotes “40 percent of boys in middle and high school exercise regularly -- and 90 percent at least occasionally -- with the specific goal of bulking up” (1). As studies progress it shows that boys are under pressure to fit a physical aesthetic. Dr. Drexler believe that the male stereotype is not catching up with the stereotype of the females, but instead reverting back to the traditional notion of what it means to be masculine and she quote from a traditional saying “It's fine if boys want to go around wearing sparkly nail polish as kids, as long as they grow up to be big and strong and macho”. Dr. Drexler state that the false image of male aesthetic is difficult to avoid because on a daily basis, boys are engulfed by Magazines, DVDs, and Malls, all displaying the same body image. Dr. Drexler explained that the biggest pressure boys receive are from their coaches and peers, where muscle building are encouraged and dieting and grooming are condemned. This ideal cultivates a system where girls are supposed to be fragile and decorated, whereas boys are supposed to be tough and

According to Vaynshteyn, 78 percent of seventeen-year-old girls are “unhappy with their bodies” and 42 percent of girls in “grades 1 to 3” want to be thinner (2014). These shocking statistics prove that Photoshop damages lives in our generation while increasing the risk of depression and eating disorders. The media artificially illustrates women and transforms them into fake icons that many people look up to. For example, a woman who modeled for Ralph Lauren was a victim of “poor imaging and touch-ups” that eventually was found to be associated with Photoshop (Kite, 2014). Through Photoshop, entire appearances are modified and reality gradually has become less of the real

While having a "body image, it not only affects how we interact with others and how we behave, it affects our physical and mental health" (Thompson). Being involved in social media can alter one's opinion about them self or one another. Famous models on Instagram tend to expose themselves and how they got popular by being super fit or perfect. Having young men being capable of saying whatever they want can to bullying or even cyberbullying through social media. "As is the case with girls, boys are taught from a young age to buy into certain cultural ideas about what it means to "be a man" (Rosen). Boys that are exposed to these cultural ideas of what a man looks like can cause them to change the way they act and view themselves. Such as body builders and sports start who use sports enhancements and steroids can cause a boy at a young age to feel that he is not living up to the standard our society holds. This can lead to the early use of steroids, becoming fit at a young age which is unhealthy for the brain, and having fitness be more important than their daily lives. Many men are impacted by their body image, "While men tend to see themselves, as not muscular enough, as opposed to fat, they are still prone to taking unhealthy approaches to change their body" (Douglas). Not being muscular enough or being too fat can cause a man to think he has to either take steroids or lose fat in order to fit social medias standards. While men are exposed to fitness models and famous athletes, they tend to consider them their role models. By doing things they do can cause them to impact their health and their physical image. Substance abuse and eating disorders can be formed while being impacted by the false representation of how men should look

In order to understand what the ideal male body form is, a student was conducted to research the body image concerns of college men. It found that men without eating disorders preferred the V-shaped body whereas men with eating disorders desired the “lean, toned, thin” shape. Surprisingly, all men in the study picked the full-chested, thin-waisted body shape, as well as the look of strength and agility which is explained through Lipman, “the early American value system, which stressed the attributes of physical prowess for men, made sense then because it was anchored in and relation functionality to the frontier and rural society” (Anderson 63). In other words, this old concept of masculinity displays a cultural setback where physical prowess is not a requirement for success in today’s society. An example of media playing the institutionalized male body ideals is through men’s magazines which emphasizes activity, movement, and physical prowess. As a result, men look at their chest, arms, stomach, and legs to try to see muscularity. If physical prowess is desired, being underweight is a much greater taboo than being comfortable with being overweight or within their ideal weight. “Only 77% of underweight men liked their appearance as opposed to 83% of underweight women” (Anderson

As the term "anorexia nervosa" did not exist until 1873” (The first anorexic). In the western world one of the first accounts of anorexia nervosa was during “the 12th and 13th centuries, most famously Saint Catherine of Siena who denied herself food as part of a spiritual denial of self” (A History of Eating Disorders). Most cases of anorexia had to do with fasting as a religious or spiritual experience. However for the women of the Victorian period being thin had transformed and became a way for them to feel successful instead of powerless. It wasn’t till 1970 that the disorder was able to reach the public as it wasn’t just the upper-class that was suffering from anorexia. Again anorexia evolved into the "twentieth-century women progressively idealized the lean, almost 'tubular' body type, deprived of the symbolic emphasis of fertility and motherhood. The thinness of the 'new woman' expressed her sexual liberation and rejection of the traditional female role" (Bremer, J.). Whereas before woman needed to look healthy and capable of having and raising children, now women were aiming to achieve independence the need to be those thing were

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

In “Body- Image Pressure Increasingly Affect Boys,” Jamie Santa Cruz shows that the media harms boys and girls in similar ways. Cruz discusses that “boys who were highly concerned with their weight, about half were worried about gaining more muscles…major difference between boys and girls when it comes to weight concern: whereas girls typically want to be thinner, boys are as likely to feel pressure to gain weight as to lose it” (1). This displays that boys feel obligated to look a certain way like having a 6-pack or looking physically fit due to the influence of media. Similarly, women want to lose weight because being skinny is considered to be attractive. Cruz shows that most action figures have a significant proportion of muscles which displays the “improbable body image they set up for young boys” (3-4) because of this, boys are “falling prey to a distorted image of themselves and their physical inadequacies” (3-4). It is presenting men in a way that is unnatural, like how girls and their bodies are advertised. We assume that this is how men should appear and we judge them based on the illusions that the media has created. Cruz displays that “steroids is associated with depression, range attacks, suicidal tendencies, and cardiomyopathies” (4). He asserts that boys are pressured to look what is considered as healthy in society. This shows how the media is harmful to boys because they can use other alternatives, such as

Furthermore, most of the teenagers that undergo plastic surgery are due to the influence of the mass media. The misleading information through mass media is misleading teenagers on how they should look like. There are celebrities that had successfully undergone plastic surgery and appear on television shows or advertisements. This will further affect teenagers’ decision to imitate them as well as undergo plastic surgery. Besides, most of the teenagers nowadays believe that physical appearance is the most important factor to them. They believe that a person who has pretty appearance will have more advantages compared to those that do not have an attractive appearance. In addition, most of the teenagers nowadays misunderstand the fact that a person who undergoes plastic surgery for a new appearance will get more benefits in their daily life. They might not think about the consequences that may bring to them in their future life. For instance, they may face discrimination or be teased about this new change.