Alana Putnam Rough Draft
Did you know that 68% of women in the United States use social media for health, fitness and beauty tips (Cohen)? Many women of all ages are dealing with the pressure that social media can put on them to have the “perfect” body. There are many different ways of dealing with this issue, that include positive and negative outcomes when dealing with this problem (Reed). Also, just like every story there is two different sides to this issue. Social media has been putting too much pressure on women to have “perfect” bodies or that they have to be in “perfect” shape all of the time. The many women who use social media for health purposes helps boost up the usage of different social media sites, but many bad effects can come out of this pressure that is put on women. This became an issue very far back in the past, Anorexia began in the 1870s but didn’t become popular until 1960s and 1970s. Bulimia began in the 1980s and was popularized as soon as it started. The idea of a “perfect” body has changed a lot over time from very curvy, to very skinny and back again multiple times depending on where you are (Reed). Using very thin models became very popular after World War 2 and people believed that this was the new “perfect” body. In the 1990s more magazines began to promote plastic surgery on women and people began to invest in it (Redar). Studies have also shown that once a woman develops an eating disorder it is harder for her to get into a healthier
Social media has a big influence on this generation when it comes to “body image.” Many women, or “models,” will post pictures of themselves showing off their body with thousands of likes and many comments saying “body goals” or “I wish I looked like that.” This
A majority of the people who suffer from eating disorders are young adults and teenagers. This can be linked to the pressure put on them to have what society declares the “ideal” body image. For most of history, the ideal female body was plump and voluptuous. This was before the neolithic people settled down and created some of the first civilizations. Women with large hips were “valued” because it meant that birth would be easier for them. They had “birthing hips” as they are called today. This meant there was a higher chance that there wouldn 't be complications during birth. When civilizations started to take root and grow, body images began to change. In Ancient Egypt, thin slender women were preferred while in Ancient Greece, plump women with curves were still the ideal. In fact, in Ancient Greece, women didn’t have a “body image” to live up to, it was men. This is one of
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.
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
The reason that eating disorders are a growing problem is because people think they need to be stick thin to be accepted by the current society. When they get the results they want, they think, “If I keep doing this, it will get even better.” This isn’t true; their serious disease takes great physical and emotional tolls on themselves, and also to their family and friends.
Many people in modern culture have developed what has been termed a normative discontent with their bodies. Women are particularly vulnerable to this development of body dissatisfaction, which has been shown to create numerous negative heath issues. These health issues are a direct result from trying to achieve the unrealistic ideal image that media has created. This idea on how the body should look floods modern media and women are discriminated upon if they are unable to meet these strict physical requirements. However, unknown to the masses, the majority of the physical characteristics portrayed are achieved from digital enhancement and not only the product of weight loss. It is my goal within this paper to discuss the population is
The ideal body image that is seen by society is being tall, thin, muscular, and fit. It is commonly seen across various media platforms, making it more popular. The group of people that are targeted ranges from teenagers to adults who engaged in social networking websites (Fardouly and et, al.). The increase in media consumption has proven that it leads to body dissatisfaction among consumers. A statistic from Body Image shows, “Similarly, 90% of 16-24 year olds in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2013), and 90% of 18-29 year olds in the United States (Pew Research, 2013a), use social networking websites” (Fardouly and et, al.). The amount of exposure to social media is relatively high in a particular age. These social networking websites have images that are constantly
Approximately 14 million U.S. teenage girls don’t like how they look. The number of women who feel confident in their bodies is dwindling quickly and is being fueled by edited pictures they are comparing themselves to on social media. The Time magazine article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” by Rachel Simmons tells of the risk for everyone to feel self-conscious about their bodies. However, those most at risk are teenage girls who spend a significant amount of time on any form of social media. In response to the article, I agree with the negative effects social media has on the body image of teenage girls because I have seen girls trying to change their bodies. I also see the effects logos and pathos have on the strength of the article and what would make it a stronger and more credible source for information on teen body image.
Media is everywhere, and what the sources contain effect people from all walks of life but the issue of body image is one thing that seems to stay in constant attention. Psychologists found there was a strong association linking social media use to body image concerns, dieting, body surveillance, a drive for thinness, and self-objectication in adolescents. One study found that female college students who spend their time posting, commenting on, and comparing themselves to photos on Facebook were more likely to link their self-worth to their looks (How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror by Rachel Simmons). Even though girls report more body image disturbance then boys, it has been shown that both genders are equally
Contrary to popular believe, eating disorders are not a thing of the past. They are unfortunately very prevalent; eating disorders affect up to 30 million Americans and 70 million individuals worldwide. The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders, "Eating Disorders 101 Guide: A Summary of Issues, Statistics and Resources," published September 2002, revised October 2003, http://www.renfrew.org. What an extremely disturbing fact! With so many people are struggling, why are the differences between anorexia and bulimia so misunderstood by the majority of the population? Anorexia and Bulimia are very severe eating disorders that are described as an unnatural relationship with food. The body of the individual that is diagnosed goes through extreme changes that ultimately cause havoc on the body and its systems. People who often suffer from these disorders tend to be overly concerned with perfection and the attainment of it. They may feel as if they have absolutely no control when it comes to some parts of their lives, so they achieve control through one of these eating disorders. Anorexics and bulimics often use the eating disorder as a way to muddle through problems from the past, as well as those of present times. Any person can have anxieties when it comes to his or her weight however, for anorexics and bulimics, it’s a life altering obsession. The sufferer may be known to become isolated from friends and family, not realizing that the disease affects not only his or
Eating disorders have always been looked upon as a teenage girl disease. Teen girls are surrounded by the idea of what a perfect body looks like that they would do anything to achieve it, or kids participating in sporting events over work themselves in order to be the best. However, this disease is also found in males and women over in their late 20s to early 40s. Men are feeling just as much pressure in today’s world to look a certain way. Everywhere you look you see males with chiseled abs and big muscles. They are on the cover of magazines, on TV, billboards and even can be found in grocery stores. For girls the idea is to look thin, but for boys it’s to look as muscular as possible. Older women have had more of a struggle with keeping up with a family and losing focus of their own lives. Always some women
It is funny how so many girls and women today are led to believe that the only way to feel attractive and be beautiful is to have their bodies consist of nothing but skin and bones. Women are dieting more today then they have ever been before. They are striving for an unattainable body figure that is portrayed by the media as being the ideal standard for today's women. It gets worse. Not only are women dieting unlike ever before, but they will ruthlessly harm their bodies in order to achieve these inaccessible standards. This ruthless harm that haunts so many women today just so happens to be what we call eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are the primary diseases that go in the category of eating
A problem which has become more and more of a dilemma in recent times has been eating disorders amongst young women. This is a prime example of how our society depicts what we should and should not look like and decides our perspective of health and what a healthy body should be. This infatuation with body image in our society stems from gender roles in which females were believed to look attractive for their husbands. Still females are viewed as more delicate and attractive beings and the constant advertisement of young attractive models promoting products is a major reason as to why many young girls in Australia and all over the world are experiencing problems illnesses with obesity, bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Bulimia is where someone throws up the food in which they have already digested for rapid weight loss, anorexia is similar except in this disease the individual has an intense fear of gaining weight and in many occasions refuse to eat and have a false impression of their appearance.
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
Instagram can cause body dissatisfaction, and a low self-esteem, in women. When women compare their beauty and bodies to that of what they see on Instagram, it strengthens the feeling of having a poor self-image. This image is a representation of unrealistic beauty and body expectations for women. The idea of women having to fit one idea of beauty is unbelievable and ridiculous because perfection on its own is just an opinion. Most Instagram users use Instagram has a platform to perceive their lives to be the perfect life to live. Instagram has millions of women who have hundreds to thousands of followers, and these women are considered to be living the ideal life. Women such as Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Cardi B, and so much more. These women’s Instagram pages consist of them living the high life and flaunting their “perfect” Bodies. Most of the pictures posted on their Instagram page masks the reality of their lives. Instagram should be