Body Image is a well known term, especially in the culture of today. According to Carla Rice, body image is defined as an "individual's experience of his/her body. It is the mental picture a person has of his/her body as well as the individual's associated thoughts, feelings, judgments, sensations, awareness and behavior" (Body Image, 2015). It is likely that individuals are almost always comparing themselves to each other. They are always playing what some like to call, the comparison game. As Rice also defined body image as "feelings, judgments, sensations, awareness and behavior." it can be inferred that the awareness that an individual may have, can also be the awareness of others around them. It is easy to compare one another, when with one click of a button, there is an instant stream of people to look at, or people to watch.  This is all courtesy of the media, and with it continually in your face 24/7, it is not exactly complicated to judge yourself or be judged by others around you. The culture and society of today is a technological generation, and because of that the media is shaping the way people perceive themselves, especially women, to believe that their own body image has to be perfect, which causes negative effects on an individual's body. 

The media has a type of persuasion factor about it, it can hook you into almost anything. When a tragedy has just occurred, many are glued to their television for the next 24 hours or if there is "twitter drama", adolescence are constantly refreshing their twitter feed. Because of the hold that the media has on individuals, it can be quite a powerful thing. According to Ballaro, Beverly, and Wagner, the media has been influencing body image for decades now. "The role of the media in driving the public's perception of idea body image has been influential since the early twentieth century, although the ideals themselves have evolved over time" (Body Image: Overview, 2014).   As they stated, the ideals of these standards have evolved, and throughout the decades, the media has also evolved.  The authors, Ballaro, Beverly, and Wagner defined the media as including "the magazine, newspaper, and book publishing trades as well as the film, radio, television, and recording industries" (Body Image: Overview, 2014). Most of these things listed are part of people's everyday lives, and are used fairly regularly throughout an individual's day. An incredible amount of time is spend on a computer or on a phone because of the constant duties of a certain job or curriculum holds.  Felix Richter stated that "Americans use electronic media 11 or more hours a day" (Richter, 2015). Overall the media has an incredible influence on people, but unfortunately that influence can be a harmful one. 

The influence that the media has can positively affect this culture and individual's themselves, but in other ways, it can negatively affect it. These negative effects can lead to harmful things like eating disorders. There are many types of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating. Because the media has this major influence, it can allow individuals to become obsessed with what their body image is. Both men and women are usually focused on their outside appearance, or the way they present themselves. For people to be accepted by others, they believe they need to look a certain way, and they can do harm to their bodies to make this happen. According to the Mayo Clinic, anorexia nervosa is described as "an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight" (Mayo Clinic, 2016). Because anorexia nervosa is a disease, there are many different factors to why it happens and why individuals believe they should treat their body this way. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents, and 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8." (ANAD, 2016). As described in Body Image: an Overview, "distorted body images can produce intense shame, anxiety and depression, which in turn generally drive sufferers to self-destructive behaviors including self-starvation and obsessive exercise routines". (Ballaro, Beverly, Wagner, 2014). No this is not saying that the media is responsible for all cases of anorexia nervosa, but because individuals are so sensitive about their body image, the media has its way of showing people that you have to fit a certain image and that can certainly increase the chances of having an eating disorder like this one. 

Anorexia nervosa is not the only type of eating disorders, and not by any means is it the most important. Another harmful disorder is bulimia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa is described as a "body image disorder characterized by affected individuals' perceptions of themselves as overweight. Sufferers often feel shame and depression and undergo cycles of binging and purging" (Body image ,2014). This type of eating disorder is similar to anorexia in the way that it occurs because the sufferers are experiencing immense about of shame and guilt and their self esteem is often very low. The potential health consequences that the National Eating Disorder organizations has listed is it can lead to irregular heartbeats, possibly heart failure, inflammation and possible rupture of the esophagus and chronic irregular bowel movements. (National Eating Disorder Organization, 2016)

The media has many different ways they can edit images, much like people can even do on phones and computers. What most men and women do not understand is that these images are transformed from the original, causing unrealistic standards of real beauty. There are many different types of ways that the media can distort images and make them look unrealistic; the most common being airbrushing. According to Micah, airbrushing is "the process of using photo manipulation techniques to alter the appearance of individuals appearing in advertisements." (Micah, 2016). They can use this technique to make the individuals look thinner; get rid of blemishes, and any other imperfections they may have. Another way the media can show images of men and women with the ideal body image is they hire professionals to make them look "Hollywood material". The models you see in magazines, television ads, and on the runway all have individuals that their sole job is to do their make-up, hair, and chose clothing. Most people that struggle with body image feel the need to lose weight and do not believe their body image is acceptable because some types of media will show very individuals with little no clothing, only showing their bodies. Some magazines, newspapers and other types of media have tried to sell the "natural beauty" or "loving the skin you are in" look. These looks and issues can be a great thing for the body image of young people but unfortunately not all types of will do this.

Models on the runway are almost considered to be "freaks of nature", mostly because they are not the average person. What many individuals do not understand is that basing their own body image off of models, which are not the average size, can give them false hope for what they are supposed to look like. The models and actresses are not the normal person and it is perfectly okay to be "normal". "Experts claim that fashion models weigh 23 percent less than the average female and are 5 feet 11 inches tall and weigh only 110 pounds" ( Body Image, para.12). Also according to Body image, "The average woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds". These statistics show that not only is it unrealistic for the average person to be supermodel thin, but that the media should not put pressure on individuals to have bodies like fashion models. An example that shows how the media portrays images of these models is the infamous "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show". This fashion show is broadcasted on television worldwide, every year and within this show they have up to 50 models. The models for Victoria's Secret are called "Angels", and for the fashion show they model in very provocative outfits; including lingerie and sleep wear. Because this event is broadcasted worldwide, any individual is able to watch and base their body image off the images they see on the television screen. "Young women have a 1 percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel" (Body Image, 12) , with this being staid some believe that if you work hard enough, you can become a model of some sort, but what most do not comprehend is these men and women were built that ultra thin and muscular. 

Ipads, laptops, smart phones are all part of our daily lives, including young children's lives. As technology has increased, children have become more accustomed to them. Younger children have more access to the media now than ever before, which makes them more aware of what body image is. Because of this, children are starting at an earlier age to fit the stereotype of a perfect body. Studies have shown that girls between the ages of eleven and seventeen want to lose weight and girls as young as five express concerns about also losing weight. (Body Image, 2014). This is a growing concern because it can increase their chances of having eating disorders, self esteem issues and many other factors that both boys and girls go through. It is also stated in Body image that "20 percent of 9 year old and 40 percent of 14 year olds want to lose more weight and more than 90 percent of high school junior and senior girls diet regularly, even though only 10 to 15 percent are overweight." (Body Image, 2014). The media not only can destroy adult's body image, but also the innocent minds of children and adolescences. Children and teens are much more oblivious to the harmful things around us, which is why individuals must be careful letting certain media images around children.

Society that is today has become an extremely dependent society, whether that dependency come from a person, or a thing. You could assume that in this generation that more and more children have become dependent on the media, or more importantly their phones. If you really take a look into this generation, a teenager cannot go without a few minutes without looking at their device or let alone have a conversation with you, without getting sidetracked from an incoming message. "Teenage girls now spend an average of seven-and-a half hours watching screens, compared with 3.5 hours of TV viewing in 1995" (Wakefield 2015). The increase of the media within the last few decades shows the correlation between the dependency of things and the media. This dependency could quite possibly cause issues with individuals and their self image, or body image. This generation can be so caught up in what others think of them that and when spending so much time on the media, they become insecure of their own self- image. This technological time period has allowed people to become complacent with comparing themselves or even believing they are better than others, which can also be described as the social comparison theory. 

The social comparison theory "examines how individuals evaluate themselves in relation to peers, groups, and/or social categories" (Milkie,1999). This comparison that is being made can be made to many different domains including physical appearance, or an individual's wealth. Social comparison can be made almost anywhere, but because it is a comparison to other peers, it is incredibly easy for that comparison to be made within the mass media. This is mostly because the media plays such a demanding role in the everyday lives of people. According to the social comparison theory, it is what people do- they compare. They compare to see if they are skinnier, wealthier, more educated or intelligent, and more successful. It seems as though if you do not measure up to these certain types of standards then your life might need some readjusting. Milkie stated that "The pervasiveness of the media makes it very challenging for most women to avoid evaluating themselves against the sociocultural standard of beauty." (Milkie, 1999). There are many different studies that prove that the media is a huge factor of the social comparison theory. One of these studies includes Tiggmann and Slater's Thin ideas in music television: a source of social comparison and body dissatisfaction. They described in their study that music television plays an enormous role in the social comparison of young females. It found that exposing young girls to very small and attractive images of women, which are portrayed in music videos every day, can lead to increased levels of body image or self-esteem disturbance. (Tiggemann & Slater, 2003).  So what makes these standards of success? Of beauty? Of intelligence? Its society as a whole. 

There is also another theory that can be argued as to why society behaves this towards comparison. The cultivation theory can be described as "high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid." (Cultivation Theory, 2011). The cultivation theory in other terms can mean that individuals, who watch too much television or entertainment, can have a hard time distinguishing what reality is. Because these people cannot distinguish what reality is, then their standards of what certain things are become unrealistic. These unrealistic standards can become unrealistic standards of what beauty is, or even what the perfect body image is hypothetical to look like. According to the Cultivation theory, "When real life experiences confirm media views-for example, seeing extremely thin women or attractive women on television or other media and then seeing extremely thin women in person-intensify beliefs." (Cultivation Theory in Relation to Body Image, 2011). 

The third theory as to why women focus on the media, which therefore leads to body dissatisfaction, is the self-schema theory. The self-schema theory is defined as "cognitive generalizations about the self, derived from past experience, that organize and guide the processing of self-related information. According to this approach, individuals can vary in the degree to which body image and appearance is important to them or self-relevant." (Van den Berg, pg 3). This theory focuses on what individuals think of the socially represented ideal body, objective body, and internalized ideal body (Serdar, 2016). The media and its images can make this ideal body image more difficult to obtain. It is close to impossible for every woman to fit this ideal body, that which society has made the standards for, according to this theory. 

There are some that believe the media, specifically social media, is best for society. They think that social media can be a form of information and an easy source of information at that. Those individuals are correct. Social media is an incredible source of information, and with just a few clicks of a button on an iphone or computer, you are able to find out as much information as needed. But, unfortunately the information is not limited to what it may say. Because social media has a plethora of news, that news may be harmful or offensive to any individual who reads it. There is no controlling what type of information will be on social media and therefore the detriments of them far out weight the benefits. 

While the media and its ever growing technology will not stop growing any time soon, the belief that individuals must live up to the expectations of it should. There is no controlling the spread of the media, it is just inevitable that social media will keep expanding and technology will increase in its efforts to make life a slightly more simple and easier. Yes, the media has its positive aspects, like having the ability to reach millions of people on a certain issue, but it also has the ability to reach millions of people on a negative issue, like believing the lies of society and that you just absolutely have to listen to everything it tells you to do. Completely shutting off all media or social media is not the solution, and will most likely never be the solution, but bringing awareness to the simple fact that the media has an abundance of influence that can be detrimental to all people. Knowing that young children are becoming more aware of their weight at an early age can be appalling. The statistics show how early they can begin wanting to start losing weight. Also knowing that you only have a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel can help individuals understand they are not normal. Here, the key to this solution is knowledge. The way people perceive and see themselves is the biggest struggle; you are your own worst enemy. Take control of your own thoughts and accept your body for the way it is. 

