The danger of social media and its impact on body image

     The internet is a beautiful invention. We have access to all the information we want, we never get lost thanks to online maps, and we can communicate with someone on the other side of the world. However just like with most things, there are some cons. With social media use at its peak, it is a passionate debate whether it is causing more harm than good. One of the strongest arguments against social media, Instagram in particular, is the mental toll it takes on young teens. Instagram has become an app full of fake pictures and lives, that do not represent people’s reality. The biggest concern is that it causes is poor body image in young girls.       It is a double-edged sword because a girl can post a picture to feel better about herself, but at the same time she opens her feed and starts comparing herself to other girls. It can create an infinite loop. According to the King University, “87% of women and 65% of men compare their bodies to images t...

The number one instagram page I would recommend is @saggysara on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/saggysara/ Her message is beautiful. She posts pictures of herself when she's posing/not posing, using a filter/not using a filter, she posts about trends and how the natural human body looks like. Under her pictures she writes lengthy captions about her experience and why we should not think the way we think nowadays. I have the utmost respect for her and how brave she is and her whole message. I have been following her for a while now and it always makes me smile. Here are just a few examples: The other two resources are websites. https://www.adiosbarbie.com/#results Adios, Barbie is about body image issues among people of all genders, races, body types,  ages,  sexual orientations, etc. They encourage people to think critically about their media consumption and shift from being consumers to active participants in the media culture (media literacy tab at the top). There...

Social Media Use and Body Image Disorders: Association between Frequency of Comparing One’s Own Physical Appearance to That of People Being Followed on Social Media and Body Dissatisfaction and Drive for Thinness Reading the title already gives you a good idea of what this study is about. This article by PubMed Central is a very good in depth study about social media use and body dissatisfaction. In the discussing the main results part they say "Our survey aimed to study the links between social media use, body image disorders, and ED prevalence in a teenage and young adult population" (Jiotsa et al, 2021). There were a lot of factors included, such as the person's level of education or their BMI, but for the purpose of this blog, these are the simple results: "First, we found that ED or at-risk of ED subjects presented significantly different results concerning all social media use parameters. Using platforms such as Facebook and Instagram has been particularly asso...

An article by the King University written in 2019 talked about how social media affects body image, both negatively and positively. The positive was "health and wellness, fitness, and plant-based food accounts can all be inspirational models for some users. Through these frameworks, social media users can maintain a healthy and positive outlook on their body image" ("Link between", 2019). That can definitely be true, and I do encourage all my viewers to check out those kind of pages. However, this blog focuses more on other types of instagram pages, where a certain standard is pushed. That leads us to the negatives. A study conducted by the Florida House Experience, which is a healthcare institution, found that "87% of women and 65% of men compare their bodies to images they consume on social and traditional media. In that comparison, a stunning 50% of women and 37% of men compare their bodies unfavorably" ("Link between", 2019). They also mentio...

In April 2022, singer Camila Cabello was photographed at the beach by the paparazzi. She has opened about her body image struggles and took to Instagram to share a few thoughts. She said whenever she is on that beach, the paps manage to find her and take pictures. She then sees the pictures online and the comments under them and it makes her upset.  “I reminded myself when it impacted my self-esteem, that I was thinking the culture's thoughts and not my own. A culture who has gotten so used to an image of what a ‘healthy’ woman's body looks like that is completely not real for a lot of women” (Tannenbaum, 2022). Social media had heavily impacted this culture and she makes it clear when she continues, “Photoshop, restrictive eating, over-exercising, and choosing angles that make our bodies look different than how they are in the moment and in their natural form, when we take a deep breath, when we eat a meal, when we allow the waves to tussles around. I remind myself of this, li...

This happened in April of 2021, however it fits the theme of this blog too well to not put it in. It got a lot of media attention when an unedited bikini picture of Khloe Kardashian was posted by a member of her team, but it wasn't approved by her. She immediately wanted it down and threatened to sue anyone that keeps in on the internet. Many people that were reposting it were calling Khloe beautiful and human, I personally saw the picture before it got taken down forever and I agree. But because the Kardashians are known for their extensive plastic surgery and editing, Khloe just did not feel comfortable showing the real her from an angle that she didn't choose. She then took to Instagram to post this: A few more posts in between and the last one was: As Khloe made it clear, she herself still struggles with body image, even though the Kardashian sister are considered to be THE standard with their looks and surgery. She prefers to take pictures herself where she can control the...

This blog will be about how most of what we see on social media (instagram in particular) is fake, specifically regarding women and their bodies. Our generation has created a standard of beauty and if you don't fit into it, you're out. However, this standard is veryyy hard to achieve naturally. It's only a matter of genetics, money, and good editing skills. I feel deeply for the young teenagers that start using social media and see all this nonsense. It has long lasting effects on our mental or even physical health. This is a topic I am very passionate about because I used to be that girl. I used to be the girl that would open instagram and have a breakdown because I didn't look like all the other girls. I would compare myself to others on a daily bases, which wasn't fair at all because most of them paid for that body or they used an editing app. Now that I know all that, I am more at peace with myself and I'm grateful for what I have. Sometimes I even feel bad ...