The original purpose of social media was to give businesses an opportunity to expand their brand, but in the past decade social media has become an outlet to communicate in a business and personal aspect. Social media has become a great way for like-minded people to come together and share their similar beliefs, discuss important issues and gain knowledge. Just as social media has positives it has negatives as well. Social media gives outsiders the chance to look into peoples’ everyday life and judge them for the way they live. It allows people to criticize other people for having different ideals, without even knowing them. As a result of social media becoming so mainstream there is a certain standard that women are expected to uphold. They are expected to dress a certain way, have a particular body figure, and sustain a specific appearance. If a woman does not fit in those strict regulations, then she is scrutinized by the public. Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll, confirms the influence strangers has on women and how outside opinions can negatively alter women’s self- worth. The amount of time spent on social media correlates with the level of self-esteem a woman has: the more time spent the lower her self-esteem. This is represented in Piercy’s Barbie Doll and various other academic journals.

In Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll”, a girl, who was like every other girl before puberty hits, was judge for having a big nose and fat legs. She wanted to be live a judgment free life, therefore she changed her appearance to conform to society’s idea of beauty. The girl dies from cutting off her nose and legs because those were the parts of her body that everyone said were imperfect, which in the end, killed her. In society women are harshly criticized for not fitting the expected mold. This poem demonstrates the effects negative criticism and constant condemnation has on a woman. Although the girl was practically perfect in the inside, she was “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy lines 9-11).  People did not realize her great attributes because they were only focused on her imperfections. The girl attempts to make those around her by working out, dieting, even though she was already healthy, and act more womanly. All the work she put in to fit in eventually wore her out. She dies and the coroner uses makeup and prosthetics to fix her leg and nose. When people saw that she had a better nose and thinner thighs everyone then thought that she was so beautiful and pretty. The now dead girl was finally happy that everyone thought she was happy. But that happiness came at cost: she gave up her life just so a number of people will think that she was attractive. One ending their own life is highly relevant to today because we lose so many young people today because the constant criticism of their looks. They feel as though they do not belong in or have a place on the Earth. The thing is there is no specific standard that we are supposed to adhere to. 

In Barbie Doll, Piercy chose to leave the girl nameless and focus on her outer appearance and the judgement she faced because of her looks. Those who looked at the girl could only notice her larger thighs and rather larger nose. People forgot that she was an actual person with feelings and over time words began to affect their self-esteem.  The same goes for social media, we instantly judge those in the pictures based on their looks or how they look in pictures. We never really know the background of people’s picture that we idealize over or criticize. 

Adolescence is a stage in life where we are the most vulnerable, we are trying to find our identity, maintain relationships and keep up with our school work. Also for about 90% of teens (Woods and Scotts, 2016) have the added pressure maintaining their social media accounts.  They are more susceptible to create standards for themselves and those around them because they look at the number of likes a particular pictures get on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, and think that is what people like. In study ran by Heather Cleland Woods and Holly Scott, they examined how extensive amount of social media use effects adolescence self-esteem. They found that the higher emotional attachment and amount of time put into using social media is linked to lower self-esteem. When teens see a highly recognized profile, where the user is showing of his or her positive characteristics, in return diminishes the teen’s self-worth.  

A popular trend on social media is the hash tag goals. If you look in the comment section of pictures with an extensive amount of likes, you will mostly likely see #GOALS. Commenters say goals to couples, how a person is dressed, how much money they have, or even to how their hair looks. Too many think of it is just a harmless hashtag, then there are some who actually strive to be #GOALS. Wishing in they had that “perfect” relationships, had that stack of cash, or the clothes on their back. With striving for someone else’s goals one begins to compare their life to the other persons. Comparing oneself to another can cause people to feel “inadequate, have poorer self-evaluations, and experience negative affects” (Vogel , Rose, Roberts, Eckles). The creators of this study determined the correlation between social comparison and self-esteem. The study concluded stating that people who use a social media page are more likely to compare themselves to others if they are use the account frequently. Social comparisons are connected to self-esteem.  The people in those pictures are humans, humans that are imperfect.

As social media has become increasingly popular, people think that it is okay to publically humiliate women on social media. For example, Huffington Post did an article of our newest President elect’s numerous tweets that have continuously degraded women. He has publically stated that women are unattractive, belittled their intelligence, body shamed, and has also sexualized women. A man that is powerful and has a broad following, he should use his platform to uplift and encourage women. Instead he chose to use his good for evil, he decided to demean women. Which shows that even the person with the most power in our country does not respect women. He constantly undermines the strides that women have made in our society; from being looked at a property of a man, now able to vote and work in corporate America.

There is no doubt that social media has its benefits: we can meet new people, reconnect with old friends, stay up to date with the latest news, and keep tabs on your favorite celebrities. The downfall to social media is the effect it has on women in the real world, and their self-esteem. More teenage girls are battling with low self-esteem because they are constantly comparing themselves to the women on social media that are consider to be popular. Social media sets the bar for how women are expected to look, dress, and carry themselves, but our society holds our women to these unrealistic standards. The women who are social media famous are also human, which means they are imperfect, they make mistakes, just like everyone else. 
