More than 9 out of 10 American Teenagers use social media and they name Instagram as the most popular site by far (CBS News.). Girls in particular are the main users. Over the past 10 years, social media has become a powerful tool and means of influence that people never expected. Studies have shown that an increasing amount of young girls have started to have body and image issues due to the power of social media. With the amount of media that is published to make girls think that to be pretty, one has to be "skinny" or "covered in makeup" to make friends, has not only damaged the image of women, but has demolished the idea of natural beauty. In order to stop this mindset of body image issues, we as a society need to better regulate the amount of social media, support girls who need psychological aid, and dismantle the ideas of what a "perfect body" is. 

In today's society, teens are exposed to technology that has changed the outlook of what one should act and look like. We grew up or were born into all of the new technology that is evolving. Naturally we became most familiar with it and some can say we use it the most. A great majority of teens have some form of technology and having one or more social media accounts, they tend to post and share a lot information about their lives. Some girls have begun to make it their priority in life, though. They do this by creating accounts and posting pictures for the sole reason to gain more followers, likes and comments. This is being done because girls believe it gives them some sort of acceptance by society and makes them feel "worthy". But what many don't know is the effect it has on girls if they decide to go down this path. These social pressures have increased the occurrences of depression, body-image disorders and have made girls feel like they should post their ideal self rather than their real self-online.  

Globally, girls feel added pressure to conform to a certain standard, dress and behave in a certain way, all in an effort to look and feel "perfect". In doing so, girls are starting to wear makeup, dress in non age-appropriate ways and even diet at a very young age. To seek approval, they take to social media sites like Instagram and post pictures in the hope that their peers and other followers like and make comments that will make them feel better about themselves. Some girls have reached "social media fame" by doing all of this which then leads other girls to follow and begin to copy their ways in hopes to have similar results.  Because of technology growing at such a fast pace and our generation learning it faster then others we are the most affected by it. Some even take it as far as making it their life, which is far from healthy. From seeing girl who seem it "have it all" online leaves girls wondering, should I portray myself as someone else online to get more attention? Perception is everything to us, especially in the world of social media so an issue many young girls are beginning to face is should they be their real self or ideal self online? (Green). For those girls who wish to be more than what they are, they go towards being their ideal self, hoping it will give them some sort of self worth. Being apart of the generation most at fault for this, I have seen it happen personally among a few people I know. Several girls are one person in real life but if you go to their social media account it's a completely different person. Usually the person online is posting pictures in a sexy way, many selfies, a lot of edits and so on. The purpose of this is just for the attention and "fame" of the Internet. 

For years, girls were always made to believe that the thinner the better!  Before Social Media, magazine advertisements were one of the few ways in which this idea was put into young girls minds.   Social media makes sure that "being accepted and liked" is available and everywhere 24/7.  There is no escaping it.  So many young girls have developed eating disorders because of this belief.  Having clear skin and a nice body have made girls think that in order to be accepted and popular, you must look this way.  Girls are going online and continuously obsessing over these "beautiful perfect" girls, they don't realize what they did to get that "perfect" picture. Girls wont eat all day just so their body will look thinner, therefore they can take the perfect picture to post online to gain the attention, comment and likes. "Results showed that girls who regularly shared self-images on social media, relative to those who did not, reported significantly higher overvaluation of shape and weight, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint and internalization of the thin ideal" (McLean). At such a young age girls are beginning dieting and judging themselves because of the pressure they feel to look perfect.  So many girls feel that their self-esteem will be boosted and they would be socially accepted more if they fit that view of perfect.

Social media is both a blessing and a curse. It has given us so many opportunities, opened many doors, given us new and various ways to communicate with each other.  Social media, when used properly is a fantastic thing. Unfortunately, young girls center their lives around social media to get a reaction out of their followers, hoping to get a sign of approval. The main way of getting approcal is by the pictures being posted. In the digital age photographs become an outight way for self-presentation. Photographs are blocks for a person's identity and they demonstrate the image that a person choses to display. (Chau). Young girls are being hit with a barrage of photos of models, for example like the Kardashian girls taking very provocative pictures at such a young age and making it seem like it's an okay thing to do for attention. Seeing famous people do things like this makes young girls feel that it is okay to be 12 years old, wear a ton of makeup, and wear revealing clothes.  Kylie Kardashian is a perfect example in my opinion of someone who was young, grew up in a well known family and felt the pressure from them and society to have to be perfect at all times. Many younger girls look up to her and see that since she wears so much make up at such an early age and sees that she is getting surgery done to her body to make her look beautiful, they believe that they should too. If Kylie Kardashian does it and gets attention from it, maybe I can be like that to? When girls look at these pictures, some will do whatever it takes to look like that model. Many eating disorders are started this way. Many girls will purchase an app that will allow them to edit a picture so that they will look skinny, taller or shorter in it. Girls will do both, exercise and not eat to see fast results or just edit their body to make it look slimmer. According to Philippa's article, "Many actors we see on TV and social media have endured hours of exercise and have deprived themselves of the proper nutrition in order to maintain a thin figure. Some even resort to plastic surgery, liposuction and breast implants. Society is brainwashing young people into believing that being thing in important and necessary." Using influential famous people as models and advertisements of the "perfect" look totally convinces younger kids to do what they can do look like them. 

Why are girls doing this? Why do girls feel that they should take to the Internet for a sense of value and acceptance? The happiness of seeing a comment left on your selfie of "you're beautiful "or "you're perfect! I wish I was you!" lasts for a half of a second. Social media leads to depression in girls at such a young age. (Brown). "Young girls are affected by what they see on the Internet and want to change their appearance. Depression and low self-esteem are two specific points that are displayed when girls compare themselves to models and unrealistic lifestyles." (Durneva-Psychological Science and Education). More kids than ever at such a young age have eating disorders and go into depression because they are pretending to be their ideal self rather than their real self. Not eating all day, throwing up after you eat, exercising for hours and not properly eating afterwards is becoming a big trend within young girls all so they have their body look a certain way. The role that social media and society plays really gets to these girls heads on how their appearance should be. "With 655 million daily users, Facebook represents a ubiquitous merging of two social influences linked to risk for developing eating disorders through reinforcement of the thin ideal: media and peers. Exposure to this idea leaves many adolescent girls and women with body dissatisfaction, which increases risk for disordered eating over time." (Mabe - International Journal of Eating Disorder). With the Internet becoming more and more popular it has begun to cause more and more issues. Young girls shouldn't grow up feeling they have to look and act a certain way to feel of value. They should be taught that who they are is good enough and they should use to the internet for fun not a competition that soon leads to depression.

With many new tools on phones it is easier than ever to edit your pictures to make it look like you but much better. You can pay for top notch apps that will let you whiten your teeth, tan your skin, make body parts look bigger or smaller. Or you can stick to regular free apps on the phone software's that will just simply brighten and saturate your picture. In a study and article done by Philippa Roxby, she did a study on 12-13 year olds asking, "Shut your eyes and put your hands up if you have ever enhanced an image on Facebook." She found that they usually all put their hands up and one of her students even commented that she edits every picture she posts. By constantly editing your pictures and having this amazing image in your head of yourself you realize this isn't actually me. So with girls who begin to feel this way they will take drastic measures to make themselves look this way like the surgeries and losing weight. In a eating disorder examination done by Mclean he found that girls who regularly shared self images on social media, relative to those who did not, reported significantly higher overvaluation of shape and weight, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraints and internalization of the thin ideal. I know from personal experience when scrolling through Instagram and seeing models post pictures in bathing suits it does make me a little envious that they look flawless but never to the extent of depression or an eating disorder. But because that doesn't happen to me doesn't mean it doesn't happen to many other girls my age. They do this to gain some sort of fame and popularity online when in reality that fame doesn't matter. Who you are online isn't who you are in real life, so no matter how famous you are on Instagram because of posting "sexy" pictures, in the end it wont mean much in the real world.

I personally never thought too much about how social media affected some girl's lives. It wasn't until I saw a video of a 16 year old girl named Essena O'Neill expressing herself about how social media changed her life. She was only 13 years old when she created an Instagram and her only reason for doing so is because she felt that was her only way of feeling a sense of value from society. This is a 13 year old girl saying this. In the video she explains how she went about trying to have the perfect body for her pictures. "I remember looking at pictures of models and then looking at my body and thinking "do I look like that? How can I look like that?" (Essena O'Neill).  She turned to the Internet for body image validation because she felt if she got enough likes and comments she would mean something. Though it is sometimes good to get your peers approval, approval from anonymous people is likely to make them want to change into someone they are not to gain their approval.

As a society it is important to remind young girls of there self worth and that they are more than social media. Essena O'neill also expressed why she really quit social media.She made Instagram her life and thought just like many other young girls that if she went to social media and was popular on there that she would feel some sort of self worth and popularity. In the video she quotes things that young girls having the same issues she did should take into consideration. "Having it all on social media means absolutely nothing to your real life." "Everything I was doing was edited and contrived to get more value and more views." "I was worthy of nothing because I wasn't popular online, I obsessively stalked everyone that was all that online. I looked at models who were famous on Instagram, and had all these likes and followers and thought "I want that and want to be valued liked that". She went through the struggle of not eating all day to be skinny in a picture for Instagram. She would edit pictures to make her skin look clearer. She would hold brands in hopes of other people who liked that brand would follower her. But doing all of that didn't make her anything in the real world. She did it because she wanted to feel important in today's society and thought this was the way to do it. 

Instead of society putting pressure on girls to take to social media to prove their worth, they should teach these girls that who they are is more then good enough. Young girls should not have to strive to be better then the next girl out there, they should strive to be a better version of themselves. Growing up in this generation and seeing so many of my friends fall into this pattern is disturbing to me. I have just about every social media account possible but I would never let it define me. Posting pictures and information for my friends and followers to see is for fun, never a competition. According to Gwen O'keefee from the American Academy of Pediatrics, "It is important that parents become aware of the nature of social media sites, givens that not all of them are healthy environment for children and adolescents." Parents can be a huge help in having their children not fall into the crazy pressure and idea that society is throwing out there. Yes there are many positive accounts on social media that promote healthy eating, healthy exercise and so on but more girls tend to flow towards what gets more attention and recognition. All of that being said I hope social media sites take what young girls are going through into account and can come up with a way to change the overall perspective helping girls realize their beauty from within. 

