Social Media & Body Image Article Task – 12/01/2021

I answered the questions that were given to us and then I read what was on the website. These are the questions and answers I got:

1) The article suggests that social media use appears to be linked to body image concerns. But do you think it is the case that Instagram causes someone to have negative feelings about their appearance, or that perhaps people who are concerned about their appearance are more likely to use Instagram?

As a viewer on social media, you see a lot of influencers and celebrities who photoshop their body and make themselves look slimmer this affects the views who think that the celebrities bodies are perfect without the photoshop. This protrades an image to views and younger generations to think that you need to be super skinny to fit in. this protrades a “perfect image” that everyone wants to fit into. People will go to any lengths to look like celebrities like plastic surgery or missing a few meals to become slimmer when they don’t need to do that but the media tells you how to look how to feel. It doesn’t help that weight loss companies put advertisements on certain peoples pages to show that you aren’t a good weight for the media. They will show these ads on influencers pages or after you’ve seen a very photoshopped photo. 

2) There are many different ways to use social media – are you just consuming what others post, or are you taking, editing and uploading selfies? Are you following close friends and family, or a laundry list of celebrities and influencers?

There are so many different ways to use social media like spreading awareness for causes and spreading love for all types of people and bodies. Photoshopping your photos when you have such a young audience isn’t the best idea because of how impresional they are at their young age. They will see that they are curvy and will want to be super skinny like all the supermodels that they see walking on the catwalk. I follow artists and celebrities and I don’t agree with how much photoshopping they do to their face and body. I don’t mind a tiny bit to cover a spot or too or something you don’t want in the background but i dont think making your body will help the younger generations. I also don’t agree with all the celebrities doing weight loss ads where they take a slimming drink everyday. I don’t edit my photos but I have grown up in a world where everything has a filter on it which changed the way you look before you even take the photo. So every photo I take has a filter on it.

3) Studies suggest that looking at celebrities made women feel worse about their bodies – but images of friends and acquaintances came with an even stronger link to body image concerns. Do you agree with this finding?

I agree with this finding because celebrities definitely make people, women and children bad about the way they look. I think that they shouldn’t make any changes to their bodys to show the real them. People edit their photos so much they don’t get recognised in public which shows how much they edit their posts. Not only are the celebrities editing their photos they are also editing the photos that they are doing for campaigns. They will be photoshopped by the photographer and the celebrities will edit them further. I think they should just disagree with any photoshopping to their body.

Influencers who photoshop their bodies have drilled this into peoples heads that the idea of being skinny is seen as perfect and that’s apparently how everyone wants their girlfriends and wifes and husbands. Then people who are bigger and curvy are seen as super unhealthy. This causes a lot of problems including eating disorders which are “Between 1.25 and 3.4 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder” and the majority of that are young teenage girls. “25 percent of that number is male” which 85000 males suffer with eating disorders.

4) There may be a downside to body-positive images, too: they’re still focusing on bodies. Sure, they are about loving the body, but it is still very much about a focus on appearance. Do you think body-positive images help improve body confidence or just add to the problem?

It is much more about appearance but they worry about their appearance so much because that’s what people see before they speak to you. Body positive posts should be posted more. We should stop photoshopping because sooner or later we will realize that our bodys are who we are and there’s much more about us than our bodys. Body positive photos will definitely improve body confidence because people will see it’s ok to have “imperfections”.

5) The article suggests you should curate your own social media feeds if you don’t want to come away feeling bad about your body. Do you critically consider who you follow on social media? And what type of images do you think are most effective at counteracting the focus on body image?

I do consider who I follow on social media because if someone is telling everyone that they should be eating this or doing this to lose loads of weight in an unnatural way then I will unfollow them because I don’t want the negativity of people saying that all body types are perfect. I think showing your audience the real way you have lost weight and the real you is the best way to become more body confident because not only will it make the influencer happy with their body but it will help the younger generations to feel happy and confident in their own bodies. 

There’s also a horrible side of the internet which tells people not only how their bodies should be but also how they should dress. People should be able to dress the way they want. There are so many influencers who stick to the gender style that it makes people think men should wear trousers and a shirt and women should wear dresses. People who break gender stereotypes get hated on and they get criticised. For example Harry Styles wore a dress on vogue and he got told that he should be more masciline.

1) Do you think airbrushing photos should be illegal?

I think that airbrushing should be only done with the models consent and if you photoshop someone’s photo then less is more, think about how much your editing the photo before sending it to the campaign.

 I agree with photoshopping your own photos but photographers photoshopping your photo to make you unrecognizable is too extreme.

The websites I looked at

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-media-affects-body-image

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-46349307