Studies of Social Media and its Effects on Adolescent’s Body Image

Many people have a habit of asking others on the internet for opinions on what they look like. This creates body image anxieties. At the same time, women were being more objectified in media, with an extreme emphasis placed on their bodies (Klein). Some people believe that the answer to body anxiety is to give a bigger range of body examples in the media. Dr. Phillipa Diedrichs, University of West of England’s Centre for Appearance Research, said,“The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are self-objectify.” Media is everywhere, so telling them to ignore it is not going to work. Steps could be taken to help girls to not compare themselves to the unrealistic

The media is questioned if their presenting a healthy structure of body image for teenagers. The Majority of images portrayed on social media consists of slim, bright and/or flawless people which is known to impact teenagers personally and will feel different due to their difference in weight and appearance. This preview will indicate whether most body images shown online stand as a respectable size to teenagers viewing the image or impersonates a low point of view for the young audience. Over the decades’ social media has produced a substantial indication of how your body must look. The issue is where if this depiction is a healthy or unhealthy circumstance for the teenage perception.

Teens who are in college have just as many problems with their body as people in high school. The media affecting people of all ages can consist of anything from people on social media, to celebrities on T.V., to the models who walk on runways. People who struggle with their body image are all over the world and are often closed off to other people. When girls look at magazines they see all of the models posing and then they compare themselves to them because the models are what society says is pretty, and they aren’t. Media is a great way for companies to get their products out there, but when adolescents compare themselves to models, they will start to have body image issues.

We see ‘ideal selfs’ on the television, so when we log into Facebook, or Twitter, we too create ‘ideal selfs’. If we look at media creating negative self-esteem, the main demographic it effects is women aged about 14-18. Girl Guiding, an organization created for promoting girl’s voices and opinions to be heard conducted a survey, called the Girl’s Attitude Survey. This survey included girls from 11- 21. In 2009, 36% of girls from 11-16 were unhappy with their looks. 1 in 6 girls said they were worried they would develop an eating disorder. They asked girls from 10-21 what aspect they would like to change about themselves. 33% of girls 16-21 wanted to be thinner, compared to 17% of girls 11-13. 66% of girls 16-21 have watched what they were eating, or cut down on their diet. In 2013, 87% of girls from 11-21 thought they were judged more on their appearance and looks than their ability. 80% of the same demographic believe that the media places too much discussion on the bodies and weight of girls and 71% of girls say they would like to lose weight. 31% of girls from 16-21 considered cosmetic surgery, and 47% of girls from 11-16 are unhappy about their looks. You can see that through the years, girls have become more body conscious, and mostly in a negative way.

Media exposure creates an ideal body image that is not easily maintained by most adolescents and causes adolescents to be dissatisfied with their bodies and leads to unhealthy diet habits and other more sever eating disorders.

Adolescents are bombarded with many media messages every day. These media messages may take the form of advertisements, newspapers, magazines, broadcast media such as television, and more. Such media can have a detrimental affect on how adolescents perceive their body image. Adolescents may feel pressured to diet, to spend copious amounts of money on the latest trends, and they may even feel inadequate compared to the models they see on television. Adolescence is a time of change that is difficult for many already. The messages conveyed to these adolescents often do more harm than good.

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.

Every day teenagers spend 3 hours watching Tv, 6 hours online and 3.5 hours looking in a mirror. Body image is one of the issues that teenagers experience in their lives, it is how you see yourself physically and mentally. A healthy body image is when you can fully accept yourself. 80% teen girls are unhappy with their body image. Body products make us feel bad about ourselves and makes us want to buy their products. Media is one of the causes that make teenagers feel ‘ugly’ and not confident in themselves. Signs of body images are everywhere from food to cars, teenagers look at these bodies as a point of reference and try to look like them. Girls are being affected more than boys but it has been proven that very close to reaching the percentage

In recent times, more information on eating disorders has become available. As a result, there has also been much debate on whether media contributes to the increase in eating disorders and body image issues. Michael P. Levine and Sarah K. Murnen, in their article, “‘Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/Are Not [Pick One] A Cause Of Eating Disorders’: A Critical Review Of Evidence For A Causal Link Between Media, Negative Body Image, And Disordered Eating In Females,” seek to evaluate the influence mass media have on young girls. In a similar way, the article, “Concurrent and Prospective Analyses of Peer, Television and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls” by Christopher

To love yourself for who you truly are, is a goal many adolescents strive to achieve. However, this goal is being pushed further aside, consequently due to social media's influence. The teenage society could not be hidden from the time era where many underestimate who we are. Unfortunately, social media has taken an immense part of harming teen’s body image. The “perfect body” image that has spread all over social media has shattered teenager’s point of view on self beauty. Social media portrays its images as the “must have” body, without the assertion of being realistic.

Body image issues arise in adolescents and can sometimes continue well into adulthood. The culprit behind these various issues are from media sources such as magazines, websites, television, and ads. These variety of sources are simply marketing schemes that attempt to sell products by showing physical attributes that are deemed attractive and desirable. However, children and teenagers do not realize this and often assume that they are not attractive. Eventually, they develop a negative image about their body which have unpleasant consequences.

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

As children we are taught to love ourselves and that we are all beautiful. But with growth of social media and the influence it has on today’s image displayed, it has lead the children of today to believe that beauty consist of how much makeup you apply to your face, how little clothing it wore and what size body image is excepted. Images of female bodies are everywhere, with women and girls selling everything from food to clothing. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if you can just lose those last twenty pounds, you will have the perfect body. Traditionally, most of the concerns about media and body image have revolved around women but more and

The sad truth on how social media works on teens to “better their body image”. In the article the Images of Beauty are unrealistic and hurt women “People need to discuss how much of this body imagery stuff is just a product sold to us by industry”. Learning to accept your body image is extremely hard for all teens. Just remember one thing “If you feel uncomfortable in public, you are almost definitely hotter than you think” (Flora). Don’t hate the way you look just because you aren’t as “beautiful” as society makes “beautiful seem like. However, Going on social media does not help boost your self-esteem either. “If you have taken good care of yourself you have a better life with the way you see yourself” (Flora). Parental love helps extremely when women are younger. That can cause you to have more confidence when teens are older “While parental love can bolster self-esteem for some, there’s no direct line between childhood experiences and adult self-image” (Flora). However, “Other cultures and time periods have valued different body types for different reasons” (Body Image). There is a thing called “the contrast effect” and what that is, is that you see yourself the opposite of what you think of people. For example, “You feel prettier around ugly people and uglier around prettier people” (Flora). As kids grow up they

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