...The Media and Self – Esteem When you hear the word media and self – esteem, what comes in your mind? Maybe some of you think that media are the technologies and reporters, and self – esteem is being confident to yourself and abilities. But then, what are their relationships? Our world is full of media; it reaches people to communicate widely in our society. In today’s life, all of us grow in a society where people can’t avoid the media. Even our parents, our Lolo and Lola, our Tita and Tito, who are not expose to this sort of influences, and not susceptible to the impact that social media may have on individuals. In the past few years, some speculations to as of what those impacts might be are underway. Almost everyone asked this question: is the media killing your self – esteem? One interesting fact that I research about social media says that girls spend more time using the internet than the boys do. In our society, is it already common for the other girls to have a bad issue about their self than the boys? And could this internet usage be pushing that even further? Maybe there is an impact because the media somehow forces us to transform or change our perceptions of ourselves. And most of all, we constantly comparing others to an ideal that probably isn’t very realistic like fairytale. In another way, our self – esteem also possible to be affected in social media sites. For example, in Facebook, it is the most used of all other sites with almost 750 million likes, shares...
Words: 567 - Pages: 3
...Does social media shape our identities? Some people believe that social media brings many positive to our lives. While others believe it is full of negativity. Social media impacts our identities by influencing internal and external forces within ourselves and the environment, self-esteem, and causes many psychological concerns. Our self-identities are how we view ourselves as individuals. According to Jim Taylor a professor at the University of San Francisco, self-identity is gained in two ways. One-way identity is gained is by evaluating our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors based on experiences, current needs, and future goals (Taylor 2011). Second, self-identity can be gained by observing the environment that surrounds...
Words: 1053 - Pages: 5
...Social media and Self-esteem Anh Phung Abstract In this day and age, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has created a platform for people to share information instantly and communicate with people all around the world. Facebook is the most outstanding example of successful social media network. According to the first quarter 2015 earnings announcement by Facebook, the site has achieved 1.44 billion active users per month, and 65% of which are daily active users. Other social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are also a powerful means of communication. With such a large audience, social networking sites provide ample opportunities to acquire information, network, and connect with friends. Besides from the obvious benefits that social media brings to our lives, there are some other effects that it has on its users’ wellbeing. This paper examines how people’s tendency when using social networking sites affects their level of self-esteem. Introduction The introduction of social media has revolutionized the way people interact, since social interactions can now take place anywhere that has Internet coverage. Thanks to social media, people no longer need to meet face-to-face in order to know how another person is doing. Social networking sites serve as a place for users to share information about themselves, from the simplest things like what they have for dinner and who they hang out with, to more personal things like their thoughts...
Words: 3942 - Pages: 16
...Images of Beauty Dana Alkhandak #106621937, Group D Psychology 10 October 2, 2013 Rough Draft #1 Adolescence is a time of both delicate concern about social acceptance as well as self-conscious obsession with self-image and identity. Becoming more aware of society's selective standards, many youngsters look to the media for guiding on the "ideal" way to look and act. Teenagers have more access to images from the media that sponsor a growing acceptance of makeup, fragrances and unnatural beauty, their self-esteems becomes dependent on an unnatural and constructed thought of beauty. The images promoted and portrayed in the media, can be harmful and have dangerous impacts on the lives' of many individuals. The images revealed and published by the media harmful effects begin the minute they start being used for entertainment and sale purposes; however, it doesn't stop there, the images can also be demeaning the self-esteems of individuals as well as creating unhealthy habits that teenagers find the need to follow. Everyday more ads are being released whether it's for a newly engineered face wash or the season's latest sweater. Quickly as soon as the item is advertised, teenagers run to the nearest shopping malls to get their hands on the "Oh, So GREAT" invention, without realizing the price worth of the item. Therefore, now the happy teen picks out the item and gets to the checkout stand, later to discover that the item is $150. At that point, the teen has two...
Words: 970 - Pages: 4
...Media Research Assignment: Body Image “If your hair isn’t beautiful, the rest hardly matters” (an ad for shampoo). A woman in a diet ad exults, “I’d probably never be married now if I hadn’t lost 49 pounds.” Society never noticed beauty because it is too busy trying to create it. What role is media playing in the effects it has on people? Today's media in America affects social standards, and many often identify the media as their primary source of information. The mass media serves as a mediating structure between individuals and how we address identity by sending a powerful message to society: only a determined physical stereotype of beauty is valued. Reiterated by other primary agents of socialization, such as families, peers and schools, the idea is taken seriously by individuals. Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance. Media negatively affects body image through ideal appearance, health issues and self-esteem. Effects of Advertisement: Society is extremely immersed in media. Media portrays the ideal body image negatively and impacts ideal appearance through magazines, commercials, and advertisement. The mass media's depiction of women portrays a standard of beauty that is unrealistic and unattainable for a majority of women in society. For example, Amy Finley, a community leader advocating advice for women, discusses a healthy message that women shouldn't...
Words: 2619 - Pages: 11
...BODY DISSATISFACTION: ROLE OF THE MEDIA “I allowed Social Media to define what I thought of my own body, and now I realize that no matter how thin you are, no matter how beautiful you are, someone will always call you ugly because it is impossible to please the world.” (Demi Lovato, 2014). In today’s society young women are constantly struggling mentally, physically and psychologically with accepting their own bodies. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (2003), this trend started since the Renaissance period where self-starvation was practiced for religious purposes, however due to the growing influence of the Media, eating disorders have become more popular in the twentieth century and as a result the death rate has climbed horrifyingly (Frey, 2003). The Media has a heavy influence on how young women in the United States view and modify their bodies to achieve a perfect body type, however this ideology can lead to negative outcomes such as; low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, as well as affect other spheres of life. In examining the role of the Media and the negative effects it has on an individual one can clearly see that the issue have gotten to the point where young women live a life where they are mentally tormented and pressured to achieve one body type. Media attacks the subconscious mind and imprint false images of beauty which in turn leads to downward social comparison and allows young women to feel insecure in their own skin...
Words: 1741 - Pages: 7
...in the Media According to Dove Research, The Real Truth about Beauty, only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful (“Surprising Self Esteem Statistics”). Women in the media are shown as having a body type that is unrealistic and impractical. Although mass media has many negative effects on today’s women, including low self-esteem, an increase in eating disorders and an inaccurate definition of beauty, advertisements and thin models can also serve as role-model and as inspiration. From dolls to Victoria’s Secret models, women are exposed to all types of media images that portray “the thin ideal” from a very early age. Media pressure to be thin can cause individuals to have negative thoughts about their appearance. According to psychologist Tiffanie Domil, “Body image is the way people perceive themselves, and the way they believe others perceive them” (“The Influence of Media Images”). Therefore body image is all about what we see about ourselves, and our opinions of our bodies, even though they opinions may not be exactly true. For example, one woman might think she is overweight when in reality she is perfectly healthy. There have been multiple studies done to connect media to women’s low self-esteem. One example of the effects of media is in Fiji in 1995, when televisions were introduced. Statistics show that after 38 months of being exposed to media, females started to be more conscious about their bodies and even started dieting (“The Media”). 74%...
Words: 1799 - Pages: 8
...The media have brainwashed our minds, with the same body type, causing us to lose confidence in ourselves. These actors and actresses displayed, show bodies which are not realistic of the general population. Self-harm has increased over the years due to body distortion, diagnoses such as depression, suicide, anorexia, substance abuse, and eating disorders...
Words: 1537 - Pages: 7
...the effect of mass media on young girls. In today’s society, the media is frequently critiqued on the ways in which it represents women. The media often glamorizes women and displays unrealistic images of beauty that are practically unobtainable. Another problem with media in today’s society is that it is reaching girls at increasingly younger ages. The research articles discussed will specifically look at how media is effecting girls that fall into the youth and adolescent category, with girls as young as five years old. The first article to be discussed looks at peer and media influences on body image concerns in young girls...
Words: 1046 - Pages: 5
... | |Theories of Personality | | | |September 29, 2015 | | | | | ABSTRACT Today social networking is...
Words: 2800 - Pages: 12
...The media and womens body image Its been argued that the western culture is a culture so consumed by image that those with fame give praise for being thin and disapproval for being fat, birthing a generation of women and girls that are often extremely self conscious about their appearance and body image. Media images of the unattainable thin body can be found almost anywhere. There has been continual interest in women’s body image throughout the years. Is there truth in the fact that women’s self-esteem and eating patterns are affected by what a woman sees in the media? Have this been researched enough to show the link between poor body image and the media’s portrayal of women and could this research allow for successful interventions to be evaluated and implemented. Could and intervention lead to fewer cases of anorexia and bulimia and could this lead to increased self-esteem and a more positive body image amongst women? The question many people want to know is if this is the case, where did these stereotypes come from exactly? Is it from the movie, television industry, fashion and beauty magazinesor is it from social and cultural influences , or maybe its just something we learn naturally. Does it really affect women and adolescent females selfworth, or does it go beyond that, leading to serious medical conditions? This paper explores the different factors that influences women body image and if the media is soley responsible for how adolescents and women view their body...
Words: 2149 - Pages: 9
...Teenagers are the most profuse users of social media. 21st century teens have grown up with a large component of their culture influenced by social media regardless of their surrounding. “ Social media can make teens more informed citizens of the country. An example is for intellectual benefits – children can develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills by playing computer games designed to develop these skills, or they can develop ethical thinking by comparing family values with values in fiction or documentaries”.(Homayoun) This is important because by hearing from all parties about the problems the world or what the country is facing, they’ll learn how to form their own opinions at an early age. This is more than most members of previous generations can say for themselves.(Chell)Information is more democratic and available than ever before, yet the dangers associated to it are very real. Some adolescents have been...
Words: 1494 - Pages: 6
...A Review of Literature of MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON BODY IMAGE and its AFFECTS Introduction Body image is a central part of mental and physical well-being, and because the mass media are pervasive communicators of social standards, they greatly influence people’s perception by setting unrealistic standards for what is “normal” for body weight and appearance. Thus, reinforcing people to emulate and believe what they see and hear. There is an extensive amount of studies on the effects of media exposure on body dissatisfaction and the experience of negative thoughts and esteem about one’s body, which is linked to a range of physical and mental health problems, including eating disorders and low self-esteem. Body Image: Self-Esteem and Identity Several individual variables predict or influence the relationship between media exposure and body disturbances. Most of the research has been done with women and girls, for whom the “body perfect” ideal is ultra-thin, and whose media models are typically underweight (Tantleff-Dunn, 1999). To determine whether viewing images of thin models influences how women feel about their bodies, there were many studies done using the social comparison framework, finding that women engage in “upward social comparisons,” comparing themselves to the thin models depicted in the media. When women believe that they do not measure up to the models, they feel more negatively about their own weight and body. For example, Lin and...
Words: 1421 - Pages: 6
...Anorexia: The Role of Media Hillary Indako University Of Nairobi Eating disorders have a higher mortality rate than any other mental illness. As many as 20 percent of those who suffer from anorexia will die prematurely from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. While there are many possible causes and triggers for these disorders, the media’s influence on body image cannot be overlooked. The media has been playing a central role on the growth of eating disorders such as anorexia. As adolescents we are convinced with images and messages that tend to further the idea that to be happy and successful we must be slim. Nowadays, It is nearly impossible to open a newspaper or listen to the radio, or turn on a TV without being confronted with the ideas that to be fat is to be undesirable. When adolescents feel as though their breasts, weight or hips don’t match up to those of supermodels and actors, they feel fatally feel secure. This in turn makes to feel insecure about their body image and thus resulting in this eating disorder. Surveys show that there is plenty of evidence demonstrating that the media encourages slimness and weight loss and over-emphasize the importance of beauty and appearances. It appears that beauty and fashion magazines significantly impact the process of identity development in young women, especially with regards to gender-role learning, identity formation, and the development of values and beliefs (Arnett...
Words: 936 - Pages: 4
...cosmetic enhancement and anti-ageing than Cindy Jackson. She is living proof of her unique expertise” headlines her self-titled website. While Jackson’s website flaunts her many cosmetic successes, it also lists her as a member of Mensa, The High IQ Society since 1977. Additionally, visitors to the site learn that Jackson, who received her first Barbie Doll at the age of six, led a sheltered life and felt like a misfit. The Barbie Doll supported her fantasies of an alternative destiny until she became a teenager, at which time her interests turned to art and photography; her perception of visual presentation began. Social-self, Self-concept, Self-esteem, and Self-presentation The sense of identity, sense of self, is important to human psychology and sociology. It provides the sense of having free will and is the foundation of social control. The Myers text asserts that at the center of one’s world is his or her sense of self. It further states that, “the most important aspect of yourself is your self” (Myers, 2010). The beliefs by which one defines his or herself are self-schemas; the specific beliefs that define oneself. Moreover, one’s sense of self determines who he or she might become – the possible self. It is obvious that Cindy Jackson has psychological issues stemming from early childhood that led to the development of her ultimate social self. She thought of herself as disadvantaged in comparison to prettier classmates; the comparisons we make with others...
Words: 958 - Pages: 4
