Negative Effects Of Social Media Essay

The influence of the media on all aspect of society has spread like wildfire especially in the United States. One specific influence by the media is body image, large number of young women and girls look up to people in the media and are influenced by the way they look. Now days you’re appraised on your attractiveness, the way you look, the way you dress, and especially how thin you are. The media’s representation of body image has contributed to the social trend of an unhealthy lifestyle. Women and young girls today are fixated on trying modify the way they look to achieve the perfect body image set by the standards of society. Female’s worry about the way they look starting at young ages from the unhealthy image of the Barbie doll to the

Just this last decade, technology has improved a great deal. Tasks that required intensive training and immense amounts of time twenty years ago can be completed today within seconds at your fingertips. Nowadays, technology is constantly being used everywhere you go and at any time. Before there was google or even the internet, it would take hours of research to find answers that are a simple click away. While technology advances have had a huge positive impact on the efficiency and productivity of today’s society and the generation of people that have come from it, it has also slowed us down and made us forget our priorities. As technology has evolved, so has the creation of social media. Although social media has made us capable of

The ideal body image that is seen by society is being tall, thin, muscular, and fit. It is commonly seen across various media platforms, making it more popular. The group of people that are targeted ranges from teenagers to adults who engaged in social networking websites (Fardouly and et, al.). The increase in media consumption has proven that it leads to body dissatisfaction among consumers. A statistic from Body Image shows, “Similarly, 90% of 16-24 year olds in the United Kingdom (Office for National Statistics, 2013), and 90% of 18-29 year olds in the United States (Pew Research, 2013a), use social networking websites” (Fardouly and et, al.). The amount of exposure to social media is relatively high in a particular age. These social networking websites have images that are constantly

Everywhere we look, we see images of what people are “supposed” to look like. Every form of social media, from the perfectly dressed models on the covers of magazines, to the millions of perfect candid shots posted on Instagram, is causing people everywhere to try to acquire an unrealistic and unhealthy body image. All types of media have shaped the ideal body image to the point where people are facing mental and physical disorders. Everyday, the different types of media show the general population the most popular style and sometimes even give tips on how to achieve it and when that look is not achieved, people are left feeling bad about themselves in one way or another. How people sees themselves is extremely important for their own wellbeing, and the idolized perfect bodies of the media are heavily impacting the body image people hold.

For the impressionable teenage female, body image has unfortunately become a complex and troubled concept in today’s society. Adolescent girls have been experiencing body image disturbances due to the self-evaluation of appearance conflicting with mental and physical health. Excessive amounts of exposure to social media has been proven to profoundly interfere with a female’s confidence—ultimately resulting in a multitude of body image dissatisfactions. When teenagers are exposed to magazines and social media networks that promote the ideal body, this, more often than not, leads to depression, lowered self-esteem, or even eating disorders. If the media were to include and beautify more of the so-called normal or average women, it is believed that females would no longer feel pressured to look a certain way in order to be deemed beautiful.

Today we live in a world where people, specifically the youth of society, are sharing their lives with an online audience. For most, receiving likes on photos, posts or comments can bring a sense of accomplishment and acceptance. Though some may think social media is beneficial, I believe it has a negative effect on our perceptions of body image. Now with the easy access to the internet, checking Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat has become a part of our daily routine. As a result, you are left with negative side effects that impact your life and how you perceive yourself. The constant viewing of ideal images of human perfection creates unrealistic goals and desires that lead to comparisons, making you feel dissatisfied with your appearance.

Peter Drucker, who is best known for being the Father of Modern Management as well as the writer of numerous books and articles about innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with the world once said, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” (Drucker). Social Media has an enormous effect on the world today. Everyday people are posting their thoughts about other people without thinking it may affect other people. Despite having most of the popular social media sites used today, These sites have a negative impact on society. People all over the world are using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Social Media sites to connect with friends. Although these sites provide us with easier ways of connecting with the world, they also have a negative impact on how people view themselves. Social media is used all over the world today, but while it may seem like a fun way to connect with our friends and the world around us, it is harming society as negativity is posted all over the internet.

Social media has created and encouraged sociocultural standards of feminine beauty by portraying women in what social media calls the “ideal body type.” The concepts of an ideal body type are unrealistic and unattainable. Most models and actresses that are portrayed in magazines, and on television look to be below a healthy weight. Social media creates a mindset that says, a person can never be “too thin.” This just makes it difficult for any women to feel satisfied with their body. Most of the public who buy magazines and see a fashion show on T.V, are not aware of what the mass media is actually doing. They don’t realize the major negative effects of constantly seeing photoshopped actresses and size 0 models, and labeling these type of women beautiful, while shaming other women who don't fit the mass media’s qualification for “beauty”. The public is not paying enough attention to this problem, which is why it is Be-YOU-tiful’s goal to bring awareness to the public on why having an ideal body type is bad and hurting females

Social media has changed over the last thirty years and its affected us in many ways. Social media, along with any other internet source, is used for lots of different things and it has impacted our lives drastically. Social media is harmful for us because it changes who we are, influences us negatively, and may cause mental pain and to some extent physical pain too.

Over the years social media has become a toxic mirror. Damage is being done to teen’s body image as movies, magazines, and television by enforcing the ‘ideal thin’. One article stated that, “80% of women say the images of women in the media makes them feel insecure.” So why are women so worry about other women’s body instead of trying to work to obtain the ‘perfect’ body image? As the years pass by, this image of the ideal body has becoming a more desirable to most women. It’s gotten to the point where 81% of 10 year old girls are too scared to become fat. So does social media impact on body image?

Having social media in our upcoming generation has become one of the most popular sources of communication. Young teenagers growing up in today’s generation with social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have provided pictures and videos that have become the first thing people look at in the morning, and the last thing they see before bed. 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. The dissatisfaction can results in resorts to drastic measures, and even disorders of behavior, as people try to achieve these unreachable goals.

Technology has become one with the human race. To the moment we wake, our first instinct is to check our digital devices so we may catch up on what we missed. Technology/ social media have become the world’s greatest influence, will prove to be our undoing. Social media causes isolation, leading to the lack of interpersonal communication; and in the long run it will affect their health.

Researchers have shown an increase in body or self-dissatisfaction and the linkage with social media (add names). Social networking sites promote specific body ideals for men and women, thus creating the latest trend, which women will follow. A study showed how young women will “blindly follow a trend if it can provide them with the qualities they desire, such as attractiveness and popularity, while disregarding the consequences to their health” (Verma and Avgoulos 2004). The wide audience social media reaches have begun to negatively effect girls as young as 7 years of age by making them think their bodies are not normal (Grabe, Ward, and Hyde 2008). Grabe, Ward, and Hyde say the extreme cases of these young women have been linked to critical physical and mental problems, including different eating disorders, low self esteem, depression and obesity (2008).

Social media is used daily and we spend too much time on it. Truong (2017), a Health News Writer for Refinery29 has said, Teen females that spend just 30 minutes or more on social media daily have a negative view about their body image. The photos posted on social media are unrealistic and make females feel bad about themselves. Social media like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter puts a lot of pressure on young females to look perfect and if they do not then they are not attractive. Some female teens will start a diet and even develop an eating disorder to look like the females in the media. Females teens spend too much time on social media causing them to have a negative view about their body image and we need to help them have a positive view about their bodies.

We using the social media every part of our life. According to (6 ways social media is changing the world) around the world, billions of use social media every day, and that number just keeps growing. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2018, 2.44 billion people will be using social networks, up from 970,000 in 2011(7thApril, 2016). They are many benefits of social media such as communication and humans. However, there are also major problem like privacy, waste money and impact on business.