False Standards

False Standards

20^th October 2020

By Sofia Bardini

It is undeniable that the presence of social media has changed how most teenagers view their self-image. Your self-image is a metal image of yourself, both as an individual and physical appearance. A healthy body image means that you are able to love yourself, be comfortable in your own body and see yourself as who you really are. Self-image also includes how you feel about your abilities, strengths, and weakness. Social media causes people to change the self-image negatively because they feel they have to fit in with the standards. But these standards on social media are false.

In the movie “Mean Girls” it clearly demonstrates negative self-image. This is seen when Cady Heron is asked by the popular girls if she wants to sit with them. After agreeing and sitting with them for a few days she thinks that she has to change her physical appearance if she was going to properly fit in with them. When Cady Heron felt the need to have to were certain outfits and wear makeup and do her hair all nice, is when we see as an audience how the power of other people can cause us to change our self-image for the worse. This movie shows a prime example of how people feel that they have to change their self-image to fit standards society sets.  

Negative self-image can have many consequences on teenagers. Many teenagers are experiencing negative self-image from feeling that they have to change themselves fit in with the standards social media has made. As found in 2018 95% of 13-17-year old teenagers owned a phone, out of that 95% of teenagers 72% use Instagram and 41% use snapchat. Many people feel that they need to be skinny and pretty to feel they belong and fit in with society. But this is not the case. Everyone was created in Gods likeness meaning we are all the same and should be treated with respected. Social media used to be a place where people could express themselves boosting their self-esteem levels. Overtime social media has changed for the worse causing people to have a decrease in self-esteem levels. This can be seen as today 60% of people using social media have reported that it has impacted their self-esteem in a negative way. The most popular platforms of social media include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube which are entirely imaged based. People who suffer with negative self-image suffer with negative feelings, fear of judgment, perfectionism, low resilience, lack of self-care and self-harm behaviours. As seen by these statistics and facts Social media is clearly ignoring the Catholic social teaching of Dignity of the human person as this teaching strives for people to deserve dignity and freedom, regardless of who they are because we were all created in the likeness of God.

A call to action that can help people that are suffering with negative self-image is have a day where you do not go on social media and focus on yourself. On this day you can re mind yourself that everyone is different, and we are all perfect in our own way. Another strategy that can help people suffering from negative self-image is see someone or visit a website that will help boost your self-esteem and remind you that we are all perfect and unique in our own ways. Read more about this topic on:

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/12942-fostering-a-positive-self-image#:~:text=With%20a%20negative%20self%2Dimage,and%20the%20world%20around%20us.