What Is Relational Aggression Affect Girls?

Social media is categorized under corporate media in which websites are used to advertise new trends through social networking sites that have many insecure teenagers. By looking at these images of other people, women often compare themselves to them. Girls love to look at pictures on Instagram, Tumblr and even Facebook of their friends and often compare themselves with them. Social media does not always impact one to change their self-image alone, however, the need to belong relates to the people whom women hang out with because those are the people who they feel accept them for who they are. Friends and social groups of these women look into social media for the ‘ideal woman’ they want to be and of course these women do not want to be the odd one out so they change themselves to be like their friends. To feel accepted, you compare your body image, looks, likes, hobbies, eating habits and so on to those that your friends feel are at the “moment trend.” Friends who constantly know what is in or

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.

Some people always look in the mirror and think they look bad or ugly. They may do this because they spend hours and hours on end looking at pictures that are very much fake and photoshopped. Many people may compare themselves to other celebrities and people. Social media is the main cause of this. “There are no positives to comparing yourself with others. Comparing yourself with others will lead to either an inferiority complex or a superiority complex. Both of which will have a negative effect on your self improvement in the long run” (Selvam). When young girls are spending the majority of their day on social media and they are looking at these pictures they do not know any better and are of course going to compare themselves to others. The young women might not even be looking at real pictures of people instead photoshopped and “unrealistic” bodies. Us teens believe it or not, can sometimes be like monkeys. We would much rather have something sweet than a boring vegetable. That something sweet could be having a hot or sexy body. Rather than a have a boring and ugly body like the boring vegetable. We really are beautiful on the inside and outside and we most definitely do not need to edit our bodies to the "ideal" image for the public and the rest of the

That is all perfect in the social media world but, it is not real. And teenagers think they need to live up to the influencers and when they can’t it makes anyone feel worthless and hopeless. Images are powerful tools and if used in the wrong way they can have devastating consequences. Whilst seeing all these pictures people compare themselves to these other people and can get themselves down and may even result in worse. Instagram easily makes women feel like their body image is not good enough as people use filters and edit their photos to portray as someone they are

In recent years, social media has flown to increasing popularity. People spend hours scrolling their Instagram feed “touching up” their pictures to put forth their best looks, updating their Snapchat stories and sending messages with funny faces to friends, trying to stay connected to the world. Social media stars have found a new array of followers and idolizers. All over the world, people inspire to be like that one person with 3,000 followers or 8 million comparing their dazzling looks to their own dull appearance. Although media can help connect the world, it also forces people to compare themselves to others; Social media is a toxic playing field for young women because these comparisons bring low self-esteem and a rise in mental illness.

These studies highlighted the need for more data about appearance-related cyberbullying because they showed that there was prevalence of the issue. Another study that Berne, Frisén, and Kling (2014) discussed, found that girls are cyberbullied more often than boys about appearance. This information helps the authors to show how girls are often the targets of this issue, providing another area to explore. In addition, they discuss one study that found victims of cyberbullying tend to have lower self-esteem and two other studies that found girls exposed to the internet and social networking sites have lower self-esteem (Berne, Frisén, & Kling, 2014). The authors used these studies to create a story that showed there was an issue that can have negative effects, but there was little information about

There are countless sources that show research on how girls’ body image is destroyed over time on social media. By middle school, 40-70 percent of students do not like how two or more of their body parts look (NYC). Over 70 percent of students out of highschool admit that they feel worse about their bodies after looking at their social media (Klein). It has also been found the body image hits “rock

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

Children Relational Aggression: 
The Effect of Children Aggressive on Peers Interaction
and the Gender Differences in the expression of aggression

We see the objectification of women everywhere, especially because of the internet. Therefore, it has become a social norm. The internet has immensely influenced the way in which things are shared. The internet is accessible across the world and teenagers spend tremendous amounts of time online. So many people online photoshop their face and body to appear more “beautiful” and get more likes. Our generation has become obsessed with being accepted online by strangers. It’s unfortunate that society does not use social media to make a difference in the world and promote

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.

Relational aggression (RA) is defined as nonphysical behaviors that aim to deliberately cause harm to another individual by destroying relationships, harming social status or self-esteem, or public embarrassment (Crick, Werner, Casas, O’Brien, Nelson, Grotpeter, & Markon, 1999). Examples include behaviors such as purposely ignoring a peer, spreading rumors, creating undesirable gossip, and excluding a peer from group activities, (Crick, 1996; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Crick, Ostrov, & Werner, 2006). RA can occur as early as preschool years, and plays a huge role in the interactions among this population with behaviors such as covering one’s ears as a sign of ignoring another peer (Bonica, Arnold, Fisher, Zeljo, & Yershova, 2003; Crick et al.,

Relational aggression can’t be full responsibility of the schools it’s also important for the parents to know that being a good role model often affect a lot of the teen girl’s actions, for example if a parent usually gossips about another parent the teen girl may think that her parent’s actions are okay and that child will do as seen. A parent in a teenager’s life plays a big role because I believe that as a parent, you need to teach your child to be a leader not a follower, and that is very important in relational aggression due to the child having to stand against it instead of joining or being a bystander.

In this literature review, I investigate existing scholarly writing in the areas of Instagram, Social comparison theory through the media, and low self-esteem due to body images on social media. Scholarship in each of these areas provides the groundwork necessary for me to conduct my own research in which I ask the question, “What are the social comparisons of Instagram and low self-esteem of body image pertaining to young girls?”

The nature of girls’ relationships involves intimate conversations between friends and, as a result, girls are more invested in their social status and friendships compared to boys (Berndt, 1982). Their choice to use relational aggression to impose social norms more often than physical aggression can be credited to the desire for adolescents to “damage what the same-gender peer group most values” (Paquette & Underwood, 1999, p. 244). Girls view relational aggression as wounding because it harms the intimate relationships they value. Because of the high levels of intimacy in their relationships, relational aggression enables them to gain control over their friends (Grotpeter & Crick, 1996). As a reaction, individuals who have been victims of relational aggression reported experiencing feelings of unhappiness as well as lowered self-perceptions of athletic capability, physical appearance, romantic appeal, close friendships, and general self-worth.