Essay On Identity In Social Media

In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence

In Rachel Simmons article “Selfies Are Good for Girls”, she claim that self portrait increases the self-esteem level of teenage girls as their conscious narcissism rises. She assert that as girls get older their confidence level decreases because stereotyping in society increases along with judging people based on their outer appearances. To show addition, Simmons’s say if girls “act too confident” they will be isolated. She claim that young women denied compliments with intense rejection because they want to hear more of the compliments. Simmons emphasis that “selfie is tiny pulse of girl pride - a shout-out to the self.

I select the article “Selfies are good for girls,” by Rachel Simons. After carefully reading and analyze the article, I will present my response and viewpoints on the text. The author present the idea that maybe for a change selfies could be a positive reinforcements for girls. She argues that often girls in the american culture are discourage to display their accompaniments and success. Because they are view as self-center or vain.

Social media plays a big role in how society portrays body image. “Alternatively, an increased number of Facebook friends may provide girls with greater opportunity to rapidly make multiple social comparisons, itself shown to be associated with body image concern”(Tiggemann and Slater 82). According to the survey that was taken by Marika Tiggemann and Amy Slater, the more Facebook friends the girls had, the more likely it was that they had body image concerns. They were able to compare themselves to the other girls that they were friends with, which led to them to have an increase in their drive for thinness. “Further, these comparisons are likely to be with somewhat idealised images, in that girls mostly post photographs in which they look good or are doing something ‘cool’ (and can be digitally altered)”(Tiggemann and Slater 82).

Many images in media makes girls to be dissatisfied with their images since they believe that other individuals view the idealized images as desirable (Haugen & Musser, 2011). Most of the media images are stereotypical and not real but girls’ constant exposure to those images has led them to seek to attain them since they are made to believe they are ideal. These images affect the girls negatively since they will be dissatisfied with their bodies and have low self-esteem. This influences them to associate with irresistible urge to alter their body images so as to conform to what they deem ideal. They wrongly think that physical appearance is indicative of personal traits.

What social media is doing to teens Social media is a very dangerous place that makes teens feel insecure. Teens spend more than one-third of their day on social media looking at stereotypical images of “perfect” bodies and people. As a result, they become insecure about themselves because they are not like the people in the pictures. The media states that a perfect person is skinny, tan, has shiny hair, straight teeth, and completely clear skin. However, because teens are going through a lot of physical changes they do not usually look like social media 's definition of perfect and they become insecure.

Social media is a truly unique concept that gives a person the ability to construct their identity any way they please. Many different social media outlets exist and give people the opportunity to present themselves using different models. Facebook (arguably the most popular social media site), prompts users to construct their identity in a way that reflects their true self. While many people use real names and information about themselves, it is not difficult to create a completely new persona. Other popular sites like Twitter and Instagram encourage users to create an identity using abstract forms of expression such as photography.

According to the studies on the Internet, the author argues that “Most teens and tweens only post the good news such as a college acceptance letter, a new award, or information about that wonderful date the night before” (“Social Media and Self Esteem - Dos & Don’t For Teens and Parents”). As we can perceive from that article, most teenagers would probably never choose to post that shabby, rolled out of bed late and barely got to school on time while still wearing sweats image on Instagram. Instead, they post their best pictures. However, the good compliments are not always received on those photos. Instead, some comments may be rude and impolite giving a lot of words such as “fat”, “ugly”, etc.

Social media is a powerful source in today’s society, 81% of the population in the United States alone has set up a social media profile. Many use the media for useful things, like educational opportunities and business inquiries. Although there are people who may look at it more in a concerning aspect. Many people today view the social media as a stage where they are judged and told what the real way to look and act is, more specifically, body image. Social Media has a negative impact on body image, through creating a perfect view physically which affects someone mentally, targeting both male and female, and turning away from the real goal of social media.

For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).

Identity is social construct that many have mistaken for something an individual is born with. There are many aspects of identity that one can inherit like genes that can drive a certain type of character and certain aspects of identity a person can adopt and build for themselves. However the most part of one’s identity is consistent of what the person wants and adopts for themselves and what the society/the people around him/her choose to give him/her. Identity is a said to not remain unchanged once established.

Today everyone is obsessed with social media. People are easily influenced by almost everything they come across on the internet including appearance and body image. In todays generation it is so common to be unhappy with the way you look. All this is due to societies high standards on the way we “should” look. With social media you can do many things, including pretending to be someone you are not.

As the technology era change over time, the social media becomes an important part of our life. We use social media to connect with friends and family, also to found out the latest news or fashion trends. Especially after the great success of Facebook, many other social media follow along such as Snapchat and Instagram. Numerous young age children gradually sink into the virtual world of Social Media. According to the Pew Research Center survey, that majority of Americans use Facebook and YouTube, but young adults are especially heavy users of Snapchat and Instagram.

According to Psychologist Dr. Jim Taylor, the world of social media today is transforming self discovery from a process of knowing thyself to rather showing thyself.(Taylor: online). Your online persona, or rather social media profile, can in many ways be viewed as a form of self-presentation. Self-presentation, which is “the conscious or unconscious process by which people try to influence the perception of their image”, is not only natural, but also takes place in the offline world through social interactions (Junco : 111). We have a perceived images of ourselves and we want to communicate to the outside world and ensure that other people see us as we view ourselves. On social media we view our profiles as a representation of who we are.

On the other hand, many others believe that it helps society in ways such as keeping people physically fit and boosting self confidence by posting selfies. While society has its opinions on whether the media helps them or hurts them, it contributes both positive and negative impacts on body image and self esteem. To Selfie or not to Selfie With the rise of technology and the easy access the world has to the internet, social media had dramastically evolved and expanded over the past few decades. This social media allows us to share posts with the public, increase our followers, and increase our likes we