Body Image and Social Media

On social media, anyone can be whoever they want to be. They can make themselves seem as if they are a completely different person who lives on the other side of the world. In this day and age, social media is a very big part of a lot of people's lives. 

Although these apps are designed to give people a platform to be their true authentic selves, it is hard for some people to get over the fear of rejection. When you put yourself on social media, you prepare yourself to be judged by everyone, including your friends and family. 

Therefore, most people put the appearance on social media that they are perfect and are living their best lives. Social media is an app of popularity, and the easiest way to become popular is to follow everyone else’s lead. 

A lot of celebrities on these apps, who have millions of followers, make posts that are usually altered to make it seem that they are perfect. They do this to attract others, so that they can keep gaining followers and earn money. A lot of these followers tend to be young, impressionable minds. 

They want to be popular too, and look up to these celebrities as inspiration. So, they try to follow in their footsteps and mock their actions, language and looks so that they too can be perfect and successful. This causes people to change their looks and bodies to become someone that they are not. Although it may not be harmful to put on makeup to look like someone else, it can be very harmful to try to alter your body to look like someone else’s. Especially when the body goal they are trying to reach, is an image that is painted to look perfect and is far from reality. It is harming people and making them think they need to look a certain way, creating people to hurt their body.