Every day, you hear that technology is transforming the world, and not only that, but it is also transforming the way we see life, form businesses, interact with others, and even the way we see ourselves. Now, social networks influence the depths of our thoughts and without realizing it they have the power to change in a negative way our concepts or beliefs. In this blog, we will focus on the effects that social media have caused on the concept of beauty.
Let us start by asking a question.
Have you ever heard this phrase “Appearance does not matter; beauty is only superficial”?
Maybe most of you have heard it, this phrase is really famous, but yet we live in a society that seems to contradict this idea. If appearance does not matter, why are so many people being unhappy with the way that they look? It is because we are in the technological era, we are always surrounded by social media which promotes certain beauty standards; people are bombarded with this perfect body image every day and everywhere, giving them an unrealistic and unhealthy image of beauty.
Media has become a powerful tool that is linked to mental health. Body image is an issue of many young people, male and female, but especially for females; according to the Office of National Statistics, nine out of ten teenage girls say that they are unhappy with their body, which creates risks in mental health and wellbeing. For example, South Korea has its own noticeable standards of beauty, it involves having a small face, big eyes, pale skin and a slim figure; all because they want to look youthful and innocent. Due to these patterns, according to the “Seoul Plastic Surgery”, 60% of Korean women and 41% of men are or want to go on diets or plastic surgery, the most common are the liposuction or the fat burner injections to achieve a slim figure and the “double eyelid” to have bigger eyes which gives an appearance of a small face.
Social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram are really used; Instagram is one of the most negative as stated by the Young Health Movement, the main reason is that individuals begin to compare themselves with famous social users and begin to feel inadequate with their self-image. Also, photo applications like Photoshop, Face tune, Snapchat and Instagram filters allow users to improve their appearance. Social media and photo editing have had a relevant impact on the rise of plastic surgery; the American Academy of Facial Plastic found in a survey that 55% of surgeons reported seeing patients who wanted surgery to look better in selfies. In addition, the influencers and celebrities have a huge impact on social media platforms, most of them promote a perfect image of themselves using photoshop or filters in their pictures, for example, in the UK Sasha Pallari created a campaign called “#filterdrop” the purpose is to make mandatory for the influencers to state when they are using beauty filters to promote cosmetics or skincare; furthermore, “she said she wanted to see three outcomes: to encourage as many women as possible to not depend on filters, for the ASA to demand that social media influencers and celebrities must state if they have used a filter when promoting cosmetics and to get face-changing and morphing filters removed from Instagram” (BBC, 2021). Thanks to the campaign, the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) stipulates that if the filter exaggerates the effectiveness of the product, it should not be applied to social media advertising.
Furthermore, these media platforms are changing how people internalize the standards of beauty causing some mental problems. One of the most negatives is depression, a study published in the “Journal of Depression and Anxiety” by the U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH), found a link between high usage of social media sites and increased depression. Part of the potential reason could result from the amount of time that people spend on some of these sites which by the way each person spends 4.7 hours per day checking social media sites. Another potential reason is that people’s online lives look more perfect than their real lives, this could incite envy or have the FOMO syndrome which means “fear of missing out”, it refers to the perception that other people are living better lives or that they have things that you don’t.
To conclude, social media provides many platforms to connect with others, to learn, to work, and many other things; however, it is wrong for the media to promote a certain beauty standard, because it can cause serious problems for young people and adults. Also, with the rapid development of technology and the emergence of updated applications online, social media has an immediate effect on aesthetics. As the body images depicted online are constantly changing, people are turning to social media to seek acceptance and support. The selfie culture has produced positive and negative changes in personal perceptions. Although most research today focuses on the negative impact of social media on beauty, more attention should be paid to physical positivity and social media should be used as a medium for self-beautification. If we use the technology well, we can promote positive body image and believe that the standard of beauty is not defined, we define it.
By: Luisa Enciso and Karen Moreno.
Digital communication
References
Alissa (2020). Are social media and depression linked? Why? Behavioral Health. From https://www.bhpalmbeach.com/are-depression-and-social-media-usage-linked/
Hallett, M (2021). Influencers told not to use "beauty filters”. BBC news. From https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-55824936
Henriques, M and Patnaik, D (2020). “Social media and its Effects on Beauty". ItechOpen. From https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/social-media-and-its-effects-on-beauty
Office of National Statistics (2015). Measuring national well-being: insights into children’s mental health and well being. From https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/measuringnationalwellbeing/2015-10-20
Seoul Cosmetic Surgery. Korean beauty standards: a cultural contrast on ideal beauty. From https://seoulcosmeticsurgery.com/korean-beauty-standards-a-cultural-contrast-on-ideal-beauty/
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