Impact of Social Media on Physical Appearance

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Many teenagers are going through a hard time. Whether it is walking through a clothing store or watching T.V. The Internet has crashed a dangerous wave of thinspiration in the daily lives of adolescent girls. This craze of thinspiration has damaged minds of innocent children. “ Constant self-criticism and body comparison can easily spin out of control” (Yuskavage 98). Teens feel as if they are supposed to be like the people they see on social media advertisements. What they do not know is that they are their own person. A persons worst enemy is themselves. As humans we tend to give each other and ourselves the hardest time. Whether it is on a low test grade or that a specific part of the body is gaining fat. Social media plays a big part of self-criticism, but so does the mind. Weak minded people are what the media focuses on, and those are the people who get the worst of self-criticism. There has been an increasing amount of internet access across the world. With this access teens have been shown a world of torture and resentment. The mind of teens are craving a sudden desire to be thin. Everywhere you look there is some kind of advertisement or website informing people about ways to get thin or reasons to be thin. This widespread illusion is killing the self-esteem of adolescent teens, mostly girls. “Experts believe that our body image is influenced by media images that tell us we have to look young and slim in order to be beautiful, desirable, or successful” (Powell 22). Yes, the social media world informs us of the things not available to us, but the images they display to their audience is creating a dangerous obsession. Adolescent teens are affected by the images displayed on the screen of a T.V. or monitor, but s... ... middle of paper ... ...scohost.com/src/> "Graphs on Eating Disorders." RSS 20. N.p., 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Powell, Jillian. Self-Esteem. United States. Smart Apple Media, 2006. Simmons, Rachel. “Body Bashing.” Teen Vogue. June/July. 2012. 98-101 Thompson, Kevin J. “The Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders: We’ve Reviled Them, Now can We Rehabilitate Them?” Journal of Social Issues, Vol.55 No.2. 1999: 339-350. EBSCOhost. The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. 1999. “Trend Poll.” Teen People. May 2002: 136. Student Research Center. MAS Complete. Yadegaran, Jessica. “Thigh gap: What’s Behind A Dangerous Teen Body Image Obsession.” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA). 03 April 2013.

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