Social Media And Its Effects On Society Essay

We live in an era ruled by social media, primarily when it comes to teenagers, social media is used for everything. From communicating with family and friends to being used as a news outlet, and even advertisement for business and companies. This article is titled “Social Media: What's Not to Like,” written by Alison Pearce Stevens. The topic of this essay is the effect social media can have on teenagers. Social media, on one hand, can be used as a great way to share with the world and boost teens’ self-esteem. On the other hand, social media can be used as a place for bullying, body shaming and can cause depression or even suicide in teens.

Magazines have been constantly blamed for portraying an unrealistic expectation of what a women’s body should look like. Now with technology and the creation of Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube many people are finding it difficult to have a healthy mentality of themselves. Social media can affect the relationship a person has with themselves compared to others. Examples of this are the creation of unrealistic body image expectations, setting a high bar on goals and a portrayal of extravagant unrealistic lifestyles.

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

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

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.

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

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.

Media messages play a significant role in forming gender norms and body satisfaction. Social media is one of the causes for the negative body image in teens. Some teens struggle with self-esteem and body image when they begin puberty because their body goes through many changes, they want to be accepted by their friends.

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.

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

Often times, many people believe that social media can have a positive effect on one’s body image. For instance, social media can be a place to connect, motivate, build self-esteem and boost one’s confidence level. There are social networking sites that allow people to share photos, special moments, and motivational quotes with everyone in their circle. This is conspicuous in the article, "Social Media and Body Image Concerns: Further Considerations and Broader Perspectives" when the authors point out, “…given that the Internet includes both realistic and unrealistic images, in the longer term some of them images may lead to less body concerns and provide a supportive and naturalistic environment for young girls.” (Williams and Ricciardelli

This study shows that social media can not only affect women now but also in their adolescent stages regarding their ideal body image and their connection to the influence of the media. This study is divided into five different parts, from the modifications done to models to the different kinds of marketing strategies used in advertisements to portray certain expectations. The second part, discusses how the media is an important part of our culture, and how

The media influences body images. Having the perfect body image is posted everywhere from the television networks to magazines. Social media such Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, have a significant role in an adolescent's life. Anyone in the social network can post videos such as makeup tutorials, ads, dieting supplements. One example of how adolescent react to celebrities is when Kylie Jenner posted on social media on how she gets her big lips.Using a cup and putting it around your mouth, leaving it like that for about five minutes. Saying after, your lips are

The evolution of social media has been a controversial issue over the years. Since its beginning, it has had a historical impact on everyday life by changing the way we talk and interact with one another. Social media represents both positive and adverse effects on society, but does one side tip the scale more than the other? Online social media surrounds almost everyone in the modern society, and its worldwide popularity has empowered all generations to be connected and actively participate in the sharing of ideas. Online social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, have dramatically changed and influenced the way the new generation is growing up as well. Likewise, these platforms contain a significant amount of information and functions that give all users from all aspects of life the ability to share material with others across the world at lightning speed. With all the great things social media offers, it also presents undesirable characteristics that seem to negatively influence people, and more specifically young children, to the point where many have ultimately rejected the idea of joining the online social community. Social media has also provided people, who intend to use the service only to do harm, the ability to reach victims across the world. Additionally, social media has exposed the young generation to internet bullying, violent and misconstrued news and mature content that is beyond their level of understanding. Another undesirable characteristic of

Many studies support the negative effects of screen media on adolescents. One of these studies was by researchers at American University. This study “found a link between social media use and negative body image…”(McDaniels). A survey conducted in London, by the Royal Society for Public Health, showed that young people who frequently use Instagram and Snapchat are likely to have body-image issues. These issues come about from the frequent viewing of heavily edited images on these social media apps. Pictures of people on these apps are edited as to make the photographed person look flawless, this leads the young brain to set unobtainable goals for itself. These unobtainable goals eventually lead to body-image and body confidence issues and in some cases other psychological problems as well, for example, depression. It is also mentioned in the same article that studies have shown that social media takes a mental and physical toll on some young people. “ It has