When you get on your phone, do you compare yourself to someone else? With the world being run through social media like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, more people are showing off their lives and bodies. This has many benefits but also causes many problems for the younger generations by setting unrealistic beauty standards for men and women.
The problem starts with the current nature of social media, making everyone think they have to look and be perfect. This makes many users feel like they need to edit their photos. Harshit Agrawal and Sudha Agrawal found in their study that “One-fourth of the participants edited >40% of the total photos posted in social media.”
Of the posts in their study, 36% of edits made were to cover up skin blemishes. People editing out something as small as a pimple can make those with pimples or other blemishes feel worse about how they look. The Agrawals also found that “Fifty percent of the respondents felt the need to look better; repair skin damage; be able to look good without makeup; look younger; feel happier and improve total quality of life.”
Teenagers and children face the toughest time when dealing with body image due to growing up with overly edited posts, but thinking they are real. In a poll conducted by the University of Michigan, they found that “nearly two-thirds (64%) of parents say their child is self-conscious about some aspect of their appearance.”
It can be worse for certain age groups, with many teenagers being on social media more often than younger children. “Parents of teens 13-18 are more likely than parents of younger children 8-12 to report their child is self-conscious about at least one aspect of their appearance (teen girls 73%, teen boys 69%, younger girls 57%, younger boys 49%).”
The algorithm involved with social media does not help teens and children either. If a teen or child watches a full TikTok about something in the fitness industry the algorithm is more likely to show them more fitness stuff. This can cause a person who is just starting to work out to feel poorly about themselves because they are not as big or as strong as the people on TikTok.
The fitness industry also has a huge problem when it comes to editing photos to make them look bigger. Influencers in this industry will only take pictures after their workout with very specific lighting to make their muscles appear bigger and more defined than what they normally look like. This can lead to many different problems on top of a poor body image like eating disorders and mental health issues.
Social media has a major problem when it comes to body image. People should be able to get on any social media and see what others look like on a day-to-day basis, not just a highlight reel.
