According to research, approximately 91% of women of all ages are unhappy with their body. 58% of teenage girls believe that they need to be a certain weight, but only 5% of women actually have the body type that is portrayed as desirable by the media (Wetherington). Body image dissatisfaction is a growing concern in today's society due to many reasons. Today so many young women are affected by societies standards of the perfect woman, that is portrayed by different forms of media. These effects may snowball into eating disorders or psychological problems. Many people are wondering to what extent media and social media affect a teenage girls body image. Although social media and the media have a large influence, some believe that family life is the largest influence of body image satisfaction. Media's influence on body image satisfaction can be decreased if people take the right measures. Media and social media have large influences on us today, that it can change our perception of our own appearance, and this is very unhealthy. By looking at the research surrounding women's body image perception, we can see that social media and media significantly increase negative body image. Although all media can affect women, social media is the most influential. If we want to improve this, we need to increase research on social media, and educate young adults on social media and media usage. 

Body image dissatisfaction can be defined as one person's negative thoughts about their body type. "This problem is normally caused by the difference between the how a person perceives their body, and how they would like their ideal body to be" (Curtis and Loomans, 39). The ideal body has become a standardized idea among western culture due to the obsession with beauty in today's society. Over time, the ideal body has become thinner while women are now tending to be larger than before. The media has begun to portray their image of the thin ideal. The thin ideal has transformed into a slender, feminine physique with a small waist, and little body fat.  This has caused women to desire the body of models and actresses. Statistics show that "the average women are 5'4" and weighs 140 pounds, while the average model is 5'11" and weighs 117 pounds" (Chojnacki). Women used to idolize Marylyn Monroe as a sex icon and the definition of beauty was a busty hourglass figure and long legs; now women idolize Victoria Secret models who are tall, thin, toned and have big breasts. "Body image, Media Effect on" states that "as women are beginning to gain power, the ideal female is becoming thinner and thinner because the American society is uncomfortable with heavier women in power" (Harrison, 3) This quote is just another example of how women in today's society fear being over weight.  This shows that the thin ideal is unrealistic in comparison to average American citizens. As the ideal body continues to get smaller, the body image satisfaction in todays society continues to drop, causing larger problems. Some researchers even predict that women are beginning to attempt to change the way they look so that men may find them more attractive. Many researchers are referring to female's current thoughts of their body as 'normative-discontent' (Sedar). This shows that teenage girls being dissatisfied with their bodies and their looks is becoming normal. 

According to Kasey Sedar's research, body image issues develop during puberty and only grow larger throughout the person's life. As the media is showing to young viewers that you are not beautiful unless you are 'Ultra thin' the age where body discontent begins is starting to go lower and lower. This is causing problems in the long run to be larger. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard" gives three theories on how negative body image develops; social comparison, cultivation, and self-schema. "Social comparison shows how women compare themselves in relation to peers, groups, and/or social categories. Cultivation argues that image that portray women who match the sociocultural ideal of beauty are extremely prevalent in popular media. this influences women's abilities to understand that such standards are unrealistic. Self- schema theory uses the objective body, the internalized ideal body, and the represented ideal body" (Serder). 

Problems with negative body image and low self esteem can also occur in boys, but the problem is statistically less significant. Studies have shown that boys now feel that they need to form to societies idea of "hot." Although boys believe that they need to gain muscle and gain weight to be attractive, they also believe that they media only shows men that have the ideal muscular body. It is statistically shown that boys are more affected by television and advertisements than they are by social media. Many people only focus on girls being affected by low self esteem and negative body image, but satisfaction levels in boys are decreasing as well. While this problem is relevant in boys, "Only eighteen percent of young men are concerned about their bodies and their weight" (Field). Results of studies also show that while boys may feel they need to be thinner and gain muscles, there was a very low percentage of young men who turned to eating disorders to solve their problem. While this problem needs to be addressed as well, negative body image in women should be our main concern at the moment due to the amount of women that are turning to eating disorders to solve their weight problems. 

The media portrays women who are thin and beautiful to have a happy and wonderful life, this causes average women to feel the need to be thin to be happy. Many marketing companies will do anything that is needed to sell a product, and many people will buy products that appeal to their sense of beauty. Because of this, ads on television or in magazines have become more oriented with appearance and sexual appeal. The media has turned to the 'thin ideal' to gain popularity by appealing to viewers sense of beauty. One example given by "The Effects of Media on Body Image" was the children's movie Shrek. The producers of this movie portray the "ugly" princess as overweight, green, and ugly. While the "Beautiful" princess is thin and feminine looking (Korver, ). This proves that the media is even showing to children that you are are only beautiful if you are thin and girly. The media has begun to portray women that are below the healthy body weight, and over exposure to these women's bodies have caused many women to feel uncomfortable with their own bodies. As the media begins to do this, teenagers and average citizen's begin to idolize models and celebrities, some who are only famous for their looks, just because they are what people find to be perfect. Because of this, people are not turning from media and its harsh affects, but instead they are turning towards it and focusing more on the celebrities. 

Social Media usage has grown tremendously in recent years. Teenagers, parents, and companies are all using social media to portray their life or product to others around them. Companies are looking to make their product look glamourous and reach to a different audience by using social media. Teens now days are beginning to show every aspect of their life on social media to gain acceptance from acquaintances. The rise of Instagram, Twitter, VSCO, and Tumblr have lead to larger problems because young women are altering pictures in attempt to gain gratification from others. Social media has become a problem because people are constantly connected with others at any second of the day, causing us to worry about our appearance at all times (Ramsey). Social media has caused young women to do anything to gain more likes or followers, some activities they partake in to do this may be harmful to themselves or others. People are looking for positive comments from friends on their pictures and they are desiring for other people to idolize them just as people do celebrities. Because of this, Girls are beginning to portray themselves as they want others to see them, rather than how they actually are. When these young girls get compliments on their untrue portrayal, their dissatisfaction with their real bodies increases. 

Although the television, ads, magazines, etc. have a large affect on one's negative body image, social media can be considered the largest contributing factor in today's age. This problem is caused by the rise in social media usage and the current "addition" to these websites and apps. The compulsion to be on social media more and more, and the anxiety caused when not online may cause significant decline in school performance, social health, or event physical health. One large part of growing up, is the switch from depending on family relationships, to depending on relationships with friends. Social media has now allowed us to seek friendships at at all times, instead of just in school or sports. The drive to connect with peers causes teens to seek validation from everyone they are interested in becoming friends with. Unfortunately, this can cause girls to obsesses over their visible and superficial characteristics, potentially causing them to be unhappy. Because we are constantly comparing ourselves to others, and changing many aspects of ourselves, we may put our health and happiness in danger (Rich). Social media has caused a large problem because celebrity models and regular girls pictures are "frozen" on a screen in front of us. This allows women to sit and stare at a picture for a long time and compare the body in the picture to their own body. When we look at a picture, we are able to analyze every small detail put in front of us. Today's technology makes it easier to connect on every level with celebrities and models, therefore we are always looking at picture of women with body types that are not the average American body structure. Because of this, we are beginning to think that in order to be like the celebrities, we need to look like them as well. Social media has changed regular girls thinking which is decreasing body image satisfaction.

Negative body image and low self esteem can be very detrimental to one's health. Negative body image may lead young women to dieting in order to lose weight, and can eventually lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Low self esteem can also lead to drugs and alcohol usage as well as sex addictions. Anorexia is classified as a distorted body image by a fear of being overweight that includes a persistent obsession to avoid weight gain. Bulimia is classified as binge eating, followed by purging to avoid weight gain. Bulimia also can involve excessive exercise, and fasting. There is now an entire community of followers supporting 'Pro-Ana' which means pro anorexia. Although low self esteem and negative body image can not directly lead to having anorexia and bulimia, teenage girls are turning to these larger problems to solve the problem of their dissatisfaction with their body. These people are turning to anorexia to make them feel beautiful. Young women have begun to turn to fad diets and cosmetic surgery as well to make them look like the ideal women they see in the media. When women are getting cosmetic surgery, they believe they need to change their body so much that they are willing to pay thousands of dollars just to change the way they look so that they can fit in to societies standards of beautiful. Negative body image can also cause psychological problems in their victims. Because are society is so focused on appearance, these young women are beginning to believe that they do not fit in to society because they do not look like they think they should. This is causing girls to feel sad and believe they are an outcast and they begin to hate themselves. 

To improve the negative impact of social media's influence on young girls, we need to begin to educate them. Social media usage has only risen recently and therefore it is a new topic to many people, and many are unaware of the current dangers. If we educate women on the real statistics of women's bodies and appearances, they will not be affected by how bodies are portrayed on social media and through other forms of media. Once women are educated on real statistics, they will be less inclined to feel bad about themselves when they see women who are below the average weight. It would be very easy for the media to switch to showing off realistic body types of women. If only 5% of women look like the women that the media portrays, then is should be very easy for producers and advertisers to find the other 95% of people that have an average body type. If the media showed these women, the gap between ideal body types and realistic body types would shrink. People would begin to understand that the women that are projected on your TV and photographed in magazines are below your healthy weight, and are taller than your average women. If we educate young adults on these statistics, they will be able to understand it is not as important to reach the "thin ideal" as long as you are healthy and happy. Many people are oblivious to this problem, or do not find negative body image to be a real concern in today's society, therefore no one is taking action. 

The relationship between social media and body image satisfaction is negative. This problem will be much harder to solve than the problem with entertainment media and displaying bodies that are not average. Social media usage is only going to grow in future years. Companies are now switching to social media as their main form of advertisement, where they are showing the most beautiful women that they can find for their product advertisements. Many people believe that social media is a great thing because they can share their life with others and can see what everyone else is doing all the time. But in reality, this can cause problems because people normally only show the good things going on with their life. Therefore, people are beginning to compare their life with others based on what they see on social media, although they are only seeing the wonderful things that happens in other peoples lives. We can solve this problem by everyone spreading encouragement and love to others. Another way to improve this problem would be to have people show parts of their life that are not so wonderful.

Body image dissatisfaction is a horrible problem that anyone can have when they are dissatisfied with their current bodies and desire a body that they deem ideal. Body image dissatisfaction can result in unhealthy eating disorders and psychological problems. Media can impact body image satisfaction, but in today's society, social media is considered to be the largest contributing factor to body image problems. In recent years, social media has taken over medias influence and has created an even bigger problem. These influences impact women because the media has created a "Thin Ideal," and social media is always accessible to us, so we are constantly connected to others looking for validation towards every aspect of our lives. If we want to improve this problem, we need to increase research on social media, and educate young adults on social media and media usage.

