Impact of Social Media on Identity and Self-Image

Running head: Social media
SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media
“Impact of social media on the identity and self-image"
Social media is considered as an interactive computer technology that focuses on sharing the
information, ideas, career interest with the help of virtual communities and networks.
Through social media it can be for the people to create and share the content on the social
networking platform. So, in this paper the discussion will be made on the topic “impact of
social media on identity and self-image”.
In the present scenario, it can be analyzed that social media is one of the popular mediums
through which people share their views and ideas and it is also the platform through which it
is convenient for the individuals to communicate with each other. It can be seen that social
media is the medium which impact the life of the individuals. Social media impacts the self
esteem as it has a link with loneliness, anxiety, depression and also decreased social skills.
The people are conscious about their self-image at the time of posting the pictures or the
posts on the social media sites. Sometimes they showcase their identity as a fake individual in
front of the public (Michikyan, Dennis and Subrahmanyam, 2015).
For instance: In many cases they are not happy but in front of others they showcase
themselves as one of the lucky and happy individual and this is just because they want to
maintain their image on the social media. Also, the self-identity of the people is affected by
the change in the entire style related to clothes, music and also it is related with the friend
circle. It has been analyzed that social media is a platform that also provide the interpretation
of what is beautiful, attractive and good. The youngsters are more influence with these
factors and they try to present themselves in a different manner. On the social media site,
individuals try to create a false presentation in front of others and it is only done to be liked
more by their peers (Fardouly et al., 2015).
It can be stated that impact on the self-image is just because of the social comparison. Earlier,
comparison was done between the limited that stays nearby or with the relatives. But now
with the social media people can compare themselves with the large number of audience and
this comparison is not limited. So, due to this the impact can be seen on the overall self-
image of the individual. In this case, people start comparing themselves with other in terms of
style, attractive pictures and clothes. Through social media, the people create mindset for
other and the pictures which are posted by the people showcase their identity and also create
their self-image in front of others. Now days to become famous or to showcase their identity
people can also take the steps which can be considered as unsafe. It has been analyzed that
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Social media
every individual will be engaged in doing something interesting but there are many
individuals who feel depressed and compare themselves with others. This can also lead to
depression and anxiety (Grogan, 2016).
By looking at the new feeds or on the social media pages, the individuals don’t think that they
are not seeing the overall lifestyle of an individual. The impact can be seen on the self-image
and also the people try to change their personality by seeing other people. So, it can lead to
the emotional issues. It can be seen through social media or by the influence of the other
pictures people try to showcase themselves which they are not in their real life. So, this can
impact the overall identity of the individual (Kim, 2018).
Social media like Facebook and Instagram is one of the famous platforms which are used by
the people of all age groups. So, these platforms are the major source which impacts the self-
image and identity of the individuals. It has been analyzed that the users of Facebook are
becoming depressed as they compare their profile pictures with others which create a feeling
of inferiority (Tiggemann, 2015). So, in this scenario, people expose themselves so that
people get attracted to them s this impact the identity of the individual. The identity of the
can be impacted as individual have different attitude of exposing themselves in front of others
but with the feeling of comparison, they started exposing themselves in public. These types of
things happen more with girls or women and this can impact their best form of themselves.
For example: the celebrities also share their pictures and content on the social media sites
which attract many followers towards it. kardashians are notorious of sharing their images on
Facebook and Instagram which attracts many million likers. But it is not only the image of
the celebrities which impact the people in the society but when people see the attractive
pictures on the social sites, they try to pretend themselves in a different way. They compare
their appearance with those pictures and think that they are less attractive. So, it sometimes
demotivates the people. When they are demotivated then their identity also changes in front
of the individuals who are living in the society (Bettman and Escalas, 2015).
Identity of the individual is the one from which they are recognized. Social media is one of
the aspects which impact the identity of the individual. As, now days people are more
focused towards the social media and they spend many hours in scrolling their newsfeed. So,
when they see the post of the other people, they get influence and some people can take it in a
positive manner and try to change it accordingly. But sometimes the feeling of insecurity and
comparison arises which can lead to depression. When individual is not satisfied with their
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