Social media and beauty standards
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
“Insecurities when it comes to the way we look at ourselves existed before social media. Instagram especially, is a dangerous trigger for eating disorders and has made our body image issues much more complex.”
– Pooja Deshpande, clinical psychiatrist who specialises in trauma and eating disorders
The internet became a social platform when I was 14 years old, but it wasn’t as vast as it is today. I think I just about got out of my adolescent years as facebook and eventually instagram became popular. I had different problems as a kid, what my nose looked like online wasn’t even a factor. At least not yet.
According to a study published by InTechOpen, “Social Media and Its Effect on Beauty,” by Mavis Henriques and Debasis Patnaik, we now understand that social media has a significant effect on the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health of an individual, often leading to problems with body image. That’s some heavy stuff.
Research clearly shows that media exposure contributes to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. A piece in Pulse Nigeria by Ntianu Obiara says, “There is a positive correlation between the rise of social media and the rise in eating disorders among young men and women.” Social media is unfortunately constantly shaping our concept of beauty. With consistent exposure to images posted online, it is evident that there is a link to how individuals compare themselves and perceive their own body. In some cases, it can severely impact one’s health.
I remember uploading my first profile picture on Orkut, and thinking to myself that maybe I could do better. It was my first brush with insecurities surrounding my online image. Looking back, I really don’t think human beings were prepared to deal with the consequences of being exposed so widely, on the world wide web.
By 23 I had developed adult acne. As a person who always had perfect skin I was not equipped to deal with this. Social media’s filtered world made everything worse. I had an image to look after now. Even my physical social life took a hit because I was quite embarrassed to step outside without a filter on. I started depending on makeup and a film setting that blurred my bumps and pores. I found every way, both online and offline, to appear as someone who ALWAYS had flawless skin. So much so that I was really afraid of what the dermatologist would say about my skin so I never went to one. The only way this changed was when I started putting pictures online with my real skin– that’s when I could really face an unfiltered life, with friends, colleagues, and even my doctor.
Photoshop has always been available for models and celebrities but now, social media has made it hard for everyone to exist without digitally perfected beauty. Filters with perfect skin and ideal features have got people hooked. Individuals of all body types feel the pressure to distort their bodies. It’s now normalised and easy for users to not only look their best and put together all the time without having to wait to get dolled up to appear on the gram, but also completely reject their real bodies.
When we constantly engage in channels that compare our beauty to someone else’s, we tend to think of ourselves as less than. We deserve the understanding that everyone’s lives are different and it all can’t amount to the same thing. It’s just not possible to have no hair left out of place.
Even the current marketing algorithms as we know them to be, can be damaging. A new mom could be bombarded with weight loss related ads right after giving birth, affecting her self esteem. I’ve even seen pop ups of lightening creams for underarms. How ridiculous is that?
Ads targeting our insecurities and appearance, instil in us that there is something wrong with our appearance, impacting our mental and physical wellbeing. But we’re slowly catching up– Pinterest recently banned weight loss ads and imagery from its platform, becoming the first major social media platform to do so.
There are also numerous beauty activists out there who are expanding themselves to break down social media beauty norms and I am really happy that our online community is slowly accommodating people who are embracing, loving, accepting and nurturing their own beauty. That’s a good influence in my book. I hope to see all our social networks saturated with more of that.
Just like we chase the high of trying to be perfect, especially through our public image online, I dream of the day where we chase ourselves, as we are. Weird, unique, vulnerable, imperfect…and unfiltered.