Do Social Interactions And The Environment Have A Direct Impact On People's Self-Image?

Social media has a big influence on this generation when it comes to “body image.” Many women, or “models,” will post pictures of themselves showing off their body with thousands of likes and many comments saying “body goals” or “I wish I looked like that.” This

Body image and beauty standards have changed drastically over the years. By establishing impossible standards of beauty and bodily perfection, the media drives people tobe dissatisfied with their bodies. This dissatisfaction can result in disorders of behavior as people try to achieve unreachable goals with unhealthy

Magazines have been constantly blamed for portraying an unrealistic expectation of what a women’s body should look like. Now with technology and the creation of Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube many people are finding it difficult to have a healthy mentality of themselves. Social media can affect the relationship a person has with themselves compared to others. Examples of this are the creation of unrealistic body image expectations, setting a high bar on goals and a portrayal of extravagant unrealistic lifestyles.

Body image dissatisfaction has always been prevalent, however, with social media now, the chances of insecurities are even higher. The media only compounds the problem, bombarding society with what they define as acceptable and beautiful. When females go out looking for acceptance, they will always fail because it’s impossible to please everyone. “All of this could feel overwhelming, and it would certainly be a lot easier if we really could purchase social acceptance and a positive

Throughout history, body image has been determined by various factors, one of them being the media. In the article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror,” written by Rachel Simmons, she shares the story of a woman who admits to being afraid of leaving her apartment without putting on makeup. “I don’t get to choose how I’m going to leave my apartment today,” one young woman told me, “If I could, my body would look different. But I cant choose which picture makes my arms look thinner” (Simmons). One word: Fear. The woman fears the opinion of others. She second guesses herself before she steps foot outside her apartment building. It displays the lack of confidence she has towards herself as an individual and the control the media has over her. The author goes on to discuss how teenagers look up to social media by obsessing over how many likes

Body dysmorphic disorder is a distinct mental illness, which causes an individual to become obsessive on focusing on their flaws in appearance, and to others the flaw may be minor or not visible. It is also known as dysmorphophobia. Patients affected by BDD have deeply negative thoughts about their appearance. In the limbic system, hyperactivity causes individuals to feel as if they are constantly being critiqued and negatively judged by others. Individuals diagnosed with the illness often look into surgery for their physical appearance to enhance. There are more than 200,000 cases a year involving body dysmorphic disorder, and about 1 in 50 people are affected (Phillips, 2004). Constantly comparing their image to others, frequent looks in

Body dysmorphic disorder is a psychological disorder in which a person thinks about their flaws and imperfections for hours a day and take extreme measures in order to “perfect their body” so it can finally appeal to them and be the way it is “suppose to be.” Those who suffer from this disorder cannot control there negative thoughts and it can prevent them from doing everyday activities such as attend school and attend work. They are more prone to miss social events than go out to show off their results and are insecure about how they tried to fix there “imperfections.” And are never satisfied with their results as they undergo more drastic measures to reach their end goal such as plastic surgery, continuous self-tanning, hours of laser surgeries

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

To begin, body image is affected by social media. When men and women see ads and magazines with people with perfect bodies that are impossible to get, it lowers self esteem about their body image. In addition, these images are mostly photoshopped also. Patrick Kelleher, from the article “No body is perfect: is it possible to be happy with our bodies when we are constantly being bombarded with images of perfection?” explains “The images we see get stuck in our head, it makes everyone think they need to look like that.” (Kelleher). The text says that social media makes it impossible to feel good about are bodies. In fact, the images we see are photoshopped, but no one knows that. Women and men get distracted from these pictures and makes them obsessed with trying to look like that. This can also lead to eating disorders and anxiety. People get affected by social media when images get stuck in our heads. What social media doesn't show is imperfect bodies. In

Body image has recently became very popular in pop culture. Pictures are often posted praising people who meet society’s standards and are not only “normal” but extraordinarily “beautiful.” Contrarily, people are also shamed and ridiculed for not being “normal” or “beautiful.” Ironically enough, as much as social media does to aid the negative connotation that body image has it also serves as a platform to advocate for body positivity. Messages like “love your curves” and “beauty is on the inside” are commonly spread by body image enthusiast. People have an inherent desire to want to be seen as “beautiful” and “normal” because society often pairs those features with success. When these standards are not met it leads to body negativity which can lead to self-harm, verbal abuse, and many other issues. Society is, in short, obsessed with the human body: what it looks like and what that

One primary reason that must be addressed when discussing the topic of body positivity on social media is the psychological effects it can have on a person. As a whole, society loves to compare themselves to other people. While, social media is notorious for posting unrealistic photos of all body shapes, it can make someone feel dissatisfied with their body. On social media there are three main body movements “thinspriration”, “fitspiration”, and “thickspirtation” women and men a classified under based off their body types. Classified under “fitspiration” are generally men. With only having three main categories, it can be difficult for someone to feel confident in their body, when they do not fit under any of the categories. Another challenge is, whether or not they look like the men and women featured in the categories. Author Whitney Polk

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

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

Social Media has a massive impact on a person’s self-presentation because of the different trends where everyone wants to fit in with society’s expectations of what we should look like. Celebrities are made to be our role models, however, magazines photoshop and make them more toned and a lot slimmer, which makes young people want to make their bodies more like theirs. This then leads to the modern generation becoming self-conscious because they feel they have to fit in and achieve an ideal self that fits in with those around them.

For example, Instagram is a social network where you can post pictures and videos of whatever you want for whoever you want to see. “A survey of 600 Instagram images indicates the vast majority of pictures showed only one body type: thin and toned (Tiggemann & Zaccardo 2016)(Clark).” It is very easy to get caught up scrolling through countless pictures and videos for hours of people with perfect hair, skin, and perfectly toned bodies. The popular hashtag Fitspiration has been floating around Instagram for years. It shows self-proclaimed fitness gurus and body builders with their nice physique that they have spent years working for. But, in reality those pictures and videos are not realistic because users will only post the pictures and videos that makes them look the best. They choose the angles and filters that deceive the people who look at it. While some user even have apps that can photoshop and enhance the picture they want to post. Many of the people who view these posts do not take these things into consideration which leads to them having a lower self-esteem of themselves and unrealistic expectations because they do not look like the people they see on social media(Clark).