How Does Social Media Affect Body Image

Social Media Effects on Females Body Image
Does Social media really impact the way females see their body? Strong evidence supports that social media has a horrifying impact on female body image. In many cases, some would go as far as committing suicide, because they are not content with the way they look. Because females compare themselves to models and celebrities that is shown on social media, it is clear that there is a distortion from what is real and what is fake. They consider that if they do not look like them, then they are unattractive. Social media on body image lowers females self-esteem, creates eating disorders, and can even go as far as isolating one from others. As a female I can say, that social media affects every female one way or another. Usually females struggle with body image in their early teens, when they are searching for their identity, for some reason, females start to think that if they do not like this or that, they are not good enough. There is no doubt that social media affect body image.
Initially, when females start comparing themselves to models and or celebrities, their self-esteem
will drop dramatically. For example, during a recent study researchers from Florida State University found that a group of women, who were asked to browse Facebook for 20 minutes, experienced greater body dissatisfaction than those who spent 20 minutes researching rainforest cats online. This clearly shows that a lot of time social media can cause women to not feel confident about their body. Of course, social media is not the only producer to a low self-esteem, but it definitely affects it. Many females tweet things that are negative about their body. Luckily, a company called Dove, decided to do something about it. Every time they see a tweet that is negative about body image, they will tweet something back to that person, with a positive comment. Dove goal is to give a message to the world letting everyone know, especially females that they are perfect just the way they are.
Furthermore, many disorders that females have are caused by the pressure of social media and it’s unrealistic “perfect” body image goal. For Instance, models are about 20% below what is considered to be healthy based on their age and height. Models ideal body size epitomised by “Gerri Halliwell” “Posh Spice” or “Ally Mcbeal” is unrealistically thin, their BMI is on the borders of what a clinician would regard as anorexic. Many females try so hard to look like a model and to have a skinny silhouette, that they would go as far as throwing back up all the food they ate, so they would get “fat” or gain weight. Purging is extremely bad for your body, especially if someone does it on a daily bases. By purging daily, it can cause serious eating disorders, such as anorexia. In many cases, girls who are anorexic suffer from low body image caused by the social media.Then one disorder can cause another disorder, which at times can cause lives.
Ultimately, if females feel like they do not have the “ideal” body, they will start to avoid any interactions with people, because they feel ashamed of their body. For example, teens who are attractive online worry a lot about how they are perceived. If females believe that they do not have that “perfect bikini ready” body, they can go as far as cancelling plans and isolating themselves from others. Social media gives female an unrealistic ideal body image and to top it all, it can ruin their life, some get over it, but others never do and will always go after an unrealistic “perfect” body. Females can sometimes ruin many things that they will regret in the long run, because they felt uncomfortable about their body. Some females get exhausted of being isolated, so instead of accepting their body, they go get surgery to achieve a nonviable flawless body.
In conclusion, most of the negative impact about female body image, comes from social media.
It’s horrifying to see how much an image can affect someone. Some of the negative impacts from social media on females body image are that it lowers their self-esteem significantly, it makes girls starve to keep their weight down, causing them to develop eating disorders, and it can make a female stay away from any social interactions, because she feels ashamed and uncomfortable with their body. All of that, because they do not meet the “perfect” body standard. Both females and males have a flawless image of what a perfect body is suppose to look like. What they do not understand, is that nobody is perfect or flawless. Behind the magazines and the movies, there is photoshopping that comes into action, which makes it impossible to have the “ideal” body
image.