The Impact of Social Media on Female Body Image and Self-Esteem

This essay analyzes the profound impact of social media on body image, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. It delves into the influence of idealized portrayals on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, exploring how social comparison and objectification theory contribute to body dissatisfaction and social anxiety. The paper examines the pressures faced by individuals, particularly women, to conform to unrealistic beauty standards, and discusses the role of media in shaping perceptions of attractiveness. It investigates the use of editing tools and cosmetic enhancements, and their effects on self-evaluation. The conclusion highlights the need for a critical understanding of social media's influence on body image and its implications for mental health, emphasizing the importance of media literacy and self-acceptance.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON BODY IMAGE
SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTS ON BODY IMAGE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Self-esteem and social anxiety.........................................................................................................2
Body image and its aspects..............................................................................................................3
Control of social media and effects on characters...........................................................................4
Social comparison and objectification theory..................................................................................5
Sociological pressure to be presentable...........................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Social media is creating a big impact on the people as the people’s mindset is getting
influenced by the effects of social media and its culture. In this contemporary time, omniscience
power is presented in social media and people love to get involved with those platforms. Social
media comes from internet and sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram all these are showcasing
platforms for general people as well as for the celebrities (Perloff, 2014). In case of creating
body image an ideal body tone is worthy for female celebrities, so they use some efficient
photographers and some special tools to modify their body tone. The process of self-evaluation
has been judged by people after seeing those pictures and this is the reason media portrayal is the
issue of social status. Women want to be perfect and that is the reason they have taken help from
applications and some other extra editors to put an extra layer of attractiveness over them. The
paper analyzes the impact of female perception of body image in social sites.
Self-esteem and social anxiety
Mass media is related to the social platforms and images or pictures shared by the people
in those platforms are quite attractive for the other people. This attractiveness or the urge of
being presentable is the major concern for many people, especially the models, actors or any
kind of media related persons. Though the aspect is applicable to all the people, they also love to
take some good picture and shaping their body along with that. In case of eating practice, a
separate chart has to be maintained or maintain a proper diet for those situations is important
(Fardouly et al., 2015). Body curve cannot be understood in a simple way, but the actual urge of
body structure maintenance has gone, as there are numerous editing applications available for the

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people. Self-esteem is the inner feeling that has set a value and capability of maintenance but in
most of the cases, food intake isolation is not possible for people to shape them in desired way.
Clothing design is another aspect that is excessively highlighted in news journals like
BBC, where disorder and attraction kind of appeal is appealing so much. Cosmetic surgery is
another aspect that these models are rapidly turning towards over their face. These kinds of
surgeries are opted by female only; as they have concern about the uneasy situations faced in a
social context. The desire of being thin has come in the limelight as the girls in Argentina, Fiji or
China has no sex-typed ultra-thin image that western girls had. That is the reason most of the
girls are heading towards anorexia. However, the style of individualism has been lost in that case
and multi-dimensional culture of the female image in those countries persist. The attention must
be diversified in some cases where females are encompassed by the technological attire of social
media. Social media are interpersonally wealthy modalities that present realistic application,
videos, and transformative multimedia cues that provide a mood of existence, present the
possibility to transport individuals to expressive connecting domains that can persuade
postponement of conviction and approach transform. The surgery rate has increased by 20% as
people are not satisfied with their actual look and structure (Meier & Gray, 2014). Rather body
confidence will come as the presented form of their impression on students. In case of social
media communication a virtual layer of difference always exists, thus voice, presentation,
thebeauty of face and figure are the key elements that needed to be perfect for the social media.
Body image and its aspects
Body image is a crucial form that virtualizes any individual body and creates a judgment
over the level of attractiveness. The image of men and women is dependent on the effects of

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media and their influence on self-esteem process that provides with peer factors while weighing
the image. The image is a combination of food intake, situational temperature, body complexion,
thetonal quality of body, theshape of the body and the extensive climatic impression impacted
over the body. If all these processes are formulated in this legitimate way then effect from the
desire body image can be created (Ferguson et al., 2014). The level of photography defines the
character’s building nature and all the genres of impactful photography also provide a
characteristic dimension for their body image. There are two aspects of body image like positive
and negative body image. Positive image delivers graceful appreciation for the person and the
desired body abstraction for the character. On the other hand, thenegative impact is the
dissatisfaction of the body and a continuous inferiority complex, low self-esteem and social
anxiety behavior that has persisted for long.
Candid photography, monochromic photography, fashion photography, night-long
exposure photography, conceptual or fine art photography, and street photography - all these are
image types of different dimension and that provides a body tonal change and mood in every
section of photos (Ghaznavi& Taylor, 2015). The perception of animage is different for every
individual and that is the reason girls are fond of the landscape, fashion and night-long exposure
photography, while men are loved to the found street, war or monochromic photography. The
perception is not universally correct though and that is the reason it can be contrasted or selected
for any gender. Body affects captures in the camera may not as the desired formation, the editing
perspective has come up in this situation and that process more control in the image
(Tiggemann&Zaccardo, 2015). The control of the body and the perception of the character is the
important section that needs to be understood at the first observation by the photographer, then
editorial team work on that picture.

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Impact of social media on female body image
Women mostly thought that they need to look prettier on their social media platforms.
The reason behind their attractiveness prevails in their perceptions as some of the females are
enhancing their image with the photographic tools and presents it on Facebook, Instagram or
Twitter. The amount of likes loves, shares, make them feel good and provide an attractive image
of them for the other people. “Trending” is the most common term used to analyze the condition
or the state of the women’s attitude towards the other people attached to social sites.
Body image is one of the vital aspects of women’s images in the society and they are
very much cautious about the process. Suffering from low body weight, is a process that is taken
by most of the girls in which proceeds towards anorexia (Meier & Gray, 2014). This is a process
that is completely targeted to be mitigated, as well as an eating disorderwhich is the most life-
threatening eating disorder for women. Females love to be important, and if their pictures are not
coming in such way as they wanted, then they have anxiety on their face and mind. The complete
circulation process is highlighting their insecurity and desire for looking good for all. The
augmentation of Liposculpture or Mammoplasty through photo-shop software is possible in
these days. Controversial cases are also found as the model are not aware of his edited
photography and was not looking good in that photo and claim for harassment to the
photography studio. So the impact of thinking and their psychological reason to look good
among all is persisted in their mind.
As social media consist of the promotional events, advertisement and the showcasing of
perception of human life now a day, so a liking perspective is aligned with the social platform.
Femalesreacts in a bold way in those cases - not only teenagers but also the young aged girls
have upholded their looks and all for the sake of beauty (Perloff, 2014). Though in most of the

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case, the applicationis so improved now a day that it is prompted in most of the jobs and delivers
the best quality picture to the viewers. Some of these experiences are there as the person
becomes famous in no time and these happened in case of women too.
Social comparison and objectification theory
Social comparison is always there to upgrade the parameters of the social sites.
Innovative and new aspects have come in the process and that will increase the level of
presenting the character. In earlier times, photogenic faces are needed for the good photographs
as there were no such high-quality editing tools and theapplication contains in thesystem to make
this more significant (Strasburger et al., 2013). Generally, people assess themselves by
comparing themselves to others, frequently people comparable to them and also good-looking
due to the intrinsic factors of their life. The social evaluation may increase contentment on that
aspect because people notice results of an enhancement of looks and clarity to become
motivated. People who connect in more media utilize tolook for out thin and brawny images in
order to expand inspiration to lose mass and exercise. Social contrast theory also posits that
people connection in downward assessment, by comparing themselves with those less
providential groups who have the authority to prove them as a perfect figure.
Objectification theory is the appropriate aspect of leading the conception of beauty that is
pervaded by the external means. The theory basically stands for belief for girls and women as
they believe about the observer perception; the perception is aligned with the physical selves of
women. For this reason, body satisfaction and enhancement of beauty for women perspective are
needed in any sort of demographic conditions (Grogan, 2016). The use of cosmetic products,
diet, exercise, surgery,and change in eating habit are the concern reason behind that. The theory

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can be promptly applied to girls also as the objective analysis and media uses of objectives are
the concerned matter for that and that signifies the reason of anxieties for females. Unrealistic
boy curve and desire for that body, in reality, may create some trouble issues also but in most of
the cases, the perception of self-esteem and media centrality is acted as the most impressive
factor for the body image.
Sociological pressure to be presentable
Media influence in amodern generation is significant. Apart from Facebook, Twitter or
Instagram, television, magazines and media image portrayal is another convincing way of
attraction. The sense of argumentation with body image is persisted in that case and it clearly
identifies the mental perception of the character. In their perception defining sensing of media
and their exposure are the main aspect and that concerns with artificial body image which has no
real existence in reality (Tiggemann& Slater, 2013). In case of thewestern world, society’s
expectation and belief over body image are crucial and important for the media as observer role
of perception is needed in that case and current strategies to articulate the face is the way to
change the image. Advertisements are making a panic expression for the women and they are
feeling old in case of passing time. In that case, skin cream; cosmetic uses are started by them to
showcase their ultra-modern idealized body.
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that physical appearance of
male and female are the most appreciable factor in social sites. They have been appreciated by
observers through their image which consistsof the full body of them. The physical appearance
and the impact over the observer is the major concern for women and as the cultural influence,

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cognitive process and sociological perspectives of people related with this term it can be surfaced
as one of the trending lifestyles of people to lead in.

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References
Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., &Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on
social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and
mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.
Ferguson, C. J., Muñoz, M. E., Garza, A., & Galindo, M. (2014). Concurrent and prospective
analyses of peer, television and social media influences on body dissatisfaction, eating
disorder symptoms and life satisfaction in adolescent girls. Journal of youth and
adolescence, 43(1), 1-14.
Ghaznavi, J., & Taylor, L. D. (2015). Bones, body parts, and sex appeal: An analysis of#
thinspiration images on popular social media. Body Image, 14, 54-61.
Grogan, S. (2016). Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and
children. Taylor & Francis.
Meier, E. P., & Gray, J. (2014). Facebook photo activity associated with body image disturbance
in adolescent girls. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(4), 199-206.
Perloff, R. M. (2014). Social media effects on young women’s body image concerns: Theoretical
perspectives and an agenda for research. Sex Roles, 71(11-12), 363-377.
Strasburger, V. C., Hogan, M. J., Mulligan, D. A., Ameenuddin, N., Christakis, D. A., Cross,
C., ...& Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Pediatrics, 132(5),
958-961.

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Tiggemann, M., & Slater, A. (2013). NetGirls: The Internet, Facebook, and body image concern
in adolescent girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 46(6), 630-633.
Tiggemann, M., &Zaccardo, M. (2015). “Exercise to be fit, not skinny”: The effect of fitspiration
imagery on women's body image. Body image, 15, 61-67.
Wertheim, E. H., & Paxton, S. J. (2012). Body image development–adolescent girls.
In Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (pp. 187-193).