I stand before you today to say that we have a problem with social media. I know some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking, “No, really? What a shocker,” and actually it is somewhat shocking. Many of us are aware of the existing issue with excessive social media use. However, what some of us may not be aware of is exactly how increasing amounts of posts depicting unrealistic body figures on social media are affecting important elements of teenager’s lives. Social media effortlessly influences everyday aspects of our society. One of these main aspects is social media’s ability to negatively alter one’s body image. Due to social media’s capacity to render one’s perception of his or her figure, I believe that the current state of today’s
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A youth empowerment company, “Just Say YES,” agrees that a teen’s “mental perception of what they look like can become distorted...when they feel they don’t measure up to the impossible goal set in front of them” (Just Say Yes). In Roxby Philippa’s article “Does Social Media Impact on Body Image,” Kelsey Hibberd shares her personal experience with the distorted message of importance and value being related to one’s appearance. Hibberd, with knowledge of the fact that “it was all about [her] body and how [she] looked,” went to the measures of changing “her hair color and stopped eating to try to fit in” (“Does Social Media…”). According to the scholarly authors of the article “Do Appearance Focused Cognitive Distortions Moderate the Relationship between Social Comparisons to Peers and Media Images and Body Image Disturbance?” Kelsey Hibberd’s actions can be explained by they fact that “several cognitive distortions related to body image disturbances [include] attentional biases for perceived defects in appearance” (Ridolfi et al.) Social media had changed Hibberd’s opinion of herself in such a way that she felt it necessary to alter her appearance in order to increase her social …show more content…
Therefore, I advise you to prepare yourself for the information I am about to present, because the answer to that question is yes. Three weeks ago, the Delta Gamma sorority chapter at the University of Arizona was given a presentation on body image. Before the presentation began, the members of the chapter were asked to raise their hands and rate, on a scale from 1-10, how largely they believe social media affects body image on their campus. Astonishingly, every member rose her hand to rate it a “10” on the scale, signifying its prevalence. In my opinion, this serves to fully support and prove my argument because if the 300 members of Delta Gamma at the University of Arizona agree with me, then there must be many others that do as well. However, if you do not classify this as concrete evidence that social media is manipulating the “social norms” of today’s society, then stay tuned because I have more statistics to share with
A youth empowerment company, “Just Say YES,” agrees that a teen’s “mental perception of what they look like can become distorted...when they feel they don’t measure up to the impossible goal set in front of them” (Just Say Yes). In Roxby Philippa’s article “Does Social Media Impact on Body Image,” Kelsey Hibberd shares her personal experience with the distorted message of importance and value being related to one’s appearance. Hibberd, with knowledge of the fact that “it was all about [her] body and how [she] looked,” went to the measures of changing “her hair color and stopped eating to try to fit in” (“Does Social Media…”). According to the scholarly authors of the article “Do Appearance Focused Cognitive Distortions Moderate the Relationship between Social Comparisons to Peers and Media Images and Body Image Disturbance?” Kelsey Hibberd’s actions can be explained by they fact that “several cognitive distortions related to body image disturbances [include] attentional biases for perceived defects in appearance” (Ridolfi et al.) Social media had changed Hibberd’s opinion of herself in such a way that she felt it necessary to alter her appearance in order to increase her social …show more content…
Therefore, I advise you to prepare yourself for the information I am about to present, because the answer to that question is yes. Three weeks ago, the Delta Gamma sorority chapter at the University of Arizona was given a presentation on body image. Before the presentation began, the members of the chapter were asked to raise their hands and rate, on a scale from 1-10, how largely they believe social media affects body image on their campus. Astonishingly, every member rose her hand to rate it a “10” on the scale, signifying its prevalence. In my opinion, this serves to fully support and prove my argument because if the 300 members of Delta Gamma at the University of Arizona agree with me, then there must be many others that do as well. However, if you do not classify this as concrete evidence that social media is manipulating the “social norms” of today’s society, then stay tuned because I have more statistics to share with