Social Media Impact On Body Image

Media has developed to become omnipresent in the day to day lives of the westernized societies. The media is considered a gigantic umbrella that houses a plethora of different outlets underneath it such as television, music videos, magazines, commercials, video games and social media. In this paper, the effects of media and various media types are examined to understand their potential outcomes. Focusing on how and if media affects body image in girls and women, the themes of dieting awareness, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction and behaviours are a few of the themes that reoccurred throughout various recent journal articles. Since the media is an ever-growing presence, it potentially has negative effects not only on our

Social media is used as a platform to popularize trends, leading to people trying to fit in. In the article Negative effects social media causes on body image by Katelyn Gaffney says “There is always some new trend to follow because of social media, which is forever changing. Showing what is “In” currently according to social media. Society is always shown something new in looks, fashion, and appearance in doing this women are always on their toes to fit the new standards caused by media. One month it could be large breast, and in a snap the new “In” could be completely flat chested. Today the biggest fad is being very curvy with a small waist. Before we could know it social media could change that to being extremely skinny with minimalistic

For many decades’ research have been developed around the issue of adolescent girls and the women on the desire of being thin (Bell&Dittmar, 2011). With all of the social networking sites of today adolescents are no stranger to the latest technology. According to journalism.org Snapchat has been the youngest “news users” 82% of its users are between the ages of 18-29 (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017). Social media has a different effect on body image on adolescent girls than mass media; in print media with magazines the thin-model and being thin is the main focus for adolescent girls and women (Martin & Gentry, 1997; Dohut & Tiggemann 2006, Goodman 2002, Veldhuis et. al 2014). With social media, individuals can {created a bond with new people made

Richard M. Perloff wrote a research article about the effects social media has on young women’s body images. He mainly focuses on the theoretical perspectives and also does an agenda for research. Media has played a major role in teens’ lives for a while now and is becoming extremely popular. In both good and bad ways, social media has become a part of people’s life whether they appreciate it or not.

Crain, Madison. "How Social Media Affects Body Image." The Crimson White. The Crimson White, 07 Mar. 2016. Web. 03 Mar. 2017.

“When all you see is a body type that only two percent of the population has, it’s difficult to remember what’s real and what’s reasonable to expect of yourself and everyone else.” This was stated by Arielle Cutler, who studied the recent effects social media has on the female body image. Not only has media made women feel insecure about their bodies but it pinpoints exactly what bothers them. It could be weight, skin problems, height, and even a clothing style. The media sends subliminal messages into a female’s brain that makes them think they need to reach the expectations of what they read on the internet and in magazines or what they see on television (TV). The pressure a female is put under to become the “ideal woman” is detrimental to their health, not only physically but also mentally. The images of beauty are unrealistic and are constantly changing, making it hard to keep up with the latest body trend.

Media’s effect on what beauty should be appears strongly with women reporting “greater feelings of inadequacy regardless of their real body weight”. In movies and on television the heroes always have the impossible ideal body. On the other hand, overweight people are usually portrayed as a joke or as unattractive in movies and on television (Vitelli, Media Exposure and the ‘Perfect’ Body). There was a study done on 391 middle school students, where they all took a survey. They were all asked who their favorite same-sex character from a movie or a television show was. The majority of responses fell on the thin side (Vitelli, Media Exposure and the ‘Perfect’ Body). Fashion magazines promote lip injections being the new trend for women in their 20’s (Raydon, 3). And for advertising, they claim that a thin, pretty girl is going to sell better on the cover of a magazine. Since they claim that “thinness sells” they continue to use this method for advertising (Dittmar and Howard 478). Psychologists found strong evidence linking social media use to body image dissatisfaction, dieting, body surveillance, drive for thinness, and self objection in adolescents. The most vulnerable users of social media are those that spend the most time on it. One study found that girls who spend the majority of time on Facebook are more likely to link their worth to their self image

To conclude, social media is part of everyone, it is important to address and talk about what is going on in the media. Adolescence is an important stage in everyone’s life and everything that they are expose to affects them in one way or the other. As show in the previews studies, males and females are affected by the endorsement and expose of the thin ideal. Furthermore, as showed in the past research as well exposing adolescents and young adults to average weight models could also have a positive impact on the

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

Many studies analyze the effects of social media has on our body-image. They consist of the relationship that mass media has on how we perceive our bodies and how body dissatisfaction occurs consequently. Correlational studies have been conducted that support the idea that many women worry about their body image because they do not fit the stereotypical body portrayed through media. Studies by Vonderan and Kinnally (2012) show that television and media exposure seem to have very significant correlations to internalization of the thin ideal, still their impact was overshadowed by other factors. These factors will be discussed in the next section. The strongest media factor related to internalization of the thin ideal and it contribution to the

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the negative impact body image in media. Media

Social media has become a pastime that consumes hours and hours of so many lives today. Most all women have been impacted in some kind of way by Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter because they are using it on a daily basis. Some of these women do not even realize how much they have been negatively impacted by using social media. People see information posted that they would not have known if it were not for social media. Sometimes it is information related to health issues or a woman’s body image. Many celebrities, athletes, friends, and family will eventually all post something about their body image. A negative self-image among women seems to be more prevalent due to social media. Young women are negatively influenced by social media due to constant comparisons to friends on Facebook which then causes more anxiety and eating disorders and a desire to withdraw from society.

Looking at any magazine with a beautiful, skinny, tall and tan women while shopping, or at a doctor’s appointment while waiting to be assisted can lower your self-esteem. This is why body image is a serious problem for many teens. As stated in the article Body Image “47 percent of girls interviewed were influenced by magazine pictures to want to lose weight, but only 29 percent of them were overweight”. Body image is the mental picture on how someone views themselves. Looks are not everything, but Social media makes it seem like looks is everything. Social media is where you can interact with other on websites and post pictures, videos, what’s on your mind, and pretty much whatever you like. The effects on having

As Williams and Ricciardelli (2014) point out in their literary review titled, “Social Media and Body Image Concerns: further considerations and broader perspectives,” which similar examines the relationship between social media and body consciousness, “…social media in our digital world are overtaking other forms of mass media, as the main medium, where the young and the not so young source information about body image ideals” (p. 389). It is important to realize the influence all media holds over our ideals, but with social media on the rise, it is especially important to examine how it can influences women’s perceptions of their own bodies.

As the number of adolescents who are constantly exposed to mass media increases so does the amount of adolescents with body image issues. Coincidentally, these two factors go hand in hand. In previous years, television and magazines had a pronounced effect in the way growing adolescents viewed themselves, however with the increasing amount of usage of social media platforms this has gradually shifted (Holland and Tiggemann, 2016). Although there has been a shift in the influence of mass media, the effects of mass media such as television and magazines still widely influence body image in adolescent. Body image is the way a person a person feels, thinks, and perceives their body ( Holland and Tiggemann, 2016). The increasing difficulty of accepting one’s body has been given the term body dissatisfaction. Individuals who experience this have a negative view of themselves and more often than not has a deviation in the way they believe their ideal body to be. A majority of this is due to the unrealistic image Western society paints as the ideal body. The way women are portrayed has played an immense large role on the way social media promotes women. Research conducted by Holland and Tiggemann showed that due to the incessant portrayal of women in today’s media as slender and having low body fat, children and adolescent alike yearn to be like the women depicted, so much so, “Women make frequent comparisons, they are often unintentional and automatic” (42). They have developed