Essay about Social Media And Body Shaming

It's no surprise that virtually everyone has used or heard of some form of social media. When compared to the days of Myspace, social media has only grown in popularity. While social media is chock-full of bizarre amusement, it's also fair to claim that it's the worst place you could spend your time on. Many terrible instances have emerged through social media, such as children who were cyberbullied and then committed suicide as a result of it. It is undeniable that social media has a significant impact on young kids’ minds with insecurities, cyberbullying, and depression. 

Hiding behind a screen has only made it easier for people to inflict harm onto others without any repercussions. Body shaming is a major issue that can be seen all over social media. You may feel safe and confident in your own skin, but that can all change the moment you open an app like Instagram or Twitter. If you look at any of these apps, you'll find ladies and models portrayed as flawless. This can have a detrimental influence on a young woman's psyche, causing her to feel that in order to be attractive, she must have the "ideal physique." While many people claim that if they don't want to feel awful about themselves, they should just avoid looking at any girl's image, it is difficult for us as humans to not compare ourselves to others. However, it can become much worse when people start to harm themselves in order to look “perfect.” For example, “Comparing yourself to your friends, and friends of friends, on social media can easily put you in a bad mood, harboring negative thoughts about your body. The alleged fix: restricting food and exercising excessively.” This is what leads to body dissatisfaction. Nay Clark states, “ Body dissatisfaction is one of the most consistent and robust risk factors for developing an eating disorder. It is associated with low self-esteem and depression, which puts it at the core of our physical and mental health.” Eating disorders are no laughing matter, and many children are suffering from them as a result of what they see and hear on social media. Young children can develop eating disorders and harm their bodies by limiting meals in an attempt to lose weight. All of this mental strain in order to seem attractive might lead to body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphic disorder is a psychiatric disease in which people see "flaws" in their own bodies as something more than they are. Many individuals I know have quit eating in an attempt to lose weight. Because I am guilty of it myself, I understood why they were doing it, but I couldn’t help but be a hypocrite and tell them that it isn’t right and that they should love themselves. Social media affects us all and can lead to severe depression. For instance, “However, when the happenings spreading in social media are mainly negative or produce feelings of jealousy or envy, levels of stress, anxiety, and depression tend to increase” (Iwamoto & Chun, 2019). All social media does is make us think that we are not good enough and forces us to not love ourselves.  The most useless expression is definitely "love yourself." Yes, I get that individuals want others to feel better about themselves, but it's impossible when they themselves don't believe it. People who are suffering from any of these body image issues will tell you that they genuinely want to love themselves, but they can't. People attempt to support you by calling you beautiful, but how can anybody believe that when they see images of females swamped with comments in which they are called beautiful, only to hear the same ladies later label the girl unattractive and other harsh things? Social media is fake, and it shows with the amount of fake and horrible people found on these platforms. 

Many people think it's ridiculous that children allow such minor issues to impact their entire lives and well-being. They may, of course, just switch off their phones and call it a day. This would look after their bodily and emotional well-being. Why are so many individuals on social media if they can't manage it? Don't go on it if you can't take the unpleasant realities. There is always going to be someone that looks better than you, so why are you going to let one person change your whole well-being if someone will always be better? Instead of trying to look like other people, young kids should try to find happiness in themselves. If kids had good parents they would be smart enough to limit how long and when kids get to use social media. There are statistics of the problems that can occur with social media. In addition, “Data on 9,732 students (48.4% female) aged 11–20 years were obtained from a provincially representative school‐based survey. Heavy use of social media (daily use of more than2 hr) was associated with greater odds of negative relation-ships between mother–daughter…” Social media should not be taking away from your relationships with people you care about. Social media has infested the minds of millions. It is unhealthy the amount of time people spend on their apps. It is outrageous that so many people can let a small comment affect them mentally when all they have to do is close the app or even better delete the comment. Social media has become the downfall of kids nowadays. It has made it impossible for them to communicate with people in person and has made them so soft compared to how the real world is. An example of this recently is cancel culture. Kids are going out of their way to dig up old comments a popular person has said just to try and ruin their career. I’ve seen many kids go crazy about the things people have said even though it is considered dark comedy. Social media has made a generation of hypocrites who love to cancel creators for things done over ten years ago. Some can make a tasteless joke and they’ll have hundreds of kids telling them that they should die. This is why anyone who takes social media seriously needs to grow up. 

Although it is true that social media has infected the minds of millions and can just be turned off, it is not that easy. Just because it is said online doesn’t mean that it is true. It is no secret that social media is very manipulative. Such as in cases with cancel cult I agree that it can get out of hand a couple of times but that doesn’t discredit the fact that it has done some good. An example that I can think about is David Dobrik, he intentionally made his male friend make out with another male on camera as a joke with no consent. This is called sexual assault and anyone who thinks that kids are just making a big deal about it are the real problem. Many other celebrities have been exposed for sexual assault and other things such as homophobia, sexism, and racism. I do however agree that social media has affected relationships such as with kids and parents. This is not an easy problem to fix but can get better over time as kids mature. 

To summarize, social media will only continue to expand, as will the numerous issues that come with it. Regrettably, there is nothing that can assist everyone on social media in dealing with their difficulties. People will continue to be harmed by what they see on social media, which makes it one of the worst places to be.