There is something horrible about the way you look, it may be a crooked nose, stubby hands, or too much fat around your stomach. Even as I gaze at my own reflection nonchalantly, a cruel voice at the back of my mind shoots into a monologue about the little enhancements that would improve the way that I look. The voice intensifies as I pick up my phone to look at hundreds of gorgeous people posing with the gorgeous locations as the backdrop. Like any teenager and young adult on social media, fifteen-year-old me felt the extreme pressure to look a “certain” way. In my haste to look and “feel” good, I engaged in some unhealthy behaviour that led to a severe change in my weight. However, the side-effects of this almost instant weight loss included drastic hair & vision loss. This article navigates through our collective experience as human beings in a world infested with beautiful (but heavily distorted) pictures and how our existence has been negatively impacted because of it.
Needless to say, although I stopped engaging in the said behaviours after the negative impact they had on my health, the adverse effect that social media had on me during that phase of my life will probably stay with me forever. In the age of flawless selfies, dazzling Instagram reels and influencers with seemingly perfect lives, the quest of constantly being “in vogue” consumes a significant amount of our daily lives. With excessive self-criticism looming overhead like dark clouds on a rainy night, for many of us, going through life has become a tough task. The constant exposure to heavily altered images on social media platforms has led to a startling and extreme increase in body-image issues.
In a 2017 study, negative associations were found between body image and active social media engagement. Another study, conducted in 2015, discovered that girls who spend more time on Facebook were more likely to suffer from a negative physical self-image, and had an increased urge to lose weight. The concerning results of these studies indicate a larger problem that affects the life choices of lakhs of young people who spend extensive amounts of time on these social media platforms. It is especially concerning to those young people who don’t have the proper guidance to navigate through the murky waters of photoshopped images and “modified” content on image-based social media apps. In 2018, the term “Snapchat Dysmorphia” was coined to name the phenomenon of increasing numbers of people seeking cosmetic surgery to look like their “filtered” selves. All this points to an increase in our collective dissatisfaction with our appearance as we run after an unrealistic image created through countless filters and photo editing applications.
A Glimmer of Hope
Yet it is evident that with the changing times, countless groups are fighting back against this social-media induced body dissatisfaction. Movements like body positivity are asserting the importance of accepting bodies of all shapes and sizes. Countless people are fighting back against the textbook standard of “perfection” self-imposed upon people’s appearances. Slowly, but steadily, people have been trying to normalise the truth hidden behind the curtains of “perfect pictures” on the internet.
However, we still have a long way to go before we start prioritising our health over an aesthetic social media handle. It is evident that self-acceptance is the only way to win over all the self-esteem issues that have been implanted in us via these applications. It must be remembered that the life that has been bestowed upon us is precious and our unique flaws are what make us different from others.
In addition, what also matters is our acceptance of others. As individuals, the standard of treatment that we expect from others is the standard of treatment that we should employ in our interactions with people. After all, social media is composed of people like you and me, and it is our joint behaviour that perpetuates the toxicity that we witness today. Our bodies should be treated with kindness and shouldn’t become subject to the scrutiny of ever-changing beauty standards. In conclusion, when it comes to our collective human experience, perfection has been and always will be a disgrace.
Endnotes
1. Cohen R, Newton-John T and Slater A, “The Relationship between Facebook and Instagram Appearance-Focused Activities and Body Image Concerns in Young Women” (2017) 23 Body Image 183.
2. Vats M, “Selfie syndrome: An infectious gift of IT to health care” (2015) 48 Journal of Lung, Pulmonary & Respiratory Research 2.
3. “Faking It: How Selfie Dysmorphia Is Driving People to Seek Surgery” (The Guardian January 23, 2019) <https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/23/faking-it-how-selfie-dysmorphia-is-driving-people-to-seek-surgery> accessed December 5, 2021.
4. Cohen R, Newton-John T and Slater A, “The Relationship between Facebook and Instagram Appearance-Focused Activities and Body Image Concerns in Young Women” (2017) 23 Body Image 183
Written by
- Xenia ( Junior Editor, RGNUL Cosmos)
Well put, you’ve threaded so many relevant dimension. I am mailing this to my teen.