Social Media And Its Effects On Society

To be frank, I also once had a view that only people who are skinny can be considered as beautiful. However, there is one incidence that changes my perception on the idea of what is the meaning of beauty and ‘perfect’ body. When I was in high school, I had a best friend named Alice—she was chubby and curvy. She was so obsessed with the America’s next top model shows. One day she expressed her desire to lose weight to me and I supported her. She also said that her boyfriend asked her to lose some weight to be more beautiful. She said that she really wants to look like the models and also to fulfill her boyfriend’s wish. After three months, she was hospitalized and I was so shocked with that news. She was hospitalized because there was something wrong with her intestines caused by her unhealthy diet. When I went to visit her, she looked very different—she looked sunken and sick. Begin on that day; I realized that it is really impossible to be like the models that we see everyday in the media and I also afraid on how good media is in order to distort society’s idea of beauty.

It is apparent that with the increasing popularity of social media today, there has been a shift in dietary changes within our society. Individuals are subconsciously changing how and what they eat. The question arises, why are so many young women dissatisfied with their bodies, despite their size? Although there are several forces believed to play a role in this dissatisfaction such as peer criticism and parental influences, the thin-ideal body is dominating the media (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). Thinness is largely emphasized and praised for women in magazines, television shows, movies and commercials (Stice & Shaw, 1992). Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder that stems from this ubiquitous obsession to be thin and is often associated with a pathological fear of gaining weight, distorted self-body image and emaciation (The American Heritage® Science Dictionary).

Young girls in middle-high school look in the mirror to analyze, critique and judge the growing woman that they see in the mirror. Overall, they seem to dislike what they see, Most think “my body is not perfect. ”. That brings the question of what exactly a perfect body is?

Demi Lovato once said, “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” However, today we find that many individuals are doing the completely opposite. In Susan Bordo’s, “Globalization of Eating Disorders” essay, they fall into the media trap, the self-image trap, where they are concerned of what people may think about them. Americans nowadays have pageants, modeling, and media to thank for this absurd notion. Fit women, along with strong men give this motivation to others to want to be like them. Most people should be comfortable with their own bodies. Americans are mesmerized with media and enthralled by one’s body image, and ,as a result, face ramifications like eating disorders and anorexia.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

Promotion by the media of the extraordinarily thin body types has been linked to the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents (Ballaro & Wagner, 2017). Experts believe that there are more than ten million females suffering from some sort of eating disorder and that the problems are happening in patients of younger and younger ages. The gap between the average woman’s body and the ideal body is much larger than before (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999). Ninety four percent of characters in the United States media, are thinner than the average woman (Gonzalez-Lavin & Smolak, 1995). The average American woman is only 5’4” tall and weighs approximately 165 pounds (Martin 2010). The media depicts happiness, wealth and success associated to unrealistic body types (Tiggemann, 2002). Not only does the media display this image, it also exhaustively provides information to encourage achievement of it as well. Whether through dieting, exercise or mild to extreme cosmetic surgery for body sculpting, women are feeling the pressure that they need to be thin and often take even the most dangerous methods to obtain this. Considering that these delusional ideals are nearly impossible for most average women, without choosing unhealthy and harmful behaviors, eating disorder theorists have proclaimed that media is supporting these habits (Levine & Smolak, 1998). It is estimated that 10-15% of girls and women between the ages of 9 and 19 are affected by eating disorders. Though the death rates vary from different studies, one thing is for sure; eating disorders can have many health risks, including death. With the unrealistic ability to achieve the super thin body image many women are still turning to these harmful methods in order to try; thus resulting in death of someone every 62 minutes as a result (Eating Disorders Coalition,

Many people start with diets, but these diets do not have fast enough results, so they turn to starvation, eating disorders, and extreme workouts. “Among women, internalization of the thin-ideal has been linked to dietary restraint that may precede eating disorders. Among men, internalization of the muscular-ideal has been associated with various strategies to increase muscularity” (Gudnadottir 151). Reaching the goal of society starts off as a simple diet. When the diet does not have fast enough results, things become more extreme. Women start to starve themselves by only eating once a day or only eating salad and not gaining all the nutrients and vitamins their body needs to survive. They call this being “healthy.” Men, on the other hand, begin to increase their serving sizes and go on an all protein diet to try to gain as much muscle mass as possible. This is followed by extreme weight lifting at the gym, and sometimes can lead to the use of steroids. In severe cases, men and women both begin to develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and binge eating. Men and women do not realize the toll these extreme measures take on their bodies. They think by becoming this way they are being healthy and improving their overall health, but in reality, they are harming their bodies. “However, these practices could increase the

A study was recently done to determine how body image was viewed in society several years ago and how it is viewed in today’s society. When comparing the average model and the American woman, it is stated by Dr. Jonathon Rader, PhD, chief executive and clinical officer of Rader Programs that “twenty years ago, the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less” (Rader). Twenty to thirty years ago, full figured women were accepted and also admired. Being voluptuous was a sign of wealth and beauty. Women were not obsessed with diet fads, or trying to look a certain way, but were more concerned with eating healthy and were comfortable with the

Mass media has made the line between the delusion of perfection and reality awry. Media places extreme accentuation on obtaining the so-called body image. Society pays a significant amount of attention to body image, physical attractiveness, youthfulness, sexuality, and appearance. Many other countries argue that our country is based off of sex. After looking at the promotion of sex in all types of advertisement, can we really argue with them? The ideal body size we see projected on TV is about 5’7” and about 100lbs and wears a size 8. The average size of an American woman is about 5”4”, weighs about 160lbs, and wears a size 14; but, more than one third of women in America wear over a size 16. The problem of girls and women comparing themselves to the ‘ideal woman’ has progressed over the years. As the average size of American women tends to rise, the measurements of Playboy centerfolds and Miss America finalists are continuously growing thinner and thinner. As women grow larger, and beautiful women shrink their waists, it becomes more troublesome to have an image of yourself being beautiful.

There are ads everywhere showing us what the perfect human should look like. They are in magazines, books and television shows. Most of these ads show unrealistic body standards. Models show that people should be tall and skinny, and actors are praised for looking a certain way. There are many things out there that tells an individual how they should look. These unrealistic body standards can have grave consequences. It can affect the way people see and feel about themselves. It can also affect what they do to their bodies and how they spend their money.

Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semistarvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects influencing

Every day adolescent women are being influenced and affected by the media. The media includes anything from magazines, television shows, billboards, radio advertisements, commercials, newspapers and more. Through the media, women are being exposed to all forms of advertisements, including images that display misleading figures of women. These advertisements do not feature women with large hips, wide shoulders, lengthy arms or fuller figures. Instead, the women found on the front pages of magazines and advertisements are usually cookie-cutter cropped and photo shopped models with thigh gaps, perfect curves, high cheek bones and all the features of a deceivingly perfect looking woman. The media neglects to show the average woman, who comes

According to the National Eating Disorder Association the media has a major influence on what a woman’s body should look like. Every print and television advertisement suggests that the ideal body is extremely thin. However, most women cannot achieve having a super-thin body that the media favors. The resulting failure leads to negative feelings about one’s self and can begin a downward spiral toward an eating disorder (National Eating Disorders Association).

Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are web-based activities that provide individuals access to build a public or a semi-public profile within a confined system, connect and find users that they share a connection with as well as view and navigate the list of connections that are made by other participants of the systems (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social media is widely used by young adults contributing to about 84% of the total usage (Smith, 2011). Some of the popular reasons for widespread use of social media are staying in touch with near and dear ones especially with friends and family, making new friends, following famous politicians and celebrities and also in search of potential relationships (Smith, 2011). However as the use of social media becomes more widespread, we cannot help but express concerns over the effects that social media usage may have on our behavior. Over the past couple of decades, research has strongly linked social media usage with negative behavioral outcomes and is known to affect one’s overall well-being. This essay will begin by discussing some of the behavioral issues that result from social media usage, followed by criticisms of this argument. The recommendation will then highlight some ways by which the behavioural problems could be dealt with, acknowledging that self-monitoring and self-regulation are the main ways to tackle the issue.

In recent years, the world has changed by modern technological developments. People in these days are living real revolution and changes that affect in somehow their life. Social media has contributed to link parts of this wide world to each other, and paved the way for all people exchange views and ideas. In addition, social media sites are considered the most widespread on the Internet because of its characteristics that made it different from other websites. Because of social media, people has become living in small town. They do not need to travel in order to getting informations or news. Social media has created easier way to achieve communication between individuals and groups.Social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace , High Five, Tagged and YouTube have allowed people to exchange video clips, photos, share files and perform immediate talks and direct communication and interaction between the audience. Despite of advantages of social media that offer to its users, there are some disadvantages that may overcome those advantages. There are a lot of severe criticisms that social media faced because of its negative impact on individuals, families and society. Steal information, break the personal privacy, wasting a lot of time and isolation from people are some of problems that people have faced because of social media. People have divided into two group toward this issue. Some people think that social media has contributed to make their life better.