Picture Perfect:
Social Media was first created in 1997 by a man named Andrew Weinreich. He first created his platform to help people connect with people they didn’t know yet. From that day on, social media has continuously excelled and continued to grow larger and larger. As people continued to post, more and more influencers were being picked out of the many people who create tik toks, post instagrams, or tweet updates. People who began to receive popularity were mostly famous people, but most were very skinny and model looking figures that took years of thought and dedication to do. The effect that body image and the way it’s presented on social media can be brutal to a young child in this generation and the generations past that this occurred in. There are so many factors that affect people’s outlooks on body images and hopefully throughout this paper that I am presenting to you. You can begin to understand the many factors that contribute to this issue.
When talking about social media, a large topic that seems to come up is the way it affects how a female feels when she looks at her device and sees a perfectly edited picture of some famous person. “These differences between conventional and social media have important implications for social media effects on body image concerns. Social media are filled with pictures of an individual, her online friends, and multitudes
of thin-idealized images that an adolescent girl or young woman may have located and pinned to a page. Social networking sites are available for viewing, content-creating, and editing 24/7, on mobile devices, anywhere, anytime, allowing for exponentially more opportunities for social comparison and dysfunctional surveillance of pictures of disliked body parts than were ever available with the conventional mass media.” (Perloff 4) Throughout this quote, it is emphasized that being able to access social media and view sites and certain influencers has never been easier. You can look up and view any social network that has been created to appear perfect on any device such as, phone, tablet, computer, and many other things. It has never been easier for someone to be doing something fun and freeing and then to get on their phone and loose their spark because they don’t look like lady gaga or have a Niki Minaji butt. It is important to understand and know your worth.
Throughout high school, it had been so easy to compare myself to the people around me and the people on the internet. I would watch people to see what they did so that I could try to copy their daily regimen to try to be healthy. Later I learned that having your own routine and really doing exactly what you want to do and it being healthy is the most fulfilling thing to create equilibrium and happiness within this one life that we are living. Being a young teenager and not being fully confident in yourself can be detrimental if the thoughts of not being perfect flood. Although young women are very susceptible to consistently comparing themselves to older or “perfect” looking people, not only are they being affected by this issue. Older women comparing themselves to
pictures of other women the same age looking younger or more toned, or characters in your life such as parents comparing themselves to big figures who have to look a certain way and train for 6 hours everyday, or some who just have a naturally younger look to them. People continue to compare themselves no matter where you look. Social media has made looking at yourself and being able to compare to others so easy. It has never been easier to open up your phone with your face, and press one button to open up an app that will show you people that either you followed or that are just popping up on your feed and ponder what they do differently.
Social media is one of the biggest causes of body issues among not only people in general, but people who constantly are looking for validation within social media as well. Although social media plays a big factor, there are many other properties that create media or promote certain alterations to oneself to “fit-in” better or to create similarities in perfection. In an article written by Jenifer Lewallen and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz, body image is discussed and great points are made to really just give me more knowledge that I can put forth to doing better for the world, as should others. “Social media have become increasingly popular mechanisms for communication. Past research suggests a link between using social media, upward social comparison, and negative affect. This online experiment of US women (N = 118) takes a media psychology approach to understanding how fitness images on the social networking website Pinterest contribute to social
comparison as well as intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Findings suggest that individuals who follow more fitness boards on Pinterest are more likely to report intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Additionally, endorsement of an ideal female body type was positively related to both social comparison and intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Findings are discussed in light of social comparison theory, and suggestions are made are made for future experimental work.” (Lewallen 1). Throughout this blurb of knowledge, it can be shown that people are wiling to be unwell just to be what social media deems as beautiful. That thought process is not what social media should reveal for people. If people were more inclusive, maybe then social media could be seen in a lighter sense, but at the moment it is still seen as one of the scariest platforms to 1, reveal yourself, and 2 compare yourself to. At the end of the day, people are people. People do everyday things and not every single minute of that is perfect. Not everyone looks great in every single frame of their life. Although a camera might begin to take a picture in less than a millisecond, it may appear that the person has perfect everything. Don’t compare yourself to something that truly isn’t comparable to.
In a book written about body image and self identity, Jasmine Fardouly writes about the In-person comparisons as well as the social media comparisons. “Appearance comparisons are an important sociocultural factor influencing women’s body image. These comparisons can occur in different contexts (e.g., through magazines, social media, in person). However, little is known about the frequency and outcome of appearance
comparisons made in different contexts in women’s everyday lives.” Although a very large amount of women are having this issue or body image issues caused by comparison within others, most do not know there mere frequency of this situation and how many women everywhere are in a headspace of judgment of themselves. Fardouly then introduces an assessment that was developed called the “Ecological Momentary Assessment”. In this experiment, certain women completed a survey and the reports of the information fed into a certain frequency or direction. “Using Ecological Momentary Assessment methods, female undergraduate students (n = 146) completed a brief online survey at random times every day for 5 days. They reported the frequency, direction (upward, lateral, downward), and context of appearance comparisons, and also reported their appearance satisfaction, mood, and diet and exercise thoughts and behaviors. Upward appearance comparisons were the most common across all contexts. Upward comparisons through social media were associated with more negative outcomes on all measures (except diet and exercise behavior) than comparisons made in person, and with more negative mood than comparisons in any other context. These findings highlight the importance of the appearance comparison context.” This method shows the true impact of the issue as well as creates awareness for the reader when understanding the issue at hand. Body image issues as well as dissatisfaction has led to be one of the most ongoing and consistent factors for eating disorders as well as exercise disorders which lead to bad health.
Unfortunately, this issue has been apparent for many years as well as generations even without social media. When I entered the 6th grade, a completely new school. I began to wonder why I wasn’t as skinny and why I didn’t have as many followers as the other girls did on instagram. Although I just recently purchased the app, it still affected the way that I viewed myself on and off social media. I began to do workouts at night and try to get a run in once a day. Nothing seemed to be working, I was still. Too big or too skinny or not pretty enough. Then Chloe Ting became a big icon for me. I would do her workouts every night and try her eating regimen to try to lose the weight I wanted as well as increase my strength. As that began to work I began to fit in a little more and began wearing clothes that would show my weight loss. As I kept going I began to realize. “Will doing this and not eating enough and doing workouts that I hate make me happy?” No. It won’t. There is no standard of what beauty has to look like. No one is ugly because they are bigger or smaller. Everyone is a piece of art which has been painted carefully and is magnificently beautiful in their own ways.
In a paper written by Rachel Cohen called “The case for body positivity on social media: Perspectives on current advances and future directions”, she explains more about the effects of social media and the things that have already been done to assist this issue within the forums of the web. “Over the last decade, the body-positive movement (or body positivity) has developed in reaction to the constant barrage of media images promoting unrealistic and unattainable appearance ideals. More recently, body positivity
has been popularized through the social media platform of Instagram, with over 11 million posts tagged with #bodypositive, four million for #bodypositivity and over one million for #bopo (Instagram, January 2020). In a recent content analysis of 640 Instagram posts sampled from popular body-positive accounts, the authors found that such posts typically include images of diverse body sizes and appearances that are otherwise underrepresented in mainstream accounts.” Although this issue is still apparent and people will continue to compare themselves, there are hashtags as well as people yearning to spread positivity and knowledge to people all over of the diversity within people and the beauty of it! Each body is different and beautiful and the people who are posting pictures and knocking social standards out of the ring are the people who are creating change and inspiring others to do the same.
In a similar way, there are many people who look at social media as a goal of what they would like to look like. Especially people who visit the gym often. Many people see workout figures on their feed and do things that affect their internal health such as steroids and tren and items that stunt hormonal growth and have a negative effect on natural body production. Not only do people harm themselves by trying to do a difficult workout that they have seen floating around, but some continue to torture their body giving it no time to heal or replenish the energy that the body needs to maintain homeostasis. Although this issue is not as obvious or thought of by many, the issue remains and social media continues to affect the way that people perceive themselves. In an article produced by The New York Times, it is explained that social media has been
completely detrimental and has affected the way that kids view themselves regularly. “Social media greatly affects my body image. There are beautiful people online, and with TikTok’s “that girl” or “small waist” trends, I wonder why I can’t have the same flat, toned stomach or the same tiny, hourglass waist despite all the exercising and healthy eating I do. Recently I have been feeling bad about my appearance, fully knowing that I have a healthy body and that I should be grateful to have a body that other girls want. This leads me to another question, about the line between fit and fanatical. I have seen weight loss videos that make no physical sense, and I know girls take unreasonable measures to achieve their goals. But even knowing that it can be unhealthy, I can’t help but ask myself if just a little overexercising or a little starvation could pay off.” This was written by Katie from Great Neck, New York. Another quote by Sarah Wheaton begins to speak about the same issues and how social media has made looking at her own body and loving it difficult. “Growing up with social media in this day and age is absolutely detrimental to one’s self esteem and view of their own body. There are hundreds of influencers that are praised for having the perfect body when chances are, it’s completely edited. Which gives off the impression that you can’t feel comfortable in your skin without using FaceTune. Beyond that, for those who are blind to the amount of editing being done, are put under the impression that if you aren’t “perfectly” skinny or your stomach isn’t toned and flat then you aren’t beautiful. I have struggled with body confidence and I find myself deleting Instagram whenever it gets too bad because I am subconsciously wishing I looked like the girls on my feed.” As people continue to speak
up about their experiences with social media and the way that it has affected them, the same comments begin to appear. People continue to not feel comfortable in their own skin because of the social standards that have been built up to create an “ideal” look for either a woman or a male.
Social Media posts are obviously a big problem and people will continue to compare themselves without even realizing, but that’s not the only issue. Another issue of this subject is the opinions of the known or unknown. People begin to comment on certain posts and not even think about the way that it might affect the person on the other side of the screen. Hate comments as well as just straight up rude comments can cause people to want to change themselves even more than when people are just scrolling through their phone saying “ I wish I looked like her”. Many reports of suicide have been recorded because of internet bulling and people comparing others to internet superstars who dedicate their whole lives to having the idea figure of the social time period. As many people have said, “ Social media makes you feel like less than you are.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement. As soon as I looked up from my phone, enjoyed my workouts, and began to post and wear what I want, there was a certain love I began to feel within myself and the diversity that I brought to the table.
Each Individual is beautifully magnificent in their own way. Social media standards need to continue to seize and the diversity of the world needs to be expressed. No person ever needs to change themselves because of what “perfect” looks like on the internet.
Beautiful is you. You are the perfect version of you.
