Adolescent Body Image
Historically, adolescent liked their bodies and appreciated the many things it could do. However, on the way to adulthood, doubts and insecurities may have crept in. Instead of admiring the many capabilities their body could do, they began to castigate its looks. In an atmosphere where many adolescents are exposed to different thin-ideal online ads, magazines, and in general social media, one can understand the struggle that many adolescents undergo. After conducting much research the issue that will be addressed in this research paper is the impact of media on body image and weight during adolescent years.
Purpose: In the article “Net Girls: The Internet, Facebook, and Body Image Concern in Adolescent Girls”
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Body scrutiny was tested by The Objectified Body Consciousness Scale-Youth. Lastly, ambition for thinness was tested by the Eating Disorder Inventory (Tiggerman & Slater, 2013). Results/ Conclusion:
The results of this study were concise and clear. This study showed a positive correlation between internet exposure and body image concerns among adolescent girls. A staggering 95.9% of adolescents had access to the internet in their home and 43.4% had internet connections in their rooms. The average time spent on the internet was 2 hours per day. The majority of the activities done on the internet was related to thin beauty ideals. Moreover, Facebook, which is a well know social networking site, produced negative body image concerns among adolescents. An overwhelming majority of 75.1% of adolescent girls spent an hour and a half on Facebook. On the other hand, MySpace only had 46.3% with an average time spent of 34.4 minutes a day.
Table 1 attested that total time spent on Facebook and MySpace correlated with body image concerns. Furthermore, Table 2 indicates that body image concerns for the Facebook user were much greater in comparison to the non-users. Overall results showed that more time spent on the Internet and specific social networking sites such as, Facebook
In the article “The Internet and Adolescent Girls’ Weight Satisfaction and Drive for Thinness,” authors Marika Tiggemann and Jessica Miller conducted a study to determine if there is a correlation between various forms of media such as, magazine, television, the internet and a desire for a smaller body weight size, specifically in regards to teenage girls. The authors hypothesize that, “Internet appearance exposure will be correlated with lower weight satisfaction and greater drive for thinness.” The experiment asked the girls to rate how often they read specific magazines, watched specific television shows and browsed specific websites on the internet. They were then given a questionnaire to measure their internalization, appearance comparison,
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.
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
Body image dissatisfaction in adolescent’s has increased significantly over the past few years. More adolescent’s have an ideal image carved in their mind that they need to be a size 0 or be thin in order to fit into society. According to Thopmson and Stice (2001), “People who endorse stereotypes of appearance presented in the media internalize them as standards of appropriate or ideal looks. Internalization can be described as the extent to which an individual cognitively buys into societal norms of size and appearance, to the point of modifying one's behavior in an attempt to approximate these standards''. This also relates to the article by Thompson and Stice (2001), "Indeed, the endorsement of media messages of attractiveness is related to the acceptance of beauty ideals and to the
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.
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
In the article “Net Girls: The Internet, Facebook, and Body Image Concern in Adolescent Girls” Marika Tiggemann, Ph.D. and Amy Slater, Ph.D. (Clin Psych) questioned whether there is a connection between internet use and adolescent body image concern. These researchers also focused their study on one specific social networking site, Facebook.
As girls begin to hit puberty, their bodies start to change. Their bodies will gain fat and move away from this ideal thin body image (Kerr 2010). In a study done by Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar they showed three groups of adolescent girls magazine images. Two groups viewed magazine covers with female models who were somewhere between underweight or a little below average weight, while the third group viewed magazine covers with inanimate objects. The researchers found that the first two groups resulted in a less likely report of body satisfaction and self-esteem than the third group (2005). This demonstrates that when adolescent girls are exposed to the media’s thinness they feel like their size and shape is not good enough.
Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).
through visits to the participating schools. Subjects were given a parental consent form to take home, and were asked to sign an assent form in order to take a survey, and were given 2 class periods to complete it. The survey measured the frequency of social media use on certain applications (Instagram, Facebook, and other networks such as Twitter and Tumblr), self-objectification behaviors, body surveillance and body shame. Overall, the results indicated that the effect of body surveillance on body shame was stronger for girls than boys.
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
Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing
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
They continuously portray a message to adolescent girls to look a certain way. It has become the culture in society to judge people by their outward appearance which makes teenage girls more obsessive about their own bodies (Kruger, 2007). Weight loss is usually linked to a happier and successful life and society’s obsession with diets and exercise contribute enormously to body image issues (Marsh, 2015). Teenage girls are being continuously exposed to media such as TV, internet and magazines where they are barraged with unrealistic and unobtainable body image standards from high profile celebrities and models. Most of the celebrities and models in media are clinically underweight and study shows that they generally weigh 23% less than the average woman (Just Say YES, 2015). The images used in media which teenage girls constantly aspire to be like are usually air-brushed and photo shopped (Kids Helpline, 2015). Due to all this pressure teenage girls choose unhealthy ways to fit the unrealistic body image and as a result develop eating disorders and other health issues (Gross,
Today’s technology creates platforms that make accessing media, images, social groups and more, tremendously easy. While the efficiency that come with technology has many benefits, many psychologists are concerned about the impact it could have on adolescent and young adult’s body image and self-perception. There are immense amounts of studies on the impacts of the traditional media, television and magazines, however, the social media platform has vastly grown and research is limited to a few specific social media platforms. The traditional media enforces unrealistic body standards, that women feel obligated to follow, to fit in with society (Brown, Tiggemann, 2016). While it is known that traditional media has impacts on body image, there has not been as much research toward celebrity, peers and other effects on women from social media usage.