Adolescents Ruining their Self-Image with Social Media

Adolescent self-image around the world keeps deteriorating because of social media. Over time with the growing influence social media has been having on adolescents today and even the younger generation who have been growing up with phones, it has been seen that those kids have a huge struggle with hating their bodies. With this continuing and the younger generation being born with phones, society will start depending on the false reality of what they are meant to look like; as well as increasing mental health disorders.

The adolescent stage of a person’s life is the most vulnerable. With social media now being a part of the everyday world and society it has made it easier for adolescents to gain body image issues. One of the problems with this is the amount being consumed. The article, Reducing Social Media Use Significantly Improves Body Image in Teens, Young Adults stated, “Youth are spending, on average, between six to eight hours per day on screens, much of it on social media.” Constant scrolling for hours leads people to see those whom they follow, “celebrities and fashion or fitness models, which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone.” Not only are adolescents getting pounded on a day-to-day basis with seeing these people on their social media and wanting to look like them, but it is also feeding into delusions, deteriorating the mental health of the adolescents. This is what leads to mental health issues and eating disorders.

Social media first has to affect the brain to start affecting the teenager’s body image, which is why mental health and body image have a strong correlation. The article, Influence of Social Media on Teenagers’ Body Image, talks about how social media has “the added pressure…on influencing body image for adolescents heightened by the content.” The pressure comes from the “influencers” teenagers watch and see the way they look and live and want the lifestyle. Body image dissatisfaction can range from extreme thinness, large breasts, V shapes, 6 packs, toned arms, and so much more. Teenagers are basically prayed upon by social media because they continue to scroll with the desire of wanting to look like their idol still being present. Often times with unrealistic bodies that are nowhere near healthy but because it looks “good” it becomes a desire.

Growing up in a day and age where social media is accessible to anyone no matter the age is already going to take a big toll on people’s appearance. An article published by Psych Central, How Does Social Media Affect Body Image, states another big issue comparison and competition, when in reality it is all fake. The article states, “Many people tend to post only their best photos, which may not be representative of their everyday appearance.” Which is true a majority of the time. Photoshop, filter, posing, and lighting all play a huge role in how a picture will look and make your body look. This leads people to start believing in unrealistic beauty standards, without realizing the pictures are not even natural. A huge example of this is content creator Danielle who shared her pictures of expectations v reality, where she compared a photo that was edited on Instagram and the real photo posted next. With this she got extreme praise because it was embracing, but at what cost because it is still the first I’m age that everyone wants to look like.

There are “positives” that come with social media and body image as well. Recently there has been seen a lot of health and fitness inspiration. Psychcentral states, “Social media can provide inspiration for leading a healthy and active lifestyle.” Having community, support, and body positivity groups. community and support are groups for “people working through body image disorders.” A great way to find others who are like you in the sense of not loving the body you have and learning to love yourself. Body positivity groups lead to more self-love and acceptance as well. With the groups, there was a study done in 0221 where 233 females participated and found that “Participants who observed positive social media either with or without caption experienced improvements in body satisfaction.” This itself can all be seen as a positive because of the sound of it, but it comes with negatives. Health and fitness inspiration could lead to people with leaner builds being dissatisfied with their bodies because they do not eat or look like those who are more physically active. With community and support it can be a positive for the people to meet others like them, but also a negative because people tend to feed off of one another. If one person shares their disorder another person does and there is a bonding experience with the disorder. Nothing in reality is being done there is just more of an understanding and acceptance of how there is no self-love to potentially lead to self-love. Body-positive groups sound great until the wrong person gets access to the post and becomes greatly critical of their body.

Adolescents should not be spending six to eight hours of their day mindlessly scrolling; just to end up in a worse position from where they started. Posts deceive everyone, not everything seen on social media is real. everyone posts the best pictures of themselves because it is the best version. Social media is deteriorating teenagers’ minds by crushing their body image slowly. Even though there are some things seen as positive it all depends on perception. However, we want to see something that will be seen from our point of view. Looking at mental health and the usage of social media it can be seen that social media does not have a positive outlook.

References

Goldfield, Gary. (2023). Reducing social media use significantly improves body image in teens, young adults. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2023/02/social-media-body-image

Nierengarten, M. B., M.A. (2017). Influence of social media on teenagers’ body image. Contemporary Pediatrics, 34(10), 21-22. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rowan.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Finfluence-social-media-on-teenagers-body-image%2Fdocview%2F2017969955%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D13605

Pedersen, T. (2023). Social media and body image: What’s the link? Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/health/how-the-media-affects-body-image#postive-effects

Hudspith, J. (2022, September 13). Fitness influencer hailed for body positive “Instagram vs reality” post. Daily Star. https://www.dailystar.co.uk/diet-fitness/fitness-influencer-hailed-body-positive-27980279