On the internet today, there are many standards for how people’s bodies should look, this changes the way that people think about themselves when they look in the mirror.
Whether you are posting regularly on social media or just viewing other posts, you often see images of others that have “perfect bodies”. However, this is not always the case, many images you see online can be misleading. Lots of influencers use photoshop, filters or specific angles and lighting to make their bodies look a certain way. According to The Daily Illini, a student newspaper from Illinois, “87% of women and 65% of men compare themselves to others on social media.”
This can affect teenagers as it is very mentally exhausting to have yourself constantly compared to others. We asked a thirteen-year-old how social media had affected her, she said “platforms such as Instagram and TikTok affect my body confidence because there are lots of people that tend to have nicer appearances that make me feel negative about myself“.
However, there are some positive aspects of social media that help people to gain confidence. For example, we interviewed another teenager who said, “When I first got social media, I saw lots of influencers with nice bodies and it created standards for me but eventually as I saw other media pages that promoted body confidence, I also gained confidence.” this quote shows that the standards on social media are slowly beginning to be tackled by users.
From our research we realised that before social media, the idea of a “perfect body” still existed in magazines and advertisements. We would like to hear about your experiences regarding body imagery before social media and also in our evolving society today in the comments below.
By Sophie, Shania and Eléna, Yr8
Boston high school