The Unseen Truth of Social Media

 

The Unseen Truth of Social Media

26/10/20

Amy Wiseman

As I’m sure everyone is aware, social media and the internet have become a major part of our lives. Most of us use it daily, and in general it can be harmless. However, there is the undeniable negative side. One of the main issues that is caused due to this negative side of social media, is the perception of our self-image. Whether it be from seeing other ‘beautiful’ images of most likely airbrushed photos or being cyber-bullied, most of us has experienced feeling down about our appearance or size based on these pictures posted on social media. However, what is worse than this is when we then go and put others down because of our own insecurities, no matter your size.

Human Dignity is one of the 10 Catholic Social Teachings and teaches that “Every human being is created in God’s image and likeness and therefore is valuable and worthy of respect”. The many components of this teaching are what makes it susceptible to the effects of cyber bullying and is exactly what is being ignored in these situations. Not only does the victim feel attacked, self-conscious and have a negative self-image of themselves, but the victim loses their dignity.

An example of when these hurtful comments occur, not respecting a person’s human dignity, is on Tik Tok. A girl can innocently post a video on Tik Tok being confident or even just being herself and receive loads of hate comments. I once saw this video of a skinny girl and when I went to the comments, I was shocked. It was filled with comments saying, “ok you can breathe now”, “eat a burger” and “well I just lost my appetite”. It is these comments that cause my generation to be so self-conscious and have a negative self-image.

One example of an effect of these behaviors online is body dysmorphia. This is a horrible mental illness where a person has obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in their appearance. This flaw could be minor or even imaginary, however the person cannot control their negative thoughts, and this causes severe emotional distress and will interfere with their daily functioning. They will avoid social situations, even with family and friends, for fear that their company will notice their flaws. This terrible issue is one of the many mental illnesses affecting our generation, because of these negative comments and fake images that cause a negative self-image. For more information about body dysmorphia click here.

If my generation learnt about human dignity and the worth of another human and that we cannot hide behind a screen, this issue could be one step closer to being fixed. We need to learn that we cannot compare ourselves to others because we are all special and unique in our own way as God intended us to be.

Sometimes I wonder whether these people who write such dreadful comments, understand the detrimental effects they have on the person. I believe they do not because who could be so cruel as to go out of their way to make someone be self-conscious and even develop a mental illness. We need to educate our generation about the effects of these comments as most people probably write them without thinking twice about the possible effects, posting them to try and be funny or earn clout because people agreed and liked the comment. So if we finally learn to understand that our appearance does not define who we are, that it is what is underneath all this, that we find out the true person and become a better and happier society.