ENGL 1100 Final Essay - Grade: A+ PDF

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argumentative essay discussing the effects of social media and self esteem ...

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Daralee James Dr. Jacqueline Heslop English 1100 R73 Final Essay 08 Dec. 2017 Word Count: 1399

The Self-Destructive Cycle of Social Media Women are bombarded daily with images on social media of unrealistic beauty standards and unattainable affluent lifestyles to which they compare themselves, resulting in diminished self-esteem. These daily reminders can lead to negative effects on both the physical and psychological level. These effects include depression, eating disorders (bulimia and anorexia), cosmetic surgery and other extreme means to meet society’s standards. Although social media can be a great platform for spreading awareness on certain issues and connecting with others, users of social media should be more conscious of their audience and display less unrealistic beauty ideals and impractical standards of acceptance. This generation has allowed the social media movement to cause numerous negative effects, particularly upon females. However, changes can be made to diminish the impact that social media has inflicted. According to the Huffington Post, “60% of people using social media reported that it has impacted their self-esteem in a negative way” (Silva). In present-day, we are a culture that is steeped in superficial social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. Users on these apps tend to judge themselves based on the number of “likes” they receive on posted images, and the number of “followers” they have as an audience. Individuals become so concentrated on the quantity of likes they receive on Facebook/Instagram that they use this as a

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“tool of verification for acceptance within their group of peers” (Social Media Affects). Inevitably the idea that one must be better than others creates an online competition of perfection of who is the prettiest, slimmest, and curviest woman. This online competition drives women to put on a fake persona, which pressures women to exaggerate how “perfect” they are as they exhibit a false perception of who they are and how their lives unfold. Because of social media and the competition that it drives, women can attempt to stage their lives only to hide their true nature, and in doing so they reproduce the cycle. The nature of constantly comparing oneself to other women also created an environment where “users are likely to post only photographs showing themselves looking good or doing something cool” (Santarossa, p. 7). Internally, women will feel lonely and depressed knowing social media is filled with falsehood and deceit. Eventually these negative feelings catch up to us, damaging self esteem in drastic and irreversible ways. Women become so focused on constantly putting their bodies into comparison to the online profiles they follow and when they do not live up to them, their self-esteem tanks and depression sets in. This is evident with results from a study conducted by University of Toledo where they asked 145 undergraduates (106 female) to complete a questionnaire relating to their Facebook usage, self esteem, and the degree to which they made social comparisons. Results showed that participants who were more active online displayed a poor self esteem and this relationship was stronger when they compared themselves to others who they perceived as better than they were (Vogel et al. pp. 4-5). The drive for virtual fame naturally creates a surge in narcissistic individuals. Women are not only in competition on social media, the photos they are repeatedly encountering indirectly give a message of what the ideal women must look like. Another major pressure that women are faced with on social media is the body trends that are widely circulated online such as having a big butt, slim waist, large breast, plump lips,

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perfect skin, and the list goes on. In a recent study conducted by Match Singles in America, it was reported that 51% say social media has impacted how they feel about their appearance and report social media has made them feel more self-conscious (Silva). Online platforms, especially Facebook, can also naturally make people re-evaluate themselves when seeing their peers post about their great achievements and milestones in their lives, which in some cases can result in others feeling as if they haven’t achieved any accomplishments. Because women have become inclined to compare themselves to other women they idolize, women’s self esteem is sincerely broken after realizing that their lives and their bodies are not equivalent. A study by the Florida State University disclosed “a group of women who were asked to browse Facebook for 20 minutes experienced greater body dissatisfaction than those who spent 20 minutes researching rainforest cats online.” (How social media affects) Women become so consumed with trends and pleasing the virtual world that they lose touch with their true selves and conclusively become miserable, or in the worst cases they can become clinically depressed or even suicidal. Social media also creates this domino effect, where if a woman repeatedly sees images of more attractive women inherently they will become upset and jealous. This feeling of angst causes females to go over the edge with extreme cosmetic surgery to get the lips that are trending or breast augmentation to have the enlarged breasts all the Instagram models seem to have, and the list goes on. Members of Parliament reveal that “pressure to look good had pushed up cosmetic surgery rates by nearly 20% since 2008” (Roxby). This domino effect is evident in the way women are starting to look more alike in many ways thanks to plastic surgery, same hair, same make up, and pretty much same everything. Physical measures are also taken by women who wish to be thinner and lose weight by starving their bodies, binging, and forcing themselves to throw up the meals they eat. Eating disorders are

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one of the disastrous outcomes of the negative effects social media inflicts onto vulnerable women. Research points out that “media is a causal risk factor for the development of eating disorders” and “has a strong influence on a person’s body dissatisfaction, eating patterns, and poor self-concept.” (Gleissner). Women’s mental and physical health are becoming threatened in the process of trying to meet mainstream beauty ideals that are manufactured. So how do we stop this cynical pattern? We do not need to reproduce it and its ill effects. Women can stop this pattern by distancing themselves from the superficial and unhappy lifestyle.

Women have a choice to not allow the virtual world to take a toll on their lives. Women instead should embrace what makes each of them unique and need to be encouraged to let their true beauty show. Some potential solutions could be that, society can educate the current generation and upcoming generations on diversity and self acceptance, and can aid in the teaching of young women to focus less on their appearance. It was recommended by Members of Parliament that school aged children participate in “compulsory body image and self-esteem lessons” (Roxby). Which would be an excellent resource for teaching young adolescence to divert their focus on who they are as a person and establishing healthy values and positive selfoutlooks. The most important measure women can take is to limit the time they spend online. In fact, Dr Phillippa Diedrichs of University of West of England's Centre for Appearance Research has informed that “The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are to self-objectify themselves” (Philppa). Although resisting the pressure is tough at first, the initial step is to come to an understanding that social media is very misleading and that we are creating it ourselves. One could simply just isolate themselves by withdrawing themselves entirely from the toxic and negatively-influential networking sites, which would help these women learn to embrace life for what it truly is.

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Finally, social media is here to stay, but until it’s users can effectively make a change in the standards and ideals that are displayed, our society, and especially women’s self esteem will continue to be damaged to a point of no return. One of the ways social media could be positive is if women were to take advantage of the enormous audience and platform social media provides them. Women should be empowering others to strive for greater achievements such as getting an education, establishing their careers, and challenging themselves to be stronger as women. Women need to take initiative internally to not give in to these trends and focus on being the best version of themselves and living their best lives, which will not only benefit themselves but the generations to follow....