Social Media 's Effect On A Young Woman 's Body Image

Throughout the years, the definition of beauty constantly changes. In our society today many children are told to be true to themselves, to be unique, to be who they are, etc.; But on the other hand social media and the celebrities on there are a constant reminder that there is a certain type of beautiful. The juxtaposition between being yourself and being what is “beautiful” has consistent grey areas and blurred lines making it almost impossible to keep up with what’s “beautiful”. The media, whether intentional or not, portrays this certain body image that you have to be in order to qualify as beautiful.

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.

Research shows that over 80 percent of 10-year-old girls fear becoming “fat” (NYC). Young girls are not satisfied by their body image and it is causing many issues. Even though young girls may subject themselves to body image issues, social media destroys girl’s self-worth because of the fashion industry and prolonged time and use on social media.

The effects that social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have on their viewers are widely varied, but in my opinion the most impactful message that viewers take away from their social media use is the proposed definition of what is “beautiful”. People are highly moldable beings who soak up what they are surrounded by, so it makes sense that a message implying that they can “improve” themselves by losing weight, applying makeup, or focusing more on what they wear would have such a direct impact on the way they view themselves as a whole. Studies have shown that frequent users of social

Social media affects girls from a young age. If we were to take a look at Barbie, we would notice that, if she was real, she would be 5’9”, weigh about 110 pounds, have a bust of 39”, 18” waist, 33” hips, and

Is the media to blame for young women becoming obsessed with their body image? Is the media becoming so prevalent in young women's lives that it is altering the way they see their own body and affecting the way they feel about themselves?

Whether they realize it or not, social media effects everyone that is involved with it. It is an outlet that almost every person uses on a day to day basis. They put their life on a screen for everyone to look at and silently judge. It may seem as if everyone has their life together, but that is just the side they want you to see. When people put their lives on the internet, in most cases, they need a sort of affirmation from the people who view it. They crave a comment, a like or even a share. When their post doesn't attract that attention, it's seems like a let down. Everyone wants approval from their friends and family, even if they resort to posting it online to make their life seem "perfect". It's common for people to see other posts and compare their lives to them. Social Media can be a place that targets people and tears them down. It can be a place that puts an unrealistic view of what others are going through and, in turn, makes you question your own happiness.

The topic that I will be focusing on for my isu is how does social media have an effect of teenagers body image. My topic is significant to society because people growing up in this generation grew up around the internet. The internet gives us resources to many things that would not have been easily accessed ten years before. While the internet can prove to be beneficial in some cases, it can also cause problems. Social media allows people to share their opinions worldwide and get responses, it is a way of communication. Social media is also a fast way to discover new trends and find out what is currently in. This is a way for teenagers to stay up to date. However, social media is quick to create an ideal ‘body image’ that one must have in

Millions of women, day in day out, are bombarded with the media’s notion of the “ideal” female body. These impractical images are depicted within women’s magazines worldwide, sending out the message to women that they are not thin or pretty enough. Magazine companies spend billions of pounds yearly on diet and exercise advertisements to include in their magazines, having their readers buy into body dissatisfaction through unrealistic imagery of women, accompanied by dieting and exercise information. Many years ago, Marilyn Monroe, being a size 14, was considered to have the “ideal” body shape and size. However, today’s standard is much smaller and as our society’s beauty ideal continues to shrink in size, body image within women continues to deteriorate. Magazines interpret and associate happiness with being thin; consequently having some women feel if they are not thin, then they are not happy.

What impact does social media have in our lives? Does it affect us in a way that’s damaging to our health? I believe that social media is promoting society’s standards of ‘perfection’ that causes others to feel bad about themselves, and may lead to harmful thoughts/actions such as low self-esteem and eating disorders. In this generation, we have new technology that’s so advanced that almost everyone has a smartphone, with access to social media.

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

The characteristics of an attractive woman have changed considerably overtime, largely due to influence from media. During the 1900’s, up until the 1920’s, an ideal woman was tall, slender, and had a voluptuous figure. Women often achieved this look through the use of corsets, which helped to shape the waist. In the 1920’s small busts and straight, thin figures were ideal. However, the ideal figure of women changed in the 1930’s to 1940’s. Women once again were seen attractive when they had a full feminine figure and avoided looking skinny. Throughout the 1950’s the ideal women’s body shape remained voluptuous and curvy due to popular actresses, such as Marilynn Monroe who embodied the idea that beautiful women weren’t just skin and bones but rather full and curvy. However, in the 1960’s the ideal figure reverted back again to thinner, and more slender than the previous era, partly due to popular supermodel Twiggy (a lot is said about her physique by her name). This thin revolution has remained popular, but has become more extreme recently; examples of this revolution of the female body can be seen everywhere, especially in ads by the extremely popular company Victoria’s Secret. These unrealistic body images have lead to many women taking extreme measures, including using diet pills, exercising excessively, and eat very little, which can result

Also body image has a huge role on the impact upon a young women’s experiences. There is many pressures for young people to look like all these celebrities, they want to change their body image and looks just too known as a prefect girl. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has the most relevant research for young women who has had some plastic surgery done, for example from their statistics 236,356 cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed on 13-19 year olds in 2012. Nearly half of all cosmetic surgical procedures performed on teenagers are nose reshaping procedures. More than 8,500 breast augmentations were performed on 18-19 year olds in 2010, up 3% from 2009. These statistic are shocking as these young girls are seeing

Although society along with media and advertisements have had an impact on women’s self esteem. Slowly societal ideals of beauty are changing, allowing women to feel more confident in their own skin. More and more ads feature curvy models nowadays, allowing society to slowly become

In today’s society, social media has increased drastically and has become an essential part of many individuals’ lives. Unfortunately, studies show that social media negatively impacts women’s perceptions about their own beauty and self-worth; research shows that the media portrays beauty as an unrealistic standard, and due to this, women are suffering from negative body images (Cash & Henry, 1995). From models and celebrities to magazines and billboards, unnatural beauty ideals are emphasized to women everywhere. Although they are unrealistic, society has managed to push them on women and make them feel like being natural is not acceptable. Part of the issue is that media does not portray women of all types, shapes, colors, and forms as “beautiful” (Patton, 2006). Furthermore, an inequality in the beauty standards between males and females must be addressed in order to combat the harmful injustices caused by the unequal expectations of beauty of the sexes.