The Effects Of Social Media On Body Image

Under society’s norms for decades, girls have been put under the pressure and expectation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Where do these unreachable standards come from? When a young girl hears the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life replica of the photoshop. These companies spit out magazine covers plastered with girls’ idols daily. As if maintaining the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of makeup, however, body image is a pressing issue for girls. Ads and posters of skinny female models are everywhere. Young girls not only could be better but need to be better and feel forced to have the perfect physique. Girls are

Users are constantly bombarded with notifications, posts, and photos about the lives of others; sending messages about what we could, should, or would be if we only purchased certain products, made certain choices, or engaged in certain behaviors. Despite the ability to create and control content on social media, the same unattainable body ideals we see in traditional media are also reflected in the online environment. Based on a survey, 56% of women acknowledged the effect of the social media culture in driving the pressure for perfection and negative body image; whereby it forces them to look a certain way. Applications such as Instagram have become a body-image battleground, while the selfie is now the universal lens in which individuals use to criticize their bodies and others. Facebook and Snapchat also allow users to receive appearance approvals and acceptance from the viewers through the ratio of views, comments, and likes. In America, the dieting industry earns roughly 40 billion dollars per year at the expense of