In the 21st century, image-based media platforms became some of the most popular among adolescents and young women. Although these platforms provide entertainment and the ability to stay connected, they come with many downfalls. Participation and exposure to this type of media may affect the users’ self-esteem. As the theory of self-verification implies, adolescents and young women are at risk of constantly comparing themselves to others’ evaluations, leading to an unhappy and hopeless state.
Today, adolescent and young women had been born into a world fueled by digital technology. From a young age, they became focused on creating an online identity, some of them use social media apps as a means to receive validation from peers to satisfy their self-esteem needs. Girls who already had pre-existing body image issues were put in a possibly triggering environment, the trend of face tuning selfies and editing people’s bodies in pictures encouraged some girls to add greater emphasis on their looks.
Women and girls have real and authentic bodies, therefore, they can’t obtain what is promoted on these platforms. In fact, many businesses and industries thrive off of these insecurities. This could be the reason that many institutions don’t bother to construct a solution for this issue, the very existence of it is far too profitable.
Each individual’s response to this issue only affects their own life. If a person deletes social media to avoid being exposed to widespread unrealistic beauty standards, that only means they themselves will not be as heavily affected, however, the rest of the world still is. In order to overcome this collectively, it is important to gather infromation on the relationship between social media use and negative self-image. Once this information has been found, we can search for the most effective approach to tear down the harmful effects of image-based media.
