Social Media Influence on Adolescents
Abstract
This study examined how social networking influences the body gratification of adolescents through variables like age, period consumed on social networks, societal assessment behaviors, and appearance-interrelated arrogances. However, the entire study scrutinizes the influence of social media on adolescents, and the conclusion is that males have a higher body image satisfaction as compared to females. The outcomes indicated that adolescents who access their social media accounts many times in a day have a likelihood of engaging in societal assessment to aspects like fashion models and peers and celebs. Consequently, most adolescents who often compare themselves with these fashion models, celebs and peers are more likely to have higher appearance-interrelated arrogancies, which eventually lower their body satisfaction. Generally, the outcome clarifies that body image satisfaction is a significant predictor of the usage of social media sites, particularly Facebook and Instagram, which are mostly used by adolescents.
Keywords: social media, body image satisfaction, adolescents, facebook, instagram
Introduction
Social media is an assortment of applications and websites which facilitate making and sharing of personal content by its users or enabling them to involve in social interactions. A social media platform is an online site that is used for building social networks or social relations with others who have similar interests or vocations. Social media use is currently prevalent among adolescents and may impact their lives on various occasions. The increased usage is fundamentally interlinked to adolescents who engage in social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, where they share images and other content that reaches millions of people worldwide. Researchers have proved the direct interrelation amid the use of social media and truncated body gratification amongst adolescents, and that body displeasure leads to eating disorders and subordinate self-confidence. This is because various social media users criticize the images posted in terms of body outlook, and this eventually detracts the self-confidence of adolescents since their body image is lowered.
Several adolescents are lured by the figure and outlook of celebrities and fashion models. Thus they end up tending to imitate them by making similar outfits and posting images in the sites so that they can hear perceptions of users globally. If the image is criticized and abused, the adolescent ends up being discouraged and feels that he or she does not fit the society, and therefore their emotions are primarily influenced. Their body image is lowered, and thus their self-esteem is lowered. Low self-esteem forces them to think of such critics deeply, and their appetite is diminished too because they suffer depression. The problem is that adolescents have not yet formed life principles and viewpoints and strong psychological and emotional organization, and thus they feel disgruntled with their body image.
Body image frustration affects the building of their identity because as children emerge into adolescents, there are physical, psychological, and emotional changes that start occurring due to puberty. Therefore when they are criticized, their identity development is decelerated. Erikson (1959) describes adolescence as a critical point of development where one begins to grow a logic of self through their individuality. Identity is linked to one’s development of self-confidence or self-image (Leary & Bauneister, 2000). Self-image is demarcated as the perception of one’s self, and adolescents are highly alert to external factors that also come from social media since they are at the stage of developing their identity. Most social media users believe that celebrities and fashion models are the perfect personalities who should be looked up to, and thus any image which is contrary to them is considered as imperfect and is criticized; hence body image is lowered. Low body image lowers self-confidence, and therefore adolescents tend to lose appetite for food because they are below the required standards of personality in social media.
Thesis statement: The paper attempts to reveal how social networking sites, particularly Facebook and Instagram, impact body image satisfaction and eating habits. The research questions: how social media impacts adolescents, what eating disorders relate to body image dissatisfaction if adolescents are satisfied with their body images? The paper reviews the links between eating habits and emotional state among adolescents and provides suggestions for future studies.
Literature Review
The topic is of great importance because due to the prevalence of thin and masculine images on Facebook and Instagram, adolescents negatively perceive their body images and often report feeling sad and increase in depression. According to the statistics from The Pew Research Center, nearly 80% of people aged 17 years old in the U.S. are Internet users, and most of them mainly have Facebook and Instagram accounts. As the Pew Research Center shows, females are most prone to using social networking sites than males. This indicates that once a thin female body is promoted on the Internet, most internet users receive such messages (Perloff, 2014). Females are more prone to fashion outfits and like posting their images on these sites so that they attract men. Therefore if at a circumstance the image is discouraging, she may feel offended by critics because their body image is not perfect for people. The most prevalent problem is comparing their bodies with celebs and fashion models because they may feel dissatisfied with their body outlook and suffer from depression when their images are disparaged in social media sites. In summation, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram hold large amounts of image content. Therefore peer pressure amongst adolescents, especially females, forces them into depression because they view themselves as imperfect and inferior. Facebook and Instagram have different statistics. Firstly, Instagram was established in October 2010 and currently has over 400 million users, and more than 80 million photographs are uploaded every day. On the other hand, in 2014, Facebook had more than 1.6 billion users and an approximate of 800 billion regular minutes of use. A large percentage of users are adolescents.
Theoretical Framework
The most appropriate theory for my study is the social comparison theory, which postulates that persons inherently equate themselves with others targeting at doing a self-evaluation to know what they need to improve so that they become similar to them. This is fundamental to my study because adolescents usually make a comparison of their outfit comparative to a costume of a celebrity or a fashion model. However, the social comparison theory clarifies that people straightly focus on specific attributes, and when they fail to achieve the standards of the celeb, they end up feeling oppressed (Kozar & Damhorst, 2008). Female adolescents usually feel closely related to fashion model personalities in social media. This may eventually stimulate negative feelings when these models challenge them. Therefore, they face risks of eating disorders, depression, and body dissatisfaction.
Social Media Usage by Adolescents
The paragraph reviews the popularity of social media among adolescents and indicates how they impact their self-confidence and body image satisfaction. Due to technological advancements and accessibility, many adolescents utilize social media tools such as Instagram and Facebook to post and view online content. Social media usage plays a dynamic role in adolescent growth of self-confidence, which affects body image (McLean et al., 2016; Michels & Amenyah, 2017; Opara & Santos, 2019). Research has shown that when adolescents post online content and received positive feedback, there was positive self-esteem, while negative feedback has lower self-esteem (Opara & Santos, 2019). Self-esteem is a factor in developing body image, which involves subjective evaluations of the physical body appearance (i.e., figure, weight, complexion). According to the social comparison theory, there is a link between one’s body image satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) and the ways how people perceive themselves because the negative influence of celebs or fashion models leads to a lowering of self-confidence. After all, adolescents may feel lesser because of poor body image.
Instagram images of fitspiration images indicate an increased body dissatisfaction rather than exposure to neutral pictures. This shows that exposure to Facebook and Instagram images promoting perfect body images correlates with negative appearance appreciation. As the study with American adolescents revealed, adolescent girls sharing selfies tend to edit their pictures and have a more impoverished bodily appearance. Taken that fitspiration involves providing images that motivate people to have a healthy lifestyle, it often alters female body image and leads to a negative perception of female bodies (Slater et al., 2017). Therefore, young people are prone to be dissatisfied with their bodies because Facebook and Instagram images mostly show perfect body images.
According to Perloff, social media has much impact on digital lives, more than other forms of mass media. The prevalent peers amongst adolescents spur this that they feel better while accessing Facebook and Instagram sites. These peers have a substantial effect on modern youth who has still not formed viewpoints, attitudes towards body images, and thoughts. However, Perloff indicates the prevalence of negative impact on views on youth body perceptions (Williams & Ricciardelli, 2014). Social media has a significant effect on cultural stereotypes and perceptions of body images. According to social cognitive theory, crucial importance is attributed to body image and its mass media influence. (Perloff, 2014). This, in turn, may lead to a prevalence of distorted body image and body dissatisfaction because it does not respond to the principles of modern beauty standards.
Social media sites are dominant for sharing images of celebrities, and adolescents can access them often. This involves the prevalence of modeling, a gender-types image of a body, social comparisons, which provides a negative impact from failing to respond to unrealistic images. On the Internet, young females are exposed to pictures of models with perfect parameters. Females tend to experience body dissatisfaction with their bodies when they are challenged by the outfits of celebrities (Williams & Ricciardelli, 2014). It is clear that the once-perfect body is shown to a person; he feels that his body is not as perfect. Celebrity images are the most convincing to adolescents because they are usually regarded as excellent.
Besides, in the study provided in Australia, boys spend much time watching sports programs that stimulate them to strive for fitness and muscularity. Young women are more interested in fashion and admire actresses and singers. This impacts their motivation to change body images and leads to dissatisfaction with the body (Williams & Ricciardelli, 2014). Boys and girls are affected by different types of images.
Adolescents tend to learn and analyze any information related to their body image; they develop negative feelings about their body image in short terms if they are dissatisfied with appearance. Whereas modern society promotes a thin figure for women, they strive to perfection, and boys often see themselves as thin or as those who do not have enough muscular body. Thus, a negative perception of body images often leads to depressed mood in boys and girls (Marengo et al., 2018). They should avoid negative feelings and realize that some photos are edited.
Individuals do not need to follow images promoted by social media. They should realize the marketing forces and messages. Social media influence may lead to anorexia and even bulimia, related lifestyles because adolescents incredibly strive to look like their favorite singers and actors. People become significantly focused on body images and their self-perception, which leads to poor eating habits and social and psychological pressures (Williams & Ricciardelli, 2014). They should not carefully perceive the data obtained.
Social media use impacts body dissatisfaction and often leads to eating disorders because media images concentrate mainly on ultra-thin females. Social media presents pictures of female and male bodies that are often formed and dispersed by individuals. Nowadays, there is a thin ideal of a body image that is beauty standard in the U.S. According to Perloff; White U.S. girls are most prone to developing eating disorders and having body dissatisfaction. In society, female bodies are subject to scrutiny. For example, in the 1980s, women were expected to be aesthetically beautiful. Moreover, males prefer thin body types of women (Andsager, 2014). Therefore, social media use often results in eating disorders because mostly thin images are promoted.
Pubertal development has associations with disordered eating because during this period because adolescents are significantly influenced by external factors (Baker et al., 2012). Thus, adolescent girls are incredibly prone to use celebrities as examples of having a perfect body image (Opara & Santos, 2019). Nowadays, social media are widely used by adolescents; they impact their views, perceptions, and self-esteem too.
Body Image Dissatisfaction Among Adolescents
The paragraph considers how body dissatisfaction is developed and relevant statistics on its prevalence in adolescents. It is increasingly debated how media impacts body displeasure and eating disorders. Modern media has shown changing cultural influences on different spheres, including beauty standards (Ferguson et al., 2014). Body dissatisfaction is a vital predicting factor for disordered earing and problems with weight, depression, related negative health consequences (Bucchianeri et al., 2013). In girls aged 10 to 14 years old, they feel less satisfied at ten years old, and to 14 years old, their satisfaction and self-esteem decline. Together with this, body satisfaction declines. Such self-worth is mostly determined by their perception of body and figure (Barker & Bornstein, 2010). Therefore, young females often feel dissatisfied with their bodies.
Body dissatisfaction is usually linked to self-esteem, eating habits, and body mass. It is a valuable part of body image disturbance. Low self-esteem involves inferior respect, feelings of inadequacy, and girls usually report lower self-esteem than males. According to the statistics, in most European countries, overweight and obesity in adolescents vary between 10% and 20% (Makinen et al., 2012). Thus, overweight and obesity could result from body dissatisfaction and low self-confidence.
Eating habits among adolescents
The paragraph reviews what determines the well-being of adolescents; it considers how dissatisfaction with body forms develops, and its consequences. There are direct links between eating behaviors and self-confidence. This is mostly because girls’ adolescents are less satisfied with their appearance. After all, they pay much attention to femininity and attractiveness. Thus, they view dieting as a way to become beautiful and slim. When restrained eating patterns characterize them, they tend to lose control (Hoare & Cosgrove, 1998). Whereas girls strive to become thin, they tend to eat much and receive poor eating habits.
Young adolescents need good self-esteem, satisfaction with appearance, and healthy dieting that largely determine their well-being. They are essential for their knowledge, evaluation of themselves and their bodies, and body satisfaction. Self-esteem is believed to be crucial in appearance satisfaction; it determines self-esteem and their behavior. According to the study provided by the McCreary Centre Society in Canada, 22% of young boys attempted to lose weight in comparison to 72% of girls who strived to lose or maintain weight (Barker & Bornstein, 2010). This indicates that girls are primarily concerned about their appearance, and most adolescents need to be satisfied with their appearance.
Nowadays, dieting is a common thing for adults, and adolescents are involved in this practice too. The theory of restrained eating indicates that intense dieting often leads to emotional and restrained eating. Restrained eating is dieting, and emotional eating is about eating much food because of some emotional stressors when a person does not experience hunger. Emotional eating directly relates to dissatisfaction with body forms because women tend to accept their bodies negatively. So, adolescent girls having poor self-esteem tend to have poor eating habits and excessively eat food (Hoare & Cosgrove, 1998). Adolescents should avoid emotional and restrained eating because this often results in obesity.
The dissatisfaction with body forms is widespread among females of any age. Taken that body involves an internal appreciation of physical and bodily experience, the dissatisfaction with the body has deep roots. For example, the research provided by Sankowsky found out that the response of females dissatisfied with bodies can be attributed to mood, eating behavior, and stress (Haimovits et al., 1992). This indicates that any outside influence, including social networks, may impact the perception of the female body.
Moreover, girls aged six years old report preferences for thin bodies, this is associated with the risk of developing eating disorders, dieting, inadequate intake of useful food, and the development of mental problems. Moreover, adolescents having Internet access tend to visit social networking sites and view beautiful body images that enable them to provide comparisons, where images seem to be perfect (Burnette et al., 2017). Therefore, even young girls may have poor eating habits nowadays.
Conclusion
This study has provided a good understanding of the concept of social media and its influence on body satisfaction, particularly in adolescents. However, future research is recommendable since the course of comparing bodies with fashion models because the present study has discovered that social media is a vital factor contributing to negative feelings about body image in adolescents. It prompts a comparison of their bodies with these models, and this may lead to sadness, depression, and even eating disorders.
The paper has implications because the prevalence of social media use by adolescents has been increasingly affected by celebrities who post images that lure them. This often leads to poor health and psychological results when the body images of fashion models defeat theirs. The future directions for research include analysis of how negative impact of social media should be mitigated, what parents should do to convey their children that they are accepted regardless of looks, and advice on how to improve children’s self-esteem before puberty.
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