2 years, 1 month ago-
If we were to judge people based on the things that post on Instagram on Twitter we would have an inaccurate idea of what their life is like. Instagram is not always what it seems. For decades, Sesame Street has taught us to relate to find commonality to be accepting, encouraging and inclusive. These are word building blocks for our youth relating to one another but times have changed. Now we live in the era of social media constantly and endlessly comparing ourselves to one another; our bodies, our lives and our relationships. Measuring our happiness by likes and followers doesn’t matter. Is comparing ourselves harmful? Yes, it is. Social media may be fueling a mental health crisis in young people. Social media has led to the 70% increasing and society and depression over the last 25 years. Different ages use and interact with Instagram differently. On Instagram, we see tons of photos of girls and boys our age, many of which are opposed and affected versions of them. What a teenage girl season Instagram is drastically different from what the average adult sees and over time scrolling through these photos can take a toll on our self-esteem. The comparison we generally make every day with people on social media is not only realistic but is also extremely unfair. When we go on Instagram we see happy, beautiful and confident people. The influences on social media constantly tell us to accept who we are, which is necessary but we should not stop putting efforts to be the better version of ourselves. They are constantly telling us to not go by the judgement of others. This again is also necessary but we should not ignore the advice of people who genuinely care for us. We should be concerned, 72% of teens are on Instagram. 68% of the 1 billion Instagram users are women scrolling through their feed looking at the altered, unobtainable body images. This is not healthy. Many young men are becoming addicted to altering the way they look. Filters, plastic surgeries, implants have recently become a lot more famous. After filtering and photoshopping excessively, the likes and comments one receives and being directed at them but they were altered cyber self.
A social media analysis from the Norwegian global marketing network for influencers showed that almost a half of the influencers polled believed that their work had an impact on their mental health and that 32% thought the platform had a “bad” effect on their body image. College women are particularly vulnerable to the impact of social media on their physical images, as they acquire a perspective on their bodies and accept changes in puberty’s development. The lives of numerous people have embedded social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. As the primary users of such platforms are teens and young adults, particularly young women, it is an essential concern whether social media use affects autonomy, self-concept, body imagination and body dissatisfaction. Researchers have begun to research these problems empirically and recent studies have shown varied outcomes. This article seeks to review these results, with the focus on Instagram, Facebook and other prominent pictorial platforms and gives probable reasons for the consequences of the use of social media on body dissatisfaction.
In particular, the use of social media during the previous decade has surged considerably and continues to slump. Pew Research Center reports 71% of those aged 13 to 17 use Facebook, 52% use Instagram, and 41% use Snapchat throughout 2015. Young females are more often than their husbands on picture-oriented social media sites; 61% of girls use Instagram compared to 44% of boys. The increased use, in particular Facebook and Instagram, of social media can adversely influence young girls and women in terms of self-confidence and contentment (Lenhart, 2015). Studies now relate social media platforms with corporal discontent in teenagers (Tiggemann & Miller, 2010; Tiggemann & Slater, 2013). One study examined the underlying processes and discovered that young girls with more photographs online, such as selfies, felt less about their appearances and showed more eating concerns. In addition, a study analyzed the underlying mechanisms.
As already established, while Instagram material is peer created and could therefore perhaps be good, many materials are very staggered and not realistic. People take a long time to arrange the lighting, acquire the greatest viewpoint, take several shots and add filters or photoshop to make themselves the best possible portrayal. So it is important to make our teens realize that the kind of importance that they give is not necessary.This is very true some of the influence is giving the wrong message they are portraying or promoting to the audience about false body positivity to the people and they need to be real, one thing I want to tell is that what we see on social media is not real you cannot totally it may be whatever the platform is so the audience needs to stop following those influencers who they fill like they are showing to much body positivity or cannot because it is going to have a toxic effect on you because according to psychology say our brain starts generating wrong thoughts we start comparing our body with them, we just don’t see the editing that goes behind the picture that is uploaded most of the influencer photoshop themselves tries to look thinner but the innocent followers does not know about this. influencer main meaning is the person who influences people for the right things. People need to know this thing that everyone has their personal life and it is very much different from what they see online. I want followers don’t blindly agree or believe what influencers are saying they should also do their own research and check please don’t follow the influencers who are not adding value to your life follow people who are really helpful for you. Who share exercising tips to every age group and people of different ages, and their weight.
Social media is handling image of body positivity, some people on social media are sharing real side & other are the one who sharing fake side on social media. New generation is washed by social media influencers, not only girls but also boys. In today’s world people like girls who look slim, beautiful & have a good face. In today’s time fat means ugly but in 19th century it’s not true. Princess taj al-kajar sultana of iran is little bit fat, have a moustache and a thick hair & she known as queen of beauty, Around 13 people committed suicide in love for her. Many girls don’t go outside with her friends just because they are feeling fat as ugly due to people who promote it ugly. Because of wrong trend this not only affect their mental health but also body, they consume vitamins & protein less, they eat less to look same as their favourite influencer but it’s affect their body. There are some short video apps who also plays a roll to promote body shame, when ever you open such kind of app you probably more likely to see transformation from fat to slim. Some influencers promote body product or tablet product & their followers use that product but that product affect their skins & body. Their are also many influencers who motivate other to love & accept their body. Young generation believe in social media but less on real life this thing need to get changed.
Today, Social Media is one of the most important factors contributing to the mental, emotional, physical health of an individual. Influencers on social media flaunt their perfect bodies and skin under highly complex poses, angles, good lighting and then they have the audacity of calling themselves ‘supports of body positivity’. Some even go a step ahead and contort their bodies under totally unforgiving, harsh lighting to emphasise their stomach fat, in an attempt to make their bodies seem more relatable to others. They fake stretchmarks, acne and hair on their body. This is what we call false body positivity!
The point is to show off the ‘fake flaws’ and tell us that skinny, size S, women have flaws too. And whilst for many, these image serve as a beacon of body empowerment, but others have brandished the movement as fake. Many of these influencers spreading body positivity are thin, slim with perfect hour- shaped body and they aim to point our their almost non-existing flaws, or sometimes even create a new defect entirely in an attempt to spread body-positivity.
But what we actually need is a sincere effort to tackle the norm of being perfect. There is no need to pretend to have fake flaws and try to spread positivity just to get some likes and followers on social media. Body-positivity is matter that needs serious and honest concerns and we need actual people with actual flaws and filter-free selves to spread it.To begin with let us understand who social media influencers actually are. In simple words it can be understood as any person who has the power to affect the decisions of another by his or her authority, knowledge or position or any relationship with his audience is known as social media influencer. These are people who built a reputation for their knowledge or expertise in any particular topic or subject but
these influencers today are doing more harm than good as false body positivity is partially being forced on social media by influencers.
Now coming to false body positivity it means idealized bodies with perfect hair, acne free clear skin to say the least a picture perfect body which but more obvious isn’t the reality. Social media today is a significant part of today’s culture where easily get influenced by what we see online.
False body positivity is negativity impacting our teenager’s and youth as it is indirectly building negative body image which further builds unrealistic expectations. False body positivity is somewhere a barrier to the concept of accepting oneself as they are in their pure innate self. The constant comparison with people who are presenting themselves in their best form is very toxic for not only physical health but psychologically too as the confidence of such individual is shattered.
Filters, photoshop and editing also play a major role in accelerating false body positivity as they cover the flaws of an individual. False body positivity is more or less concerned with covering flaws rather than accepting them.
Body positivity as the name itself suggests is a positive concept of accepting all types of body regardless of skin, shape, size, gender etc. It is an important concept which needs to be highlighted because it indeed helps us to build a positive relationship with our bodies enabling us to be comfortable in our own skin, forbidding self critisism and leading us to more self love and self care which is the need of the hour.A very important topic indeed, false body positivity is being forced on social media by influencers. I completely agree. A perfect body is just a myth that humans, especially women are made to believe in. False body positivity is a tool that influencers use to propagate their idea of beauty which is completely baseless. Slim body, curves, no acne, hairless body, no stretch marks, and what not! Nowadays, beauty is not measured by uniqueness, but by the size of one’s waist. In order to be portrayed as beautiful, people, especially women, must attain these unattainable and unrealistic standards. Influencers are capitalizing on the physique of a woman. There is constant pressure to look perfect. Perfection is a delusion that is ailing humans. Body standards are a construct that is propagated by social media. On apps such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, people are witnessing things that make them believe their body is not perfect like the others, people believe that their personality isn’t enough to please the world. Everyone is so competitive that they try to harm themselves in order to achieve the so-called “perfection”. False body positivity is forcing women to have the need to be better or desired than others. Everyone is getting affected by the beauty standards whether a male or a female, men are required to have a perfect body, such as a muscular figure whereas everything is wrong with women if they don’t have the perfect body that influencers propagate. Body standards take a toll on mental health, people experience low self-esteem because of this false portrayal of the body and it is destroying their sanity. Real beauty is in accepting ourselves the way we are and not trying to be someone else. Real beauty comes when we do not compare ourselves with others and try to attain the so-called “beauty standards”, real beauty is in being imperfect, real beauty is in not hating the normal things in our body. Real beauty is in being fat, thin, or whatever body type you have. Real beauty is in ourselves. We cannot let influencers influence our way of loving ourselves.
In today’s generation, social media content creators play a huge role shaping the views and notions of the youth. And given that their influence is so known to everyone that they are even called “influencers” now, one would think that they must be responsible enough to promote and talk about topic they have expertise in; sadly this is not the truth.
Social media influencers have been known time and time again to promote and encourage things that they are not even aware of, and one such thing is body positivity. You’ll find thousands of people on social media who would pretend to know everything about diets and what is good for your body and what is not, but the truth is, only a handful of them know what they are talking about and even fewer hold some degree to back it up. There are many influencers today who, in the name of body positivity, are either promoting unhealthy habits or are spreading false information regarding the diets and the nutritional information. This needs to be kept in check, especially now than ever before. Eating disorders are now one of the major mental illnesses that impact the youth of the world, and such influencers are on of the reasons that today’s youth feels so bad about their bodies and engage in unhealthy habits. It is important that these social media influencers take responsibility of what they talk and promote and they should only promote the habits that are not harmful in any way.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.