In a modern age of technology, we are almost completely unable to escape the undeniable pressures that unspoken body standards put on its consumers. Social media sets unattainable beauty standards, and everywhere you go there are depictions of thin, fit people, whether it be on billboards, television commercials, or our social media feed.
It is so easy and common to compare yourself to the seemingly thin and perfect bodies of those on social media platforms, regardless of whether your gender.
I check my social media often enough, and there’s almost always new posts displaying somebody doing something, and it’s very easy to look at them with a variety of thoughts in mind. Especially for young and easily influenced people, it impacts how they feel about themselves and this could even be linked to dieting, excessive exercise and eating disorders, according to nationaleatingdisorders.org.
On many of these platforms, you can find communities like the “Pro-ana,” or pro-anorexia, which is created and used with the intention of glorifying these thin and “perfect” images of people. This often goes to the extent that the people involved resort to things like excessive exercise and starving themselves just to fit the societal standard of beauty. These acts of self-harm are considered to be anorexia, a fatal eating disorder.
These communities make it seem beautiful, something that you should want to do to fit in, and this eating disorder often results in the death of the victim. Every 62 minutes, one person dies of an eating disorder, and eating disorders have the highest death rate of any mental illness.
I am not alone in thinking about the negative impacts, as there has even been songs written about this idea of the perfect person. “Prom Queen,” a song by the band Beach Bunny, features lyrics like, “Wish I was like you, blue-eyed blondie, perfect body,” and, “They say, ‘Beauty is vain. You’ll only be happy if you look a certain way.’”
These words support the idea that many people get from seeing these unattainable body standards: feeling as though they aren’t enough if they don’t match certain depictions like thin thighs or defined collar bones.
There are plenty who see these people, living the perfect life with the perfect appearance, and don’t hesitate to take it as truth. In the age we live in, it is so easy to edit appearances using apps like Facetune, where the user can change any part of themselves so that they can look “ideal.” It’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.
Social media is harmful because it induces unnecessary comparison that is hard to escape. It puts a numerical value on people mostly based upon the way they look and the life they lead online.
For example, maybe someone is not getting their desired number of likes or comments or attention, and they see others getting what they want. It is easy and almost natural for them to see the other person and think, “Maybe if my hair was different, maybe if I lost weight, people might like me more.”
That thought process strays away from self-love and makes it incredibly difficult to love yourself when it seems like no one else gives you love.
Most times, we love receiving validation from others, whether it be through compliments or comments, the absence of it, even if it is not rude comments, we feel disheartened. You might take down a post that you feel was not successful. We often blame ourselves for how that post did, easily thinking of the things we wish were different about ourselves.
For some, maybe even the majority, the use of social media platforms is no longer about sharing your fun experiences, or pictures of yourself and others you enjoy. It’s become a sort of unspoken competition, but is there really ever a winner?
In the end, do we all just end up disliking ourselves more than we initially would have?
Lydia Anderson, Staff Writer