TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, all of these are social media apps that people use to show the world who they are. Social media is unique because it’s the one space that you can flaunt your life and huge amounts of people can all share their two cents without physically being present.
It brings us together by connecting people from all over the world, but it also has its dangers. Often parents warn about kidnappers or pedophiles trying to harm you, but no one ever seems to warn about the harm social media does to your self esteem and body image.
Teenagers are still developing humans, we may try to pass off as adults but fact is, we are not. We are still trying to figure out who we are, what we enjoy, what we want to become. Because of this, our views and ways of thinking can be easily changed based on what we see in social media.
It is great when all this mind-molding leads to positive growth and building up good habits, but it becomes a negative thing when comparison begins. When we look at the people around us we often compare ourselves to them as a subconscious action, and the people we see on social media are no different. Often someone might want to look like a celebrity or influencer, but there is one main problem with that.
The images that celebrities and influencers show off to the world are mostly fake. That girl on TikTok who reviews makeup products and seems to have perfect skin? She is most likely using a filter to try and make it look like her pores are non-existent. That one celebrity that seems to have a perfect face and waistline? She is most likely paying someone to edit her photos and has lip injections.
Combine doom scrolling through instagram 24/7 with perfect but fake faces and soon people begin to forget what a real face and body looks like. Teenagers are especially susceptible to having false expectations of what a normal human body looks like.
They will do everything they can to try and achieve this “perfect” appearance, even if it harms them. This is known as having a distorted body image.
Teenage girls are often the ones who fall victim to comparing their normal and healthy bodies to the fake women on the screen. According to Polaris Teen Center, 69% of teenage girls use models and influencers as their goal for how they want to look. Most attempt to reach these impossible goals through unhealthy methods such as skipping meals, dieting, or misusing laxatives to drop weight at an unhealthy pace.
These extreme dieting methods often lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, etc. The organization dedicated to helping teenagers with eating disorders, Eating Disorder Hope, states that “5 to 22.5% of adolescents will be diagnosed with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder”.
With new trends constantly flooding the internet, do not fall victim to punishing your body if you can not follow them. Trends come and go every week or so, but the human body lasts a whole lifetime. You only get one shot on this planet so, best not use it worrying about how randomhater57 said you looked fat in your last instagram post. Be kind to yourself.
