As a woman, I have personally seen and experienced the effects that media has on individuals.  Media has become known for displaying women in unrealistic forms which affects the human mind, especially those still growing up.  With the increase in technology, media not only refers to the swimsuit models in magazines, but now also forms of social media such as Instagram, which can have a similar negative impact.  This issue has been worsening over the past years due to the increase of media use by teenagers and individuals in general.  It has become a popular topic, and is being studied and seen to have a relation to eating disorders.  All different types of media lead to negative effects on one’s body image and self-esteem; therefore, people should reconsider the amount of time they spend using media and the importance they place upon it.

Without realizing, people are constantly surrounding themselves with the media.  The media is everywhere, whether you are at the nail salon and picking up a magazine, or you are on your couch watching television.  Recently, with the growth of technology, the media rarely seems be a source of simply news. For example, beyond the simple media forms of television and newspapers, the invention of smart phones has led to applications such as Instagram and Snapchat.    These applications are only a small portion of the issues at hand, being the media effecting body image.  Along with this, it becomes a habit to compare yourself to what is seen on whatever magazine, snapchat article, or movie you are watching.  This is when the media becomes more hurtful than helpful.  The media is a great and convenient way to receive news or messages from your friends, but it is not being used for just this purpose anymore. 

The main issue with these social media applications and websites is how they are being misused.  Teenagers and young adults look to these sites as an escape, hoping to find a quick confidence boost.  After reading “How Girls Use Social Media to Build Up, Break Down Self-image” on CNN, this point was proved.  The author, Caroline Knorr, discusses how children and teenagers resort to social media for positive feedback and a boost in their confidence.  A survey was done and it was found that most of the teens online are worried about how they are judged.  For example, 27 percent of these teenagers feel stressed about how they look in posted photos, and 35 percent are worried that they may be tagged in unattractive photos (Knorr).  With these social media applications, it becomes a competition between teenagers.  On Instagram, there is a competition of who can get the most likes and followers, and on Snapchat, it is who has the highest number of friends on their list, or highest number of received chats.  While this all sounds trivial, it is a real issue that teenagers struggle with, often not even realizing it.  They are unknowingly seeking validation from these applications, or more specifically, from the people within these applications. Another article from Time, “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror,” discusses this similar idea.  The author, Rachel Simmons, points out how with the use of other applications, teenagers can actually alter themselves in images before they post them.  Teenagers can whiten their teeth, cover up a pimple, and even edit their body to look thinner or more desirable.  Through the use of these editing applications, people create even more unrealistic expectations, rather than finding a way to be confident and secure on their own.  This warps their minds in a way to feeling that they have some control, while they are actually just experiencing intense insecurity issues (Simmons).

Social media is not the only source of the problem when it comes to causing self-image issues.  An example that I can personally relate to is the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.  This is a fashion show that every teenage girl looks forward to, while also dreading it.  Those who participate in the show, the Victoria’s Secret Angels, are instant self-esteem destroyers.  An article on Cosmopolitan was published called, “Why The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Can Make You Feel Fat,” written by Katherine Schreiber.  These models have a height around 5’10 and usually weigh around 110-120 pounds (Schreiber).  When viewing these Angels walk down the runway in almost no clothing, it is bound to make you feel bad about yourself.  The way these angels are built is not a normal and natural thing; their bodies are rare and almost impossible for an average human to attain, but teenage girls do not realize that.  These Angels have to follow specific dietary guidelines and workout schedules to achieve this look for the runway.  These feelings of self-doubt are natural though; research shows us that seeing images of people much thinner than you will make you feel bad about your body.  In some cases, it has been found to even prompt an eating disorder that one may have been trying to hide.  Remembering that science has proven that certain DNA allows for some bodies to have smaller bones, higher metabolisms, and smaller waists, is the ultimate key to avoiding a feeling of complete self-destruction (Schreiber).

Some forms of advertisements, while you think would boost one’s confidence, actually end up tearing it down.  “The Self-Activation Effect of Advertisements: Ads Can Affect Whether and How Consumers Think about the Self,” a journal based off of the study done at the University of Chicago, looks at advertisements for beauty products and how these can be linked to lowering women’s self-confidence.  The study uses multiple scientific experiments to see how the consumers react to certain products done with specific advertisements.  The initial basis of the reasoning for this study discussed that advertisements aim to make a product look “highly desirable.”  While they are trying to accomplish this, advertisements sometimes give the impression that with the purchase of a specific product, you will also receive the beauty that is shown in the advertisement.  For example, in a makeup commercial for a new face powder, the model usually has flawless skin and nice bone structure, regardless of the use of the product.  Without realizing this, consumers watch the advertisements and feel confused when the result they find does not match the appearance of the model in that product’s advertisement.  The objective of the experiment’s first study is to see how each advertisement correlated with the amount of time one spent thinking about themselves.  It was composed of sixty-six females who were randomly assigned to be a part of three different groups.  The first group was exposed to a non-advertised product, the second was exposed to a beauty-enhancing advertised product, eyeshadow, and the third was exposed to a problem-solving advertised product, deodorant.  By observing the specific pronouns being used by the participants, the results showed that those who were exposed to the beauty-enhancing product advertisement used more first-person pronouns than those who were exposed to the other advertisements (Tramp, Stapel, Siero).  This shows that watching a beauty-enhancing advertisement tends to make people think more about themselves than any other advertisements.  From these results, one can conclude that the way beauty is perceived in advertising has a strong impact on self-confidence.

A trending theme throughout all of these examples of media is the result in lowered self-esteem.  One of the most dangerous and increasingly popular issues associated with low self-esteem among young people is the diagnosis of eating disorders.  Eating disorders are not always created by an influence of the media, but they stem from body image issues, which do result from the media a lot of the time.  Justin Healey’s book, Positive Body Image, was written to further analyze the relationship between body image issues and eating disorders.  Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that result from having an unhealthy body image.  Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.  Anorexia nervosa is defined as, “self-imposed starvation coupled with an intense fear of weight gain”, and bulimia nervosa is defined as “episodes of binge eating followed by purging” (Healey, 5).  Healey then discusses the influence media has on young adults and how it relates to these disorders.  Just as I previously stated, he also argues that repeated exposure to the images of beautiful, thin women can eventually have an impact on vulnerable people.  At the moment, one out of one hundred females are diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, and four out of one hundred females are diagnosed with bulimia nervosa (Anred).  Scientists fear that the number of individuals who develop an eating disorder in result of media’s pressures will increase in the future due to technological advancements and increased use. This is an example of one of the most dangerous effects that the media is contributing to.

Social media has detrimental effects on self-esteem to begin with, but with the addition of cyberbullying, these problems only worsen.  In a clinical report done by Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, MD, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD, cyberbullying is defined as “deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person” (O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, 801).  Cyberbullying occurs when adolescents misuse the privileges of social media.  This act of online harassment can lead others to developing psychosocial outcomes such as: anxiety, depression, severe isolation, and even suicide (O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, 801).  This is clearly not something one inflicts on themselves, but researchers have also presented a new idea called “Facebook depression,” which involves depression that develops when teens spend too much time on social media websites, and then begin to show symptoms of depression.  Adolescents turn to social media for acceptance by their peers, but these sites are becoming too extreme, and they are thought to be a major trigger of depression (O’Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, 802).  It is evident that the overuse of social media can negatively impact emotional, mental, and physical health in more than one way.  

Social media has the potential to positively impact oneself, when it is used properly.  Unlike the negative ways I discussed earlier, it is a possibility to view the media as a tool to increase self-confidence.  In an article on Healthy Place called “How to Use Social Media to Build Self-Esteem”, it is said that social media sites can be used in a healthy and positive way.  A strong example of why social media has its benefits is how it connects people.  It allows you to contact people you may not usually be able to contact, and it allows people feeling lonely or depressed to have some type of escape (Agathangelou).  Social media sites, such as Facebook, allow people to share their special moments with others, and interact with a large group of people on a more personal level.  However, this article emphasizes the importance of moderation when it comes to social media.  Too much time spent on these social media sites can lead to an unhealthy obsession and can interfere with one’s quality of life.  The article concludes by stating that in the end, it depends on how you use and respond to social media, to determine if it is “helpful or harmful” (Agathangelou).  If these ideas were as easy as they sound, this issue would not be so prevalent.  Realistically, although positive interaction may be the intended purpose of social media, people do not always use it as such.  

Above all, the key to solving the problem at hand is building a strong foundation of one’s self-esteem, without the presence of social media.  A short film created by Dove emphasizes the importance of self-love.  The video shows how widespread low self-esteem is among women, and it creates a positive message from that showing how much of a difference can be made when women build each other up.  In this film, it first shows women describing their physical appearances to a sketch artist.  After they describe themselves, another woman comes to the same sketch artist and then describes the same woman.  When the women had the two sketches revealed to them, it was a clear pattern that they had a lower perception of themselves, as compared to how others see them.  The sketches drawn from the descriptions by the outside women appeared as much happier, more attractive, and more confident women.  The sketches that were drawn from the descriptions of the women themselves appeared as sad and less confident, in comparison to the other sketches (Dove).  This video has a strong message that women need to love themselves more, and they need to have more confidence in themselves.  No matter what the circumstances are, involving the media or not, building self-confidence and having a positive self-image is crucial.  

While there is no sign of social media diminishing, it is important to recognize yourself that being exposed to it for a certain extent can have detrimental impact on your ability to maintain high self-esteem.  As a parent, in order to keep your child’s self-confidence high, it is your role to limit your child’s exposure to the media.  Beyond this, reinforcement is a key tactic to building self-confidence.  Healey states that a parent telling a child to “love and accept your body” may have a larger impact on him/her than you think (Healey, 38).  Along with reinforcing self-love, parents should encourage their children to talk to them about how they feel on a day to day basis.  As small of an idea as this is, it can make a difference, and it can help parents recognize issues with low self-esteem more easily than if they did not have this connection.  Lastly, an important thing for parents to keep in mind is to watch how they speak to their children, especially when it comes to talking about dieting.  Healey tells us, dieting is the biggest risk factor for developing an eating disorder, and the littlest comment about a diet can spark a flame (Healey, 38).  It is important to show love and acceptance to your child, not shaming them for their weight or appearance.  Although self-love is a major necessity when it comes to feeling confident, a parent or a peer’s help can always make a difference.

In a world where the media is increasingly prevalent, proper use becomes important in avoiding detriment to self-esteem.  Although the media is at fault for representing women in an unrealistic fashion, the more deep-rooted issue is a lack of self-esteem among women as a whole.  It is important for women going forward to look for confidence within themselves, rather than seeking it from outside sources, such as a blog or a magazine article.  Reducing the amount of time one spends browsing social media sites can have a positive impact on self-confidence.  Already vulnerable, people struggling with self-esteem issues can only be influenced in a negative way by repeated exposure to unrealistic expectations set by the media.  To avoid subjecting oneself to greater struggles in the future, such as potential eating disorders, one should be able to manage the importance of social media in one’s life before it becomes a problem.  Despite the exponential increase of technology around us, managing your own use will benefit you in the future, and make you feel confident and beautiful.
