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the impact social media has on body image
social medias influence on popculture
social media and self-esteem
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John Paul Titlow discusses the possible positive effects of the increase in social media in one’s everyday life. In his essay, “#Me: Narcissism and the Scourge of the Selfie,” he explains that while social media platforms such as Instagram may seem to just encourage narcissism, in fact they may be helping to improve the self-image of it’s user. This is an effect from the increased exposure to less professionally constructed images compared to those we normally run into in popular media and advertising. From my own personal experience with social media I can agree with this claim. While some images on social media can still be edited or distorted, it is rarely to the same degree as professional advertisements. In addition, the types of people …show more content…
Instead he tries to understand the positive effects if this dramatic increase in the influences of social media over our lives. Titlow describes it as a break from the highly edited and crafted world of popular media and advertisement photography, stating, “It used to be that most of the photographs of other people we encountered were carefully crafted images of flawless-looking individuals portrayed in popular media and advertising.” In contrast, while some images are still edited on social media, the degree in which this done is severally decrease. Society is growing use to seeing images of everyday people instead of celebrities or models. In addition with the increase in popularity of the social media platform Snapchat, even the photographs of celebrities or models we see are not as professionally crafted, despite a silly puppy or flower crown filter. Titlow then goes on to reference psychologist’s fear of the effects of those carefully construction images from popular media on one’s self image. He connects the idea of these less processed and more diverse images from Instagram or other platforms as a solution to these fears. It’s a simple concept, when people are surrounded by pictures of real people instead of one’s with unattainable beauty standards, they are less likely to hold themselves to such unrealistic
I feel as though more and more teens of this generation are using social media in order to seek approval of attention of others. Since they are expected to use social media in a way to create an online audience, they post pictures of themselves and activities so that they can get a “yes” or “no” response from their audience. If someone posts a picture online and someone who is considered a “friend” makes a positive comment on the photo, then they have received approval of their actions. If someone makes a negative remark on the photo, then they have received disapproval. She uses various examples of how young adults use social media to create a persona of themselves, such as when girls post sexualized pictures of themselves and create avatars of themselves (Orenstein, 448). This means that how they are seen online will affect how they act in real life. When Orenstein says that “the self, becomes a brand”, she means that young adults have to act in a way that is perceived to be socially acceptable by their peers, and the image of how everyone sees you. So many people today use social media, and the biggest one that is being used is Facebook. Profile pictures, albums, and statuses are things that gets posted up for anyone to comment, like, or dislike. Your “friends” on
Today, our culture demands us to be perfect, thin, powerful, successful, smart, extraordinary, but when people begin to try achieving them, we start labeling them as narcissists. The problem is that it is impossible for anyone to please everyone. Brown defines narcissism as simply a “fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose” (22). Before giving out labels, it is wise to practice asking ourselves questions to clear the intentions and reasons of someone’s behavior. For example, teenagers posting pictures of themselves online to gain some attention reveals that the culture has taught them that they are as lovable as the number of likes and comments they get on social media. Negative feedback roots into negative thinking about vulnerability and causes them to shut themselves down and never show their real selves again. Encouraging others to believe that they are perfect as themselves, will plant a positive attitude in them and push them to pursue their goals and visions to fulfill their dream of a happy
The growth of social media has improved our communication skills as a country, but where people are concerned, the substantial growth has had quite the toll on the self esteem of many. I do not think the goal of social media was to have negative effects on people’s body image and the way they see their self, but that is what has seemed to happen. With all of the famous people getting surgeries to make themselves look “perfect” is just showing people that how they were born and how they look naturally is not good enough. The negative effects seem to outweigh the very little amount of positive affects social media has on people’s body
In conclusion, both producers and consumers of media deserve some responsibility in how social media and magazines have impacted people and the way they perceive themselves. The changes that these two types of media bring upon people can be both beneficial as well as detrimental. In order to live happy and fulfilling lives, people must know that creators of social media and magazines intents were for them to be good and helpful and that not everything that is shared and shown in the media is real. Therefore, the blame of negativity doesn’t solely lie on the producers of the media; it is also in the hands of the people, the consumers. As magazines and social networks become more prevalent in today’s society, images and information are constantly being shared while people will continue to evolve.
...g physical attractiveness and personality in the motivation of selecting photos. By comparing this conclusion to my own personal experiences on social networking sites, I agree with the statement that narcissism is a motivation factor in portraying a certain image to our online audience. However, it is how we choose to portray our personality and character through visual images that indicates the apparent level of narcissism. Driven by a social networking dominated culture, the motivation to present one’s best self-image online has become innate. In conclusion, if a single profile picture can form a lasting first impression, why not make it memorable?
Social media is an outlet to show yourself for the world to see. The majority use social media to connect with friends and to document our lives. However social media is not just an outlet for people to connect. Social media is becoming a booming industry in which thousands are making money off of. Just who though is making money off of this? Well Instagram is a place where anyone can post pictures, doing this anyone can be a model if they have the right camera. And if these people gain enough followers advertisments begin to pop up on their page. Evantually their able to suffice on their own and become finically stable based off a social media account. While many think this to be a new way of entraprenuership there is a downside. With the growth of social media and these “models” a rise in plastic surgery has grown. Surveys have shown that more than half of those who have got comestic surgery have been influenced by social media. Plastic surgery has gone from a private affair to something that is done and known by everyone. Many are even documenting their plastic surgery with hashtags such as “rhinoplastydiary.” Where did this new found love for plastic surgery come from?
The online photograph sharing, storytelling app has challenged the way people identify themselves. It has help raise the question of which identity is more important in today’s digital age? Self-identity is the “verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotional identification with these conceptions.” Social identity is the “expectations and opinions that others have of us.” (Kitzmann, Lecture 12) Instagram allows its users to post photographs of anything they choose, however at times these photos give people to challenge the idea of appearance versus reality. The use of photo editing apps is just an example of a way that users are able to fix the imperfections they see in order to make the picture “instagram worthy.” The appearance of the photograph is flawless when in reality it took several minutes (or hours) to take over fifty selfies and to edit the perfect one before it was considered for posting. This is how the app challenges hegemonic practices of beauty. In the fall of 2015, a model by the name of Essena O’Neil decided to quit instagram. For most people, they would assume that she deleted the app or deactivated her account; however she kept her account running only to re-caption her old pictures. O’Neil went back to her old posts and changed their captions, exposing all of
Mcwilliams explains that this use of this technology is reducing the effects of stress on our lives, and although this may be tempting to rid of, stress is a feeling that betters a human being. In this case using technology in the form of social media has especially weakened the response with stress of the Instafamous users being showered by positive comments of positive social report, comments usually posted as,”Damn your sexy!! ;)”again another comment found on Cayla Friesz comment section. When these Instafamous users are constantly vilified for their looks such as Mrs. Friesz, this typically lowers their stress level as they are knowing that they exceed the body standards enforced by
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
However the fact that it could also destroy a person’s confidence, incur false self-acceptance, and deceive people’s perception of beauty should also be considered. People believe that being “beautiful” is having a small waist, long legs, and skinny body; basically being sexy. According to society this is the definition of beautiful, but what exactly does beautiful mean? Being beautiful is being physically pleasing to the eye; says society. Some people only get to accept what’s there through digital manipulation; thinking that the real beauty is what one can make the others see. In the article “Debating the Rules and Ethics of Digital Photojournalism” by The New York Times, Independent Photographer Melissa Lyttle states: “It’s a dangerous and slippery slope to travel down when altered work is lauded, and other photojournalists see that as the ideal. It sets a bar that is unreal, unhealthy, and unattainable.” (The New York Times 10). In simpler terms, photo manipulation can make the others accept people who look unrealistically, and unbelievably beautiful; being fake to oneself means not truly and fully accepting reality, and therefore letting digital image manipulation incurs false
“I didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time –Betty White (“Betty White Quotes,” 2014, para. 1).” This quote can be interpreted to fit with several of the social media avenues that many people spend their time on. Day in and day out people post, tweet, share, and pin countless times throughout the world. These different forms of communication were first created for an easier way for people to connect with others. Yet now, so much time is spent on these social sites that it has warped the interactive part and is causing more damage than good. Many are growing a desire and are living for the amount of “likes” they can receive on a post or how many re-tweets they can generate. Instead of going to these outlets to participate in a partial portion of their social lives, people are filling that time with the technological aspect of communication. As White said, this can become an inordinate amount of wasted time and can ultimately grow into further damaging circumstances. These different social media channels can cause emotional harm through disparaging the relationship between friends, conjuring of a narcissistic personality, and the retrogradation of ones self-esteem.
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
Social media has taken over the world of communication and has changed the ways in which we communicate on a daily basis. It is extremely influential on our lives because of how easily we are able to access these mediums of communication. I’m intrigued by the effects that social media has on people’s perceptions of their self-worth. Almost all of the social networking sites seem to measure, at least to some extent, the popularity level or status of its users. All have a number of ‘followers’ or ‘friends’ which if there’s a high number of followers or friends that seems to elevate a person’s popularity level or their online status. This in turn could make their self-esteem or ego rise, whereas if their follower level is low it may disappoint or aggravate that user. All of these sites also offer areas where followers can ‘like’ pictures or posts, ‘comment’ on these pictures/posts, ‘share’ the post, and what have you. How important are ‘likes’ and whatnot to our actual self-esteem? Do we value online popularity the same way or more than we value real-life interactions? How could this affect the mental health of those who use these networking sites? Is this kind of online community promoting more narcissistic persons in the community? So many questions… I’m not alone in asking these questions. I’m convinced that social media has a negative influence on the self-esteem of its users.
These things have become so common that not having them almost makes it seem like there is something missing. Because of features such as these, it is incredibly easy to share every aspect of what we are reading, doing, eating and listening to with everyone in our social networks. While this has meant incredible advances in the way we interact with our world, it has also fundamentally changed the way our social relationships are created and sustained. Social medial led users to have false impression of others and changed our feelings. Because social media users tend to only show the most positive aspects of their lives, social media users have a false sense of reality when it comes to how they seem themselves, how others see them and how they see other people. “It is not difficult to say that social media effect our perception of others” (Goshgarian213).
Teens on social media have been around for many years. Have you ever thought of the Internet being a place where teen’s self-esteem may be affected in a negative way? However, it doesn 't mean that social media is out to purposely make people feel this way, it 's all how the teens per take. Many people don’t realize that the little things others post on social media can affect someone in the long run. This is especially true with young teenagers who have access to the internet and social media platforms. I strongly believe that social media does affect teens self-esteem by lowering it due to the reason of advertisement, personal image, and bullying.