Social media is a common medium for people communicate and get information. The society also has concerns about social media can bring significant influence to users. One criticism of social media will be the social media, such as Instagram, is promoting unhealthy image or representation of the female. Media content always emphasizes the ideal body of the female. Most of the famous Instagrammers are also with a thinner body or slim curve. The Instagram users who follow these famous Instagrammers will follow them to have a same diet and workout. Some of them are reported to have eating disorders. Hence, I ask: What are the attitude of the young female Instagram users about social media promoting an unhealthy image of women?
This research is
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Agenda setting refers to when media can influence the public attitude to a particular issue (McCombs & Shaw 1972). It is first developed in a study done by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1968. When one issue keeps being talked and discussed in mass media, the public opinion will be affected (McCombs & Shaw 1972). The media is a powerful way to determine the public opinion. Social media is now taking over the main discussion in the society. Platforms like Facebook and Twitters are now more frequently used by people to get information. The information spread on the social media, unlike the traditional media, is also hard to prove the credibility. The role of users on social media becomes the producer of the source (Feezell 2017). Other users can also choose what they like to follow. It changes the way of traditional media agenda setting. The users now can also set the agenda for other users. The famous Instagrammers act as the authority that can set the agenda and lead the discussion. The trend of the famous Instagrammers becomes the standard of their …show more content…
Another criticism of the Instagrammers shape unhealthy image will bring mental health problem to the female users is because the users do not satisfy with their own body shape. However, the media has set women with a thin body and slim body curve are the standard of beauty (Maran 2012). Social media has further developed this idea. Some of the famous Instagrammers are normal people before they go famous on Instagram. They become an Instagrammer because of their ideal body shape. The followers of them will have the thought which they can also be like them. According to feminism, the physical appearance is not a standard to measure female (Muren & Seabrook 2012). The young female Instagram users do not have to have a diet and workout like the famous Instagrammers because of following the
The drastic increase in social media has also had a tremendous impact on the media’s impact, as it makes this technology more and more
“I’m so fat, why can’t I be skinny just like her!” “How does she get the perfect body, while I’m stuck with all of this fat!” These statements are common among teenage girls of today’s society. Social media of today shows unreal pictures of photoshopped models and the “perfect life”. This leads to discontent of young women with their body and lives.
Social media even makes girls compare themselves to their peers, instead of just to celebrities. In turn, it makes girls feel
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
An ethical dilemma happens when two or more ethical principles conflict with one another. Ethical dilemmas are problematic situations in which it is not clear which choice will be the right one. The CP is stuck as to what to do next because there is not just one outcome that will satisfy the ethical principles as stated in the Singapore Association of Social Workers (SASW) Code of Ethics (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2012). According to the SASW (2017), the core values of social work are embedded in the ethical responsibilities, which are relevant to the professional activities of social workers.
Many females get tricked by social media and that causes many psychological and medical problems. Main eating disorders. They tend to overthink or starve themselves to look more skinner. But they don’t realize that until it is too
Social media also creates a hierarchy on the basis of follower counts and number of likes. The more followers one has, the more popular their account , which then transmits to their actual popularity in real life. However, these social incentives are not the only things driving people to use social media and gain more followers. Material incentives, like money, can also be given to social media figures. Because people can make money off of the number of likes they get on a photo it creates this idea that people can make a living off of their
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.
Nearly 66% said they needed to lose weight, while half of them were not overweight at all. Teen magazines such as Seventeen and Teen Vogue talk about how to look ‘slim’ and ‘sexy.’ Heavy readers, that get addicted to them, usually engage in unhealthy weight control behaviors. Advertising is found to be the main source of unrealistic body types.
So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.
With this issue, Instagram may affect the point of view of the teenager about body image. For example, a lot of Instagram users make this app as a platform for them to promote themselves. In the past, Facebook used to be a platform for posting everything such as pictures, status, or even blogs. Unlike Facebook, Instagram is especially focused on photos (Moreau). It allows users to take a photo from their mobile devices and edit it by using filters, blurring effects, color adjustments, etc., in order to enhance the image before posting it on the profiles.
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.
Each year numerous amount of people become a social media user. The eMarketer website estimated that by 2019 “there will be around 2.77 billion social media users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017” (1). A great deal of those users utilizes social media to communicate their opinion to other users; as a matter of fact, these users might change their perspective a certain person might have on a topic. Social media is a marketing tool, therefore people utilize those social media platforms to pursue, and even manipulate the public to think in a certain way; hence, why social media can influence the public opinion.
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.
In conclusion, political impact on social media is huge and obvious. Social media platforms is substituting the traditional formal news media which has restrictions on the news and information they share especially in closed societies. Governments of closed societies are facing a problem because the government cannot control the news and the information shared on the internet which diminish the government authority to control their citizens. Lack of control on internet has made social media a platform for activists in politics and human right