Socialization As Mass Media, Influence Children 's Ideologies On How They Should Act

A photograph, painting, canvas, or drawing today is not the same as it was a decade ago. Technology has evolved to the point where we can photoshop a person into a picture, enlarge a person’s butt, or even whiten people’s teeth. At what point do those technological advances cross a line? With social media ranging from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Tumblr, do these media sites promote egotistical behavior? In January of 2013, John Paul Titlow discusses some of the disadvantages and advantages that Instagram has in his essay: “#Me: Instagram Narcissism and the Scourge of the Selfie” that was posted on a website called ReadWrite. Although Instagram was primarily created to simply share pictures, it has evolved to do much more than that. Some businesses use it to advertise, some people use it to share their art, but then there are some people use it to flaunt their own personal lives in the form of pictures. Titlow acknowledges that Instagram is a desirable way to share art and diverse imagery, but additionally acknowledges that it can be a place where one can promote their own self-popularity. He explains that Instagram has become remarkably important in people’s lives to the point that they cannot view life past those Instagram likes (Titlow). Ultimately, Titlow succeeds in emphasizing the issues that Instagram has created by reason of the way he expresses his text, while furthermore expressing who the audience of his essay is, and by making his overall purpose clear.

When scrolling through your Instagram feed or watching Snapchat stories of classmates and friends, it can be very difficult and sometimes impossible to not feel jealous or discouraged. These days, teens post nearly every aspect of their lives on social media. You see everything from what someone ate for breakfast, what workout they did that day, to what cute new outfit they have on for their fancy family dinner that night. A wide range of pressures arises with social media usage. Teens feel they always need to be available, many gain reassurance from likes and shares, and they are faced with the struggle of keeping up with the constant image of a “perfect life”. This is very dangerous because many teens are experiencing discomfort in their own skin when they compare themselves to others. It is difficult not to judge yourself and others when you are constantly viewing what your classmates, friends, and celebrities are doing. When interviewing a friend, Brayden Xilas who has been personally impacted by social media, she said “There has become an unspoken competition for teens to prove they have the best life through social media”. Friends and classmates are constantly trying to “one up” each other which causes a lot of stress for people to always be doing something worthy of sharing on social media.

In Melissa Healy’s article, published on May 18, 2010, Los Angeles Times, “Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such a Bad Idea,” she argues that social media and their social skills may not be such a catastrophe after all and that teenagers who use social media are psychologically healthiest. Healy supports this claim by first describing how, according to the research found by Amori Yee Mikami, social networking sites are mostly used to, not to converse with strangers online, but to interact with friends they already know and said, “So people of well-adjusted teens may have little to worry about regarding the way their children behave when using social media. It’s likely to be similarly positive behavior.” Then, she makes a connection

The developments in technology have been seen through computers/laptops, cell phones, internet, television, and even newspapers. All of these forms have impacted what could be communicated. People of most ages are now able and regularly use technology and the social aspects that come along with it, i.e., Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. All of which filter in media of body-ideal models that one must scroll past. Manovich stated that social media users have greater chances of viewing beginner and independent content that may not be spread by means of corporate or public funded media (cited in Andsager). What Manovich means is that often times as viewers we are exposed to content that someone created independently without the help or approval by the media. This often times leads to images that are very unreliable and unrealistic. But sadly these are the types of media that lends viewers to problems loving themselves. The regulation of content available on the worldwide web is not very strong but should be improved to help with situations such as these. By knowing that there is realistic and unrealistic media, it is safe to question how much it affects viewers because most would know this. Adolescents are most commonly on social media and would be a very

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.

My personal thoughts on the impact of the social media by the PBS Frontline “Generation Like” video was very informative and showed how much I have been out touch with reality with the communication movement with today’s generation and how involved the social media plays a part in our lives. After carefully examining the video and looking back at past court cases, I believe the social media can be a double-edged sword for our adolescence teenagers. The media can either be positive or negative impact on our adolescence children. The video by PBS provided a transparent imagine how teens were able to accomplish a positive self imagine and fame on different social medias like Facebook, Twitter, and My Space to build their self confidence about themselves by communicating with their peers and on a global level of

The text references when girls mature early that they often lack self-confidence and many teens that reach puberty early have a dissatisfaction with there body image.( Berk 206) The advice that was given was good, but if it was given by an adult they might have went a step further to talk about eating disorders and warning against unhealthy habits such as over exercising or not eating just as an example. “M” magazine depicts unrealistic images of thin women that have perfectly trimmed bodies and even the ones that are mentioned as being “curvy” are in shape and thin. Teens see images of males and females that have these “perfect” bodies, make-up, hair, and fashion and want to imitate that person and they become that teens new role model. None of the articles in the magazine shows the work that goes into preparing these teens for these articles. Many of the people depicted in the magazine have rigorous work out routines, strict diets, a personal trainer, make-up artists, and access to all the latest fashion because of there fame. As adults we realize that no one wakes up in the morning looking like Taylor Swift or Joe Jonas without a lot of hard work. These stars are depicted in this magazine though and it circulates half way around the world and teens look up to these stars and die trying to look like them or spend there lives loathing themselves because they can not. These images are not supportive of a healthy

The social media plays a major part in the lifestyle our today’s youth lives are going. The “Bling” is causing them to want to make quick unreasonable choices rather than select a choice that would sustain them for a life span.

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

Children today spend an average of forty hours a week consuming all types of media, while parents spend an average of seventeen hours a week with their children (Steyer 44).

Finally, social media has become a way individuals negatively judge themselves as inferior to others. Americans have taken extreme actions to live up to the impractical social expectations. This is connected to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotions. People change their image for society acceptance, and personal acceptance, because many want to fit the image social media says is right. An article published by CNN states that “the more time adolescent spent on Facebook, the more likely they were to develop a negative body image and eating disorders” (Mary). A person’s body changes from day to day, a lot of people think they are overweight, ugly, etc. which in reality they almost certainly aren’t. They are used to what society says one

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.

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 media technology now offers various ways to access TV contents, such as on the Internet, cell phones and iPad, it leads children to spend more time watching animations and movies. According to a Kaiser family foundation study, 8-10-year-old children expose average 7 hours 51 minutes to media in a typical day. 11-14-year-old children and 15-18-year-old children spend average 11 hours in a day. (Victoria et al.) Children thoroughly perceive and accept the concepts from media, so it is the powerful medium and cramming education method that control consciousness and create the imitation. Animations and movies, as the most accessible media, significantly have an effect on the process of socialization of children to form personality traits and the concept of the gender.

What is more important than children? Children define the very notion of innocence in the world, untouched or soiled by the cruelty and brutality of their soon-to-be-inherited society. 
Generation after generation is brought up and raised through this ruthless and heartless world, struggling to remain pure and preserve their blamelessness. The race to maintain our children’s innocence, however, is now being blatantly surpassed by a new kind of competitor: one never to have been seen before—the media. In modern American society, media plays a vital role in children’s lives that is having damaging effects on them as they mature into our country’s future adults.