Essay Example on Young Girls and Media: Adverse Effects on Self-Image

The media has many adverse effects on young girls these days. Via many scenes of mass media, girls are blasted with visual pictures of super shrill models with perfect appearances. Many sites of social media, for example, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have become a big part in the lives of many teenagers, and they come with implications which. According to an article that was released by CNN recently, it stated that people are now more exposed to any pictures of beauty which is unattainable (Perloff,2014). They also thanked the social media because we see those images every day, not like the old days when there were no social media networks, we used to see them on billboards, magazines, and televisions. Not only is being exposed to these images is destructive but also the pressure of trying to have the best profile pictures, the contrasts we try to make, and even the dangers of the relentless analysis of the bodies of other people and also ours.

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In the early 40s and 50s, the images depicted women as being fertile and feminine with prominence on their hips and breasts. As the redefined beauty arose, the successive expedition of women to achieve the new model, capitalists and publicists started to see the conscious beauty of women as new customers market (Sandoiu, 2019). This made the Rich Quick conspirators begin marketing the product of making a person get thin because they were targeting female customers who wanted to be super slim so that they would become models. Regardless of the failure of the average woman to adopt the normative, the media did not stop to announce the ideal through visual publicity. The media publications of becoming slim are the ones that are causing negative impacts on young women because most of them want to remain slim so that they can look attractive

According to Rachel Simons, she said that the televisions, magazines and the movies have been destroying the body image of the teenagers by imposing a "thin model." She noted that most body confidence of young women is being affected by the effects of social networks (Simons, 2019). The effect of social networks has become so common such that the parents are also using digital parenting to coach their children because most of the kids these days own a smartphone. At the begging of the year, Psychologists initiated hearty cross-cultural indication that is connecting the media use of body surveillance, body image apprehensions, self-objection and dieting in teenagers. Simons tried to explain by saying that social media is not the cause of the problem but there a mutual connection between them.

According to Bindal, Lee, Parkin and Leland, they said that the platforms of social media have become entrenched in the lives of uncountable people (Makwana, Lee, and Parkin, 2019). The social media platforms have the paraphernalia that permits teenagers to earn sanction of their body shape and also contrast themselves with other people. The most affected individuals and the vulnerable ones are young women because they are the ones that primarily use social media. According to a research that was conducted by Parkin she said that "Social media is not a real life" and people use these platforms to counterfeit their self-promotion(Makwana, Lee, and Parkin, 2019).

A study that was conducted by Rachel Simons, she said that most the female students who compare themselves with others on Facebook relate their looks and their self-worth (Simons, 2019). In a study that was conducted by Dennis Thompson, he said that if women continue to spend extra time on social networks, are expected to be less happy with their body appearances (Thompson, 2019). The young girls always think that slim people are attractive ones and they are more self-conscious about how they look. These women are obsessed with good looks, and they always go to the gym so that they can enhance their body appearances. According to Thompson, he said that if you spend so much time on social media sites posting pictures and comparing yourself with other people, you are likely to have a poor relationship with the image of your body and hypothetically exercise.

Rachel during her research, she said that what the teens share on social media is dwarfed by what they eat (Simons, R. (2019). Many teenagers spend much time preoccupying the celebrities' toned glutes and arms, who hawk their talents the same as they do with their bodies. According to a research that was conducted by Pew Research center in 2015, they stated that 71 % of teenagers who use Facebook are aged 13 to 17 years, 41 % of them use snapchat, and Instagram is used by 52 % (Simons, R. (2019). Many young women and teenage girls are experiencing dissatisfaction with their bodies and the eating ailments because they are always trying to be like the model celebrities with slim bodies which they see on television shows and also the fashion magazines. According to Wagner, he said that social media had brought a lot of change in habits and behaviors to may benefit especially those who had never had a life experience that had no modern technology (Wagner, Aguirre, and Sumner, 2019).

According to a research that was conducted by Bennet, it stated that the people who mainly use social media mostly pose for photographs so that they can post them and view them as they compare themselves with other people (Bennett, 2019). This makes an individual to be dissatisfied with her own body if she is thick and she can see other slim models on social media. Considering the statics that has been stated by many researchers, they said that social media has direct impacts on the body of females because they want to maintain a shape which they think they will look perfect than bodies of other women. When a young girl becomes dissatisfied about her body ideal, her self-esteem lowers, and she starts commenting negatively on other people's pictures. Instagram is being associated with the upsurge of a new social marvel that is called selfies. Since 2013, the selfie spectacle has achieved a big deal, of civic attention by the users of Instagram. These selfies remain untested with the community scholarly, and this void has enabled the users of Instagram to exhibit their body ideals in a centric manner.

When research was being conducted, the investigators asked women three measures that are connected to the body ideal: how have they espoused the social opinions of the perfect body, so they get worried that others will see their body and what encourages them to exercise so that they can improve their bodies (Sandoiu, 2019). Although the studies do not prove if social image causes the body to be poor, young women agreed to these measures about the body image because they spend much time on social networks. As young women and adolescent teenagers become more used to social media, they try to use social networks so that they can feel better about their bodies and also themselves. The insecure girls who have continuous usage of social media by that means, they can get depressed, or they can experience anxiety if they have posted a picture and they are waiting for people to comment on their photos.

According to Parkin, he said that the advantage of social media platforms is that they have aided to create space for social communication between vast numbers of individuals (Makwana, Lee, and Parkin, 2019). The advantages include augmented contact with other people, improved accessibility and the access about health information has also widened, there is more existing, shared and personalized information, there is better surveillance of public health, and possible engagement of health policy.

The spectacular growth of 'wellness' in the online has started an organization for celebrities about fitness on social networks, and many social media users have embraced their advice about exercise and diet. The quest for having a perfect body in the name of wellness has led many young women to start dieting programs and also deficiency. Young women and teenage girls who follow fitness panels are likely to join in extreme weight loss programs like necessary exercise procedures. When these women view the pictures of the fitness board, they start a plan called self-reflection so that they can compare themselves with the images that are on the fitness panels and see if they are losing weight to gain the perfect body.

The researchers interviewed Ruby Tandoh who was 24 years old, and she said that clean and healthy eating has helped her to control her eating disorders which had increased largely and the comments that her friends were commenting on her pics about her body appearances (Sandoiu, 2019). She said that she was able to find wellness. Many young women and teenage girls have installed applications in their phones and also use other devices that are used for editing, for example, photoshop so that they can use to edit their pics and make sure that they appear perfect on the pictures before they upload them on social media platforms. Some teens use free applications to adjust the shape of their faces, to cover up flaws and also deploy their bodies so that they can appear slimmer and more attractive. When a person edits her photo, it tends to look fantastic and more beautiful than it was in real sense. Girls mostly do this editing so that they can look more attractive and get better comments about their body appearances.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this essay shows how social media platforms affect women and how they see themselves in society. Social has some advantages, but you should not allow the life of others to make you get depressed about your lifestyle. It is clear that social media has affected women negatively so much. Young women and teenage girls should visit counselors to seek advice about social media because it is said to be a fake life and they should not believe everything that they see on it. Teens should learn to appreciate themselves and always tell their colleagues that their life is more important than their looks.

References

Perloff, R. M. (2014). Social media effects on young women's body image concern: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research. Sex Roles, 71(11-12), 363-377.

Sandoiu, A. (2019). How does social media use affect our body image? [online] Medical News Today. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323725.php [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019].

Wagner, C., Aguirre, E., & Sumner, E. (2019). The relationship between Instagram selfies and body image in young adult women. First Monday, Vol. 21, No. 9

Simons, R. (2019). How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/4459153/social-media-body-image/

Makwana, B., Lee, Y., & Parkin, S. (2019). Selfie-Esteem: The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social Media in Adolescent and Young Women | Magazine issue 1/2018 - Issue 35 | In-Mind. Retrieved from http://www.in-mind.org/article/selfie-esteem-the-relationship-between-body-dissatisfaction-and-social-media-in-adolescent

Thompson, D. (2019). Social Media May Harm a Woman's Body Image. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20180504/too-much-social-media-may-harm-a-womans-body-image#1

Bennett, T. (2019). Social Media Blamed for Growing Low Self-Esteem Among Women - Thrive works. Retrieved from https://thriveworks.com/blog/social-media-low-self-esteem-among-women/