Studies of Social Media and its Effects on Adolescent’s Body Image

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Throughout the years, technology has evolved into something people cannot live without. Mixed in with all of the improvements, social media has become a major asset in the lives of people. Social media can include websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but can also include video games and magazines. However, social media is not always genuine. In the mindset of adolescents, these medias help to create unrealistic ideas of who they are and who they should be. As if going through puberty isn’t difficult enough, teenagers are raised to face these phony thoughts everyday. One of the top problems that boys and girls experience is the way they view their body; commonly referred to as “body image.” Our media-saturated world provides many teens with low self-esteem, eating disorders, and overall dissatisfaction with one’s body. With the help of parents, adolescents can understand the importance of sorting through the media and finding the healthy body images to look up to. Increasing amounts of media use is fueled by the growing availability of Internet access through phones, laptops, television, and other electronic devices. Social media nowadays focus on measuring the popularity of an individual. For instance, Facebook includes “likes” and “shares”, Instagram has “likes” and “comments”, and Twitter has “favorites” and “retweets”. A study by the University of Salford in the United Kingdom did a study on social media’s effects on self-esteem and anxiety. They reported that participants said that their “use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter makes their lives worse” (Soltero, 2012). It made their lives worse because they had felt as though they were in a competition to get the most likes or comments. Of course, positive c... ... middle of paper ... ...nne E. Television, Disordered Eating, and Young Women in Fiji: Negotiating Body Image and Identity during Rapid Social Change. Vol. 28. N.p.: Kluwer Academic-Plenum, 2004. Print. Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2014, from http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/factors-may-contribute-eating-disorders Heubeck, E. (2006, October 18). Helping Girls with Body Image. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/beauty/style/helping-girls-with-body-image Santrock, John W. Children. 12th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print. Soltero, Á J. (2012). The Relationship Between Social Media and Self-Worth - See more at: Http://thesocialu101.com/the-relationship-between-social-media-and-self worth/#sthash.hNZE82rN.dpuf. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from http://thesocialu101.com/the-relationship-between-social-media-and-self-worth/

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