Americans tend to value thinness while shaming those who are overweight. With the rise of technology and social media, social comparison is ever-present which is culminating a series of issues related to body satisfaction. This combined with limited research on eating disorders in people who don’t fit the white woman persona leads to misdiagnosis and mistreatment of patients. With time spent on social media platforms increasing, the rates of eating disorder is also on the rise, “…respondents who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to display eating disorders, have negative body image, eat in dysfunctional ways, and want to diet” (Comer 2015). With social media being as prevalent as it is, there are countless opportunities for users to compare themselves to fitness models, celebrities, and even their peers, perpetuating issues such as cyber-bullying, body shaming, and ultimately, eating disorders. Talleyrand’s article applied this directly to women of color “… the increased presence of racially and ethnically diverse celebrity role models in the media may contribute to a rise in the rates of body and eating disturbances among children and women of color” (Talleyrand, 2012). This statement highlights the fact that social comparison is causing an increase of eating disturbances in people other than white women. Becker’s …show more content…
This means that though they are very muscular already, they constantly view themselves as scrawny and will make extreme attempts such as excessive exercise or taking steroids in order to get bigger. (Comer, 2015) With social media, men are just as able to compare themselves to others, but are less likely to pick up on their own symptom pattern and be able to identify themselves as having a disorder, thus making them less likely to seek and receive
"Now, I don 't like to compare. Facebook and Instagram are very image-driven, so I try to avoid that.” Rojas added, “Users support one another 's self-destructive behaviors through shared tips and tricks — and promote the notion that an eating disorder is a lifestyle choice, not a serious mental illness.” We need to realize how it can lead to damaged and unrealistic ideas of women 's ultimate body’s type. Rojas added, “An estimated 30 million Americans suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder (20 million women and 10 million men) at some time in their life, according to NEDA.”
Dissatisfaction amongst today’s youth regarding their personal body image is increasingly common, warranting a necessary change in the norms and behaviours that are portrayed to Canadian youth. The necessary change that must be implemented moving forward is the portrayal of healthy and attainable body images through media. A 2012 ABC News article stated the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman (Lovett, 2012). Such an appalling statistic is something that must be tackled as we progress toward the future seeing as it showcases to the youth of today that anorexia and unhealthy body weight is seen as desirable or attractive. The relation between such a statistic and anorexia is clear.
Rhetorical Analysis How does eating disorders and social media correlate? Jeremiah Solomon ENC 2135 Prof. Naguib 12 March, 2023 I. Introduction In society today, people look for ways to be entertained, interact with others, and keep up with the trends in society. One way they do so is through a series of apps known as social media.
“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.
I took her hand, expecting to feel the warmth from her skin jolt through my body, but all I felt was an icy, cold touch. I gripped around her, in a tight embrace expecting to feel the usual comfort of her body, but all I felt was a skeleton slowly crumbling in my arms. I press my lips to hers expecting to feel the shock of electricity, but all I felt was her slip through my arms and leave me forever. When I looked at her, all I saw was beautiful, all she saw was flawed, now, because of those “flaws” she will never get a chance to see the beauty that I used to see each and every day. This was all because she wanted the number on the scale to go down.
More people nowadays are often resorting to social media as a way to communicate and cope about personal experiences of mental health such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr (Segreto 2018). Social media can help shape our understandings of the world around us, and at times, it can distort reality. Media platforms can positively impact our understandings of mental health and those who suffer from it, that include feeling a sense of community and sharing similar interests as others on a sensitive topic (Segreto 2018). In the article, “#timetotalk: Is social media helping people talk about mental health?” , many popular Youtubers, such as Rebecca Brown and Laura Lejeune, comment on their experiences of mental health on a new social media platform intended to feature videos and discussion boards relating to personal experiences of mental disorders.
Social media plays a big role in how society portrays body image. “Alternatively, an increased number of Facebook friends may provide girls with greater opportunity to rapidly make multiple social comparisons, itself shown to be associated with body image concern”(Tiggemann and Slater 82). According to the survey that was taken by Marika Tiggemann and Amy Slater, the more Facebook friends the girls had, the more likely it was that they had body image concerns. They were able to compare themselves to the other girls that they were friends with, which led to them to have an increase in their drive for thinness. “Further, these comparisons are likely to be with somewhat idealised images, in that girls mostly post photographs in which they look good or are doing something ‘cool’ (and can be digitally altered)”(Tiggemann and Slater 82).
Web. 23 Nov. 2015. Krahe, Barbara, and Christina Krause. "Presenting Thin Media Models Affects Women 's Choice of Diet or Normal Snacks. " Psychology of Women Quarterly 34.3 (2010): 349-355.
From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed
The idolization of slim figures are blinding teenagers to believe it is a necessity to practice these methods. As Blaid describes society’s perspective, “If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not thin to begin with, you are a success story,”(26-27) this is to point out how society has manipulated the point of view on health conditions to be viewed as a
Social media makes teenagehood harder by creating a stereotype of what a perfect body should look like, celebrating extremely thin, unhealthy
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.
If 60% of people are negatively affected, just imagine how many of them are women! A blog on the “Just Say Yes” website claims that social media influences the way that females see themselves to the point that their mental perception of what they look like can become distorted. This can lead to eating disorders, drug and alcohol use, cutting, bullying, and sexual addictions. All of this can be used to show that the media definitely does not have a healthy effect on the female self-image. Media is a highly influential source when it comes to female self-image.
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.
Effects of the Binge Eating Disorder toward a person’s emotional state The Binge Eating Disorder is one of the main issues of our society nowadays. This disorder is suffered by a variety of people. It is not exclusive to people of a specific age or sex, but it attacks anyone who might be undergoing depression, has unhealthy and unsupervised dieting plans, and coping skill problems.