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                                 Social media and its impact on body image  

    Nowadays our society lives in a highly digitized world, meaning social media plays a huge role in the lives of people. Social media platforms and the whole internet create the majority of the social activity of people. They are used for communication, showing what is happening in someone's life, or as a primary source of information. Being constantly exposed to social media causes several impacts. One of them is how the media shapes the body image and standards of what is considered beautiful. This essay focuses on the impacts of social media on body image and describes the issue in more detail.

    Social media are often those who set trends. Regarding body image, they have big power in shaping people's opinions, showing them what is trendy and what is expected from them. Many people, especially women experience this influence and constant pressure from social media on their bodies. Kelly (2020) explains that "the technology may encourage people to make more unnecessary changes to their appearance or cause them to lose perspective of what they really look like (Kelly, 2020, para. 13). Most of the time this influence is not healthy and it can lead to extremes such as undergoing plastic surgeries. Kelly (2020) mentions that "instead of asking for the nose or chin of a certain celebrity, patients are now largely bringing in edited photos of their own faces." (para.5)

    People are constantly seeing photos of other people on social media. This can have a big impact on someone's body image along with self-esteem because people tend to compare themselves to others that they think are more beautiful than them. "Thanks to an array of free applications, selfie-holics now have the power to alter their bodies in pictures in a way that’s practically on par with makeup and other beauty products. Editing photos can lead to a false sense of control where users feel as if they can alter their bodies to get more positive attention. This disconnect between perception and reality increases the distance between what users feel about themselves in real life and what they think about their online persona" (Anonymous, 2019, para.12). Because it is incredibly easy to change face using different free apps or filters, everyone can do it including children who may damage their body perception even more because they are not fully developed yet. This can later cause problems with self-perception and can also lead to several serious eating or mental disorders. In a healthcare institution called Florida House Experience, it was discovered that both men and women compare themselves to others on social media. The survey consisted of 1000 men and women. The results of the study showed that 87% of women and 65% of men compare their bodies to others online. Moreover, 50% of women and 37% of men compare themselves unfavorably. (Anonymous, 2019, para. 11) 

    Accounts and web pages that are supporting eating disorders are other dangerous things that can impact body image. Seeing these accounts or web pages is hard for people who have eating disorders along with those who have experienced it in the past. The content of these web pages is often encouraging eating disorders and people are for example sharing their weight loss and it is what they call progress. "Many of the sites dispute that anorexia and bulimia are diseases, portraying them instead as philosophies of life. They offer tips on how to lose weight -- by purging, among other methods -- and how to hide eating disorders from family members or friends" (Nagourney, 2005, para.6). Nagourney (2005) further explains that adolescents who have visited web pages that support eating disorders faced less time focusing on their studies and more time in the hospital than those who did not visit these pages. (para.8)

    Lately, positive impacts on social media on body image can be seen more rarely than the negative ones. But despite the negatives, usually, some brands or bigger companies are promoting body positivity in their commercials, campaigns. For example, Dove created a self-esteem project, which is helping women to gain body confidence. On their website, Dove states that for more than 15 years, they have been helping parents, teachers, and others to deliver self-esteem education which has reached more than 60 million young people so far. They say that by 2030, they are aiming to help 1/4 billion people build their positive body image. This campaign along with others is creating examples of how to spread body positivity on social media.

    To sum up, social media has a huge impact on body image and the impact is often rather negative than positive. Positive impacts are gaining popularity through programs like Dove created which is mentioned in the paragraph above. But these body positivity movements are still only gaining popularity. It is important that people are aware of both positives and negatives of social media and their impacts, so they are educated about how to prevent unwanted effects.

References:

Dove Self-Esteem Project. (2020, April 08). Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.dove.com/us/en/dove-self-esteem-project.html

Kelly, S. M. (2020). Plastic surgery inspired by filters and photo editing apps isn't going away. CNN Business. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/08/tech/snapchat-dysmorphia-plastic-surgery/index.html

Nagourney, E. (2005). Websites Celebrate a Deadly Thinness. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/07/health/nutrition/web-sites-celebrate-a-deadly-thinness.html

The Link Between Social Media and Body Image. (2019). King University Online. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://online.king.edu/news/social-media-and-body-image/