It is commonly known for a fact that social media has become and inseparable part of our daily lives. No matter how much you try, you will see that it is nearly impossible to go through even a day without having the need to look up another profile on Facebook, watch another stupid video on YouTube or like a random post on Instagram. And although this change in today’s society’s mind state is not necessarily as bad as today’s media portraits it, there are times when social media just doesn’t, let’s say, live up to our expectations in ethical means. One of the most common problems today’s population has to face with, as most of you also know, is the specific body image “forced” upon people.
Whether it be an ad for a gym or a brand new vitamin gummy bears or simply a packet of “detoxifying tea”, people are constantly forced to compare their own body image with the ones social media likes to monetize. I bet most of you come across these ads on a daily basis, including men or women of any age group, really. But it is a fact that these companies’ aimed demographic is women between the ages of 15-22.
Profiting off of teenage girls who have a low self esteem is disgusting on its own, however, it goes deeper than this. Once you actually experience it yourself you will realize that they don’t only use the help of influencer culture to sell their cheap useless products. The companies I am talking about mostly advertise on underage girls and use their self-doubts about their own image to make millions. One of the ways in which they advertise themselves is by sponsoring these underage girls -who are objectively considered beautiful by the media- by testing their products on them and then forcing them to make a video or at least a post about these on their page. The products can range form a simple hair dye and a shoe to more extreme and absurd ones like injections to even operations. Keep in mind that most of the girls used to advertise these are not much older than 17.
And this is vaguely the main problem with today’s influencer culture and social media: Big cooperation do not only support the idea of changing so much of an underdeveloped body of an underdeveloped mind, but they also do not even bother denying these actions and no matter how much they are addressed about the issue they simply uphold their mannerism.
Social media does ruin people’s self esteem. And especially women’s.
“Lead researcher Martin Graff says social-media users tend to think thin people are more attractive, and may be more self-conscious about how they themselves look.
As part of the research, he and his colleagues questioned 100 female college students, asking them to complete a series of questionnaires about their use of social media and feelings about body image.
The feedback women receive on social media could be making them insecure, particularly if they fail to realize that “what people post is nearly always images of themselves in a positive light,” Graff said.
“People generally portray themselves positively — in the gym, running a marathon or having a happy time,” he added. “People don’t post ‘bad hair’ days or photos of themselves looking sick.”
Next time you see one of those ads on anywhere on any social media platform, keep in mind that behind the screen you are looking at lovely lovely business men in their lovely lovely suits, abusing their authority and taking advantage of little girls and monetize their self-consciousness. And although everyone is kind of the main target of these industries, women are the main audience they aim at. This is why women are easily more affected by this massacre than men.
Bibliography:
https://nypost.com/2018/05/07/social-media-can-ruin-womens-self-esteem/