While advertisement portrayals of the ideal female body image have not changed over several decades (based on Jean Kilbourne's research), the platform for delivering ads have altered drastically. The growth in technology has created a social media technology boom, and as a result increased negative effects in young women. Because technology is one of the most easily accessible things and it impacts women of all ages and ethnicities, these negative effects can be life threatening. Specifically, corporate producers have utilized this social media growth by generating the images in advertisement campaigns to better reach consumers. 

First, advertisements are now woven into social media feeds, which has resulted in the intermingling of everyday images of women with those that are distorted by photo shopped advertisements. Once these unrealistic images become imbedded within a young woman's mind, her self-esteem may be deeply damaged. For instance, eating disorders and other mental afflictions have become a major factor in overcoming these self-esteem issues. These effects can impact all women in all backgrounds. 

Second, social media is also detrimental to the development of interpersonal social skills for young women. Young women gain these wicked social skills by viewing pop culture celebrities. An intriguing aspect that has developed from social media is the "insta-famous" woman. These women are looked up to by young vulnerable women and these young women are seeking a role model to follow, but "ista-famous" women tend to be famous for all the wrong reasons. These women involve in negative actions like verbal fighting through social media. Young women need a broader range of positive role models to choose from.  

Furthermore, young women spend hours socializing through technology that they lose the art of conversation. One journalist wrote about her relationship that developed solely through social media, and how individuals act different online. Her relationship was more personal online than in person, and it resulted in the couple only having a connection online. Another article showcasing human interaction with technology is a piece written about the dangers of a whole family being consumed by technology and losing most of their social skills. These negative social skills can lead to very dangerous consequences. As noted by the article "Cyberbullying Behavior and Adolescents", social media can lead young women to take desperate actions to feel like they belong. Since young women do spend so many hours consumed by social media they lose their constructive social skills. 

In contrast, some individuals believe that social media can have great benefits. They believe that it promotes confidence in young women and positive conversation. An article discussing some of these benefits relates the media as part of the problem. The media itself does not report on the positives, and it only reports the negative events linked to social media.

To illustrate, social media effects all ethnicities of women for many generations and the University of South Carolina has a diverse population of women. Whether they directly relate to the issues or they want to be part of the change, every woman can get involved by changing the social media culture. Social media poses the dangerous risk of negatively impacting young women through distorted images of the female body, which creates harmful perceptions of one's self and others. Female students at the University of South Carolina make up a locally affected demographic and should work to create change through both individual and collective efforts. 

To begin, there has been a steady history of young women developing body image issues from advertisements because these ads have been a part of the buying and selling industry since it was developed. From these advertisements, the ideal female body type has also stayed cemented in the past. Jean Kilbourne has been collecting ads since the late 1960's and has created several presentations over the years. The common trend with these advertisements is the portrayal of women. Her first presentation was made in 1979, "Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of woman". Some advertisements she included read, "If your hair isn't beautiful the rest hardly matters ... I'd Probably never be married now, if I hadn't lost 49 pounds," (Kilbourne). Advertisements in the 1960s and 1970s depicted a woman had to be at peak appearance in order to attract a husband or boyfriend. Kilbourne herself posed for advertisers as a model and she found it to be hypersexualized. Women's body are scrutinized by advertisements because advertisers pull apart young women's bodies and only display sexualized aspects; these ads run in teen magazines. One such advertisement reads, "Your breast may be too big, too saggy, too pert, too flat, too full, too far apart, too close together, too A cup, too lopsided, too jiggly, too pale, too padded, too pointy, too pendulous or just too mosquito bites. But with Dep styling products, at least you can have your hair the way you want it," (Kilbourne). Producers targeted and still today target young women by running hypersexualized advertisements in teen magazines. 

Moreover, there is also a history of producers hiring advertisers to take models and turn them into the ideal body image. The ideal body image consists of a thin, Caucasian, and tan ideal and models are photo shopped to make them look thin, non-Caucasian models have their skin whitened, and then photo shop ads an effect that tans the photo. Advertisers take models with average bodies and turn their photograph into the ideal body image for social media. For years, companies have been using photo shop to produce the ideal body image. Ralph Lauren used photo shop to make a models pelvis smaller than her head which is physically impossible. The same model was fired for being "too fat", (Kilbourne). Young women are exposed to anatomically impossible advertisements twenty-four hours a day seven days a week with the advisement of technology. 

Likewise, the development of technology has created the social media age which has allowed advertisements to be more easily accessed by the main stream populous. Young girls are exposed to hypersexualized advertisements at a much higher rate than before. This has created young women developing mental disorders at younger and younger ages, (Heubeck). Young women have developed eating disorders to make themselves more thin. 

In addition, some key terms that are used when discussing this topic are women-targeted advertising, and body image. Kosut defines women-targeted advertising as, "women are most frequently depicted in passive roles, often in the home ... women are more likely to be depicted as inert and sexualized objects. Additionally, body image is described as, "Body image is a multidimensional construct that refers to the mental picture people form of their bodies. That picture is influenced by one's own beliefs and attitudes about how they look, as well as socially constructed ideals of beauty," (Kosut). To continue, "Negative body image (when a person has a distorted self-perception) is thought to be a risk factor for the development of eating disorders," (Kosut). These are just some of the terms used in this topic to reference the dangers of social media. 

To conclude, the historic cycle of advertisements has created an over whelming world that young girls have to experience. For decades young women were constantly exposed to unrealistic women. Every woman on the University of South Carolina campus is susceptible to being exposed to unrealistic images and then developing some sort of mental disorder. Every woman also has the ability to change this cycle and change the social media conversation. 

Primarily, the dominant concern with social media is the body image issues that arise when young women use social media. Young women are bombarded with negative images that are woven into social media streams. Michael Prieler discusses how young women encounter advertisements, "Young women may use Facebook primarily for socializing and may encounter pictures of thin women," (381). Young women have no choice but to absorb all of the "ideal female body type" advertisements being placed in front of them. Advertisements portray women in all the same way, Kilbourne's presentation discusses, "The pressure on women to be young, thin, beautiful is more intense than ever before," (3:33).  Currently young women are being exposed at higher rates and are expected to be the "ideal body type" and they believe it is the social norm. The easy access to social media has directly resulted in the growth of body image issues with young women. 

Next, young women also have the issue of viewing negative role models through social media. Pop culture icons are viewed through their social media accounts and young women are exposed to their bad decisions. "Celebrities are often assigned tags of 'good' or 'bad' role models in public discourse ...  applied to [their] behaviors ...  (e.g. Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan), girls more frequently used the good/bad binary in relation to celebrity performances or dress that connoted hypersexuality," (Jackson). Many "bad" celebrities have twitter battles online or choose to use undesirable acts online. Young women look up to these women because they are in the public spot light, causing young women to start replicating these undesirable social skills. Women in Popular Culture should be using the highest respect and constructive social skills on social media, because they can impact young women. 

Continued, there are mental consequences associated with using social media like using social media to bully young women. Philippa Roxby wrote an article about the impact of social media and bullying on the female body and self-esteem. In her article, Roxby details the experiences of Kelsey Hibberd's, a young woman, experiences. Roxby writes about Hibberd's experiences with online bullies that resulted in her body image issues, "Kelsey describes the bullying she experienced between the ages of 11 and 16 as 'absolutely awful'. 'It was all about my body and how I looked,' she says. She changed her hair color and stopped eating to try to fit in,". Roxby's interviewee got bullied through social media and it caused her to look at herself in a damaging light. Young girls have started to look negatively upon themselves as young as five years old, (Heubeck). Young women are starting to developed self-esteem issues at younger and younger ages.

Furthermore, there are life threatening consequences associated when people become "Trolls" on social media. "Trolling" is when a person stocks or bullies another person online. Trolling can be life threatening, "One of the first high-profile cases emerged in the US state of Missouri in 2006, when 13-year-old Megan Meier killed herself after being bullied online, (Brown and Castello). Meier was trolled online and she ultimately killed herself because of the self-esteem issues she developed. If young women do not result to drastic measures, then they can be put in an equally dangerous situation such as becoming a cyberbully themselves. There is a cycle of cyberbullying, first victimization, second anger or frustration, and then an individual can take two paths, they can expose or become a cyberbully them self. (den Hamer). This is the hazardous and life threating effects of social media that can effect every young woman.

Another effect is the consequences on relationships, for example when families or couples become obsessive with technology. The family focuses on their devices, "screens big and small are central to the Campbell family's leisure time. Connor and his mother relax while watching TV shows like "Heroes." Lily has an iPod Touch, a portable DVD player and her own laptop. This family has become consumed by technology," (Richtel 486). They cannot function without their technology devices and ultimately loose their social skills. Romantic relationships can suffer too, "With my Skype screen open and my webcam on, I viscerally felt that Will was sitting a foot away on my bed ...  I didn't like being surrounded by his things. I felt more comfortable in my room, with my things, and with his presence confined to a laptop screen," (Dewey 519-520). This young lady's relationship developed through social media but when she met him in person it was very different. Individuals can loose their social skills by using technology to much, but an individual's true self is not shown online, only in person. 

In contrast, many folks believe that social media has positive effects and that the media only responds to the unfortunate stories. Kelly Wallace writes an article discussing the constructive side to social media, "it can ... help to build self-confidence, too,' said Masio ...  'When they post selfies, all the comments I usually see are 'You're beautiful,' 'You're so pretty,' 'Oh my God, gorgeous,'". While this can happen young women can get cyberbullied for the way they look. The cyberbullying can lead to dangerous consequences and any helpful aspects of social media are dominated by destructive social skills delivered through social media. 

To conclude, social media can be constructive for some young women but more and more social media is being used to hurt, and provided free advertising of damaging images. When young women view "ideal body image" advertisements, they are more likely to develop mental disorders so they can replicate the images they see. Young women start to develop unwanted social skills that they display through the use of social media. All of these issues are a direct result to the evolution of technology. The easy access to technology has allowed children at younger and younger ages to experience these destructive effects. 

To articulate, there are many solutions that have been utilized in other areas and could be implemented to help prevent young women from developing negative body images and harmful social skills. One implemented solution is having young women become involved in local sports programs.  The second implemented solution is having parents talk to their children about what, and who they are viewing on social media, and also inspiring them to view their true self. Finally, a proposed example is to create a mentoring program that focuses on young women's bodies, which could greatly improve their self-esteem. These solutions focus on developing young women's mental and emotional side, and they can be applied both locally and globally.  

The first implemented example is young women joining a local sports team. Sports teams can be very beneficial for a young woman because it allows them to develop key team building skills, which help with building positive social skills. Furthermore, it allows them to see that women come in all shapes and sizes, disproving the "ideal body image" that is so often placed in front of them by advertisers. It is important to note that young women should get involved with a team that does not value the way a player looks, for example ice skating, (Heubeck). When young women are involved, "adolescent girls and women benefit from, and are empowered by, sports and sports programs that build assets, provide access to resources, and develop agency and leadership," (Aafjes 372). Sports programs help young women understand the importance of proper social skills and the empowerment that can result from these programs is extremely beneficial. It has been proven that sports based programs can help young women change their outlook on themselves.

The second implemented example is to have parents, guardians, leaders, and other mentors converse with all young women about viewing themselves positively. Young women need to know that the images that are plastered all over social media and the internet are not true images of women.  Parents or any other impactful leader in a young woman's life, "parents' energy is better spent getting their daughters to look at and think critically about the unrealistic way the media portrays girls and women ... Co-viewing ... allows parents and their daughters to talk about those patterns of [physical] representation," (Heubeck). Young women can be greatly impacted by having a leader in their life and someone to communicate to them the images they are viewing.

A proposed solution for local young women is to have them involved in mentoring programs.  Locally, University of South Carolina students can play a major role as a mentor for a young woman and they can be a leader for other University of South Carolina students to get involved. A country wide program that has chapters in Columbia, South Carolina, is Girls on the Run but it needs to be implemented on a much grander scale. In every session of Girls on the Run, young women have a lesson about positive body image and then they learn how to run a marathon. USC students can be a coach at local schools and be a mentor to young women. 

The second proposed solution for local students is to have young women becoming involved with programs that do not emphasize the body. Programs that de-emphasize the human body and focus solely on the mind can build on a young woman's mental strength. The University of South Carolina has a free meditation and yoga class to focus on mental wellbeing. Building mental strength can help prevent young women from developing eating disorders or any other form of mental illness. Young women can change the conversation from focusing on the body to focusing on the health of the mind.

Through the technology boom, social media has grown at an exponential rate allowing young women to have access to social media twenty-four seven. This access has caused young women to develop body image issues and unhealthy social skills. Advertisers have not changed the way they portray women for decades, and yet they have changed the way they presented those advertisements to represent current times.  Advertisers now thread the "ideal body image" advertisements into social media. These false images cause young women to develop body image issues, and also they develop eating disorders. Other issues with the growth of technology are the "ista-famous" women who are perceived to be role models, because of their celebrity status. Young women view their undesirable actions and then try to copy them. Furthermore, social media can be a source of cyberbullying which can create a very dangerous situation. Young women have taken dangerous actions because of cyberbullying, but they can also become a cyberbully themselves. Some implemented solutions to these issues include becoming involved with local sports programs, family or leaders speaking with young women about what they are viewing, and finding a proper mentor. University of South Carolina women need to be the driving force that creates the conversation to changing advertisement and social media. 

