Social media today has become a substantial part of life, it brings people together through a vast network of platforms. Various social media applications are used to share interests, network among friends and like-minded individuals, and access an infinite amount of information with just a click of a button. Social media allows teens to build relationships, communicate with others and create online identities. Teenagers and young adults use it as an extension of their real-life interactions.
However, there are also plenty of downsides with having such expansive platforms. The risks of being a figure of significance on social networks include being exposed to bullying, peer pressure, unrealistic views of other people’s lives, and mental illnesses. This review will explore how social media impacts perception – specifically of body image.
Exposure to the internet from an early age, especially during adolescence enables a bigger impact on the mind. Another study in 2019 showed more than 12,000 13–16-year-olds in England found that using social media more than 3 times a day predicts poor mental health and wellbeing in teens. Other studies have observed links between high levels of social media use to depression and anxiety symptoms (Teens and social media use: What's the impact?). To understand how body image is impacted through social media, it is imperative to acknowledge the genesis of the issue. Mental well-being is directly related to having a healthy self-perception, mindful awareness, a sense of connection with others and self-compassion (Computers in Human Behaviour Reports 4 {2021} Neff, 2003b).
Today’s adolescents rely heavily on public opinion, how others deem them – now more often, the value of an individual is determined by the kind of validation received on the internet. Zheng et al., (2020) suggested that participation of social media provides a fertile ground for social comparison, often individuals will present themselves in an unrealistic or overly positive manner.
The agenda of comparison is constantly pushed on social media, and albeit it is a normal part of human cognition, the portrayal of it seen on networking sites are highly toxic. This is widely exhibited on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where the online display of the lives of “influencers” are scrutinized and followed by a large mass of people. The negative impact of this comparison can cause psychological pain and emotional disturbance.
The pressure to always be flawless is being systematically instilled into impressionable minds, resulting in them comparing themselves to what these “influencers” look like on social media. Instagram triggers a rise in body-image concerns among those who frequently monitor the tags related to “fitspiration”. In turn, trying to achieve unrealistic body goals in an unhealthy way result in developing eating disorders.
Eating disorders are illnesses that affect a person’s relationship with food and body image. People with eating disorders have excessive thoughts of food, their body weight or shape, and how to control their intake of food. According to researchers, women are more likely to succumb to ED’s than men (National Eating Disorders Association {NEDA}). Having a negative and even damaging relationship with food and body lead to higher possibility of depression and anxiety. Possessing low self-esteem with addition to being under the influences of unrealistic body goals, it often becomes a trigger for an individual.
Platforms that niche on images are mostly favoured to people who match a certain “beauty standard”. Beauty standards are essentially a variable standard of what it means to be attractive that is contingent on the beauty ideals that are present in each society’s culture. As a consequence, the media also conforms to what is perceived to be “beautiful”, i.e., women who are of petite build, yet have an hourglass figure. Social media endorses beauty standards and those who implement it on themselves to conform to seeking perfection, striving towards a level of attractiveness that is promoted as “pretty privilege” on networking platforms.
The term “pretty privilege” was coined on Tiktok; and the principle itself is based on being handed opportunities based on the level of attractiveness of an individual. Sagal Mohammad on https://www.myimperfectlife.com/features/pretty-privilege points out: “Various scholarly studies and surveys have proven that appearance does in fact have a direct correlation with how well received a person is by others, in both social and professional settings.”
In conclusion, the impact of social media on body image is determined by present day beauty standards. Depending on which spectrum of the scale individuals fit into, the impact would either be positive or negative.
written by Ayeshah Aleena, 2021.