For young women, social media is more than an app; it provides a social outlet where you can connect with friends, laugh at ridiculous skits and find inspiration for cute nails, hair and outfits. Despite its seemingly helpful hand, young girls are unknowingly consuming content made to support and advertise bodies and faces masked with filters and plastic. Scrolling for hours can feel like a wonderful escape from reality until you fall into the never-ending rabbit hole of comparison and jealousy.
Symptoms of depression and anxiety are common in teenagers who are unsatisfied with their body image. Social media is a main contributor, prompting insecurity and anxiety about one’s body in over 40% of teenagers and 54% of young girls. This body dissatisfaction is detrimental to a teenager’s mental health, as it may result in taking drastic measures to attain certain body goals like having a small waist, thin legs or having a toned stomach. Eating disorders and taking pills like laxatives and diuretics are a common effect of the media’s heartbreaking effect on youth.
With summer on its way, more content is becoming focused on attaining this unrealistic body by providing summer inspiration or even an ambition to start “actually” working hard. Social media advertises consistent themes of what someone’s body “should” look like. It provides expectations for young people that are either unattainable at our age or almost impossible to achieve: being slim, yet curvy; strong, yet feminine; or confident, yet not too loud.
Commercials and social media posts inevitably display women wearing nothing but tiny bikinis, perpetuating the expectation that even young girls are supposed to wear something that exposes their bodies. Yes, girls have the choice to wear a tankini or even a one-piece, yet no swimwear is as socially accepted as a revealing bikini. Despite the insecurity and self-consciousness that swimwear may invoke in girls, the pressure and desire to be socially accepted overcomes the discomfort. In correspondence with these expectations, the media pressures the youth to express themselves in a very confined way.
The desperate need to avoid feeling chubby or different, even if nobody perceives you that way, is a slippery slope. Being satisfied with your body is impossible if you don’t embrace yourself first. Therefore, using unhealthy habits as an attempt to feel more comfortable and confident can easily lead to more body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and depressive symptoms.
The belief that you does not meet beauty expectations adds an immovable obstacle in someone’s day-to-day life. Comparing yourself to peers or adults online, without the awareness that the content we consume is filtered and fake, can lead to overwhelming insecurity.
The feeling of insecurity is unshakeable and can prevent someone from acting and feeling confident. Studies have found that children who have a poorer body image are less likely to take part in physical activity. Being unable to feel comfortable participating in basic activities like fitness at school, swimming with your friends or even tanning by the pool can lead to a sense of loneliness and worthlessness.
Social media’s role in promoting this “perfect body” only supplies the youth with the idea that having this figure is normal, when it is undoubtedly not. Teens and young adults who reduced their social media usage by 50% saw significant improvement in how they felt about both their weight and their overall appearance, in only a few short weeks. Although reducing social media usage is an undesired step to feeling more confident, it is essential to do so.
The media’s promotion of this ideal body harms people’s confidence and happiness, as comparison is the thief of joy. Young girls must change their perception of beauty and how that symbolizes their worth. It is a hard change, yet a necessary one.
