The Negative Effects Of Mass Media In Today's Society

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The effects of mass media on the psyche of children and adults in today’s society is astonishing in a very bad way. Perpetuating women 's body image is a massive and lucrative business. The weight loss industry makes billions off of women 's self hatred of their bodies. Women are degraded to be less than themselves in order to be acceptable to society. (Anderberg) In the disturbing marketing business known as the "weight loss industry" women are fed detrimental body standards that only a very select few can ever achieve. The main way of doing thing is through the use of photoshopping models. The already thin models are shrunk down to an improbable size and plastered all over onto different media outlets. This also applies for men as well. …show more content…

Taking away Photoshop all together is not the best solution. However, moving towards more realistic bodies in media outlets, like ads or magazines, can improve children’s ' body image and make them less likely to develop health issues such as anorexia nervosa. That being said, there is still an issue at large with children and teenagers feeling terrible in their own skin. By the time girls are seventeen years old, seventy-eight percent of them dislike their body because of countless number of commercials telling them they should want to be objectified or an inconceivable body size. Boys are affected as well because by ten years old, 22% of boys’ number one worry is how their body looks (Groundswell). Being pressured to look a certain way starts at a young age. Children are starting even younger at worrying about their body shape and weight because media is around every corner and nobody can escape it. Because of the constant stress built onto young children they begin to hate the way the look and feel about themselves. That is in no way, shape, or form an acceptable pressure to put on kids. Some young celebrities have begun taking a stand against Photoshop. For instance, Zendaya, a former Disney star, found out that after a photoshoot that her images were photoshopped to be …show more content…

She also goes on to say, "It’s not just that we see these images once, or twice, or even a hundred times. They stay with us and we process them mostly subconsciously… [They create] an environment that surround us with unhealthy images and that constantly sacrifices our health and our sense of well-being for the sake of profit." So whether or not people are actually aware that it 's happening, technology manages to sneak in. The majority of people are constantly bombarded with images of unattainable figures. Thus creating, in the back of someone 's mind, a seed of doubt about themselves. As for Arnold claiming there was no evidence, she clearly wasn’t aware of Dr. Anne E. Becker’s study back in 1998 on the abrupt incline of eating disorders on the island of Fiji. native Fijian culture traditionally promoted healthy appetites with plump bodies, which symbolized wealth. A strong cultural identity was thought to protect against eating disorders. Yet, in 1998, when television first got there, dieting shot up from 0% to 60% and young people cited actors from shows like Beverly Hills as their source of inspiration. Never before had the island inhabitants experienced eating disorders until then (BBC). It wasn 't until strong media influence was brought to the island of Fiji that the people

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