I’ve never understood how just from looking at a picture can cause people to feel insecure and develop eating disorders. It all just seems so stupid to me. I made this thread so that I can hopefully change my views on this topic.
It depends on whether the person has had prior struggles with mental health, nobody sees intrusive thoughts coming yet they are persistent when they do appear. If a person was ALREADY insecure efore seeing social media influencers with their perfect photoshopped faces and bodies, imagine how much of a blow to their mental stability it would be to see literally HUNDREDS of people with huge followings looking like fricken dolls and perfect. It would make even the most logical and rational of people feel something. Mental health is hard to stabilise and social media can literally screw you up and cause you to lose all your progress by showing you what you can't have, what you desperately wish you had, what you wish you were. It also depends on a person's upbringing and life experience, if you were told by people throughout your life that your looks and body was below the standard, that it was undesirable or even unpleasant to look at; seeing people being praised on social media for being "thick but snatched" ought to bring up more than a few unpleasant memories. Body image issues develop fast when you're young and just become more and more vicious as you grow.
It honestly depends on insecurity and the amount of confidence you have. For a lot of people, they may just look at the photos and admire the people in it, but others will look at it and compare themselves to the person in the picture. Then they may grow increasingly insecure and develop eating disorder and etc.. If you don’t get it, an easier example that is similar would probably be this: As mostly portrayed in a lot of families (or maybe just social media), middle children are often ignored, compared, and etc.. They have an older sibling who may be talented in studies, sports, art, or anything in general (not saying all oldest siblings, just saying some), and they may not be as great at those things and would often be pressured or compared. For example if they had a close family dynamic, the news about the child may spread towards distant and close relatives which would humiliate and put down the middle child’s confidence, then they would grow insecure and etc.. Plus parents want the best for their children, so they may be often compared to people, complained about, pressured, and made to feel like a failure if they don’t meet expectations. This was somewhat off topic, but hopefully a good example.
It’s all the gaslighting to the point they don’t know what is normal. These people don’t even know what the human body should look like. The ppl on Instagram advertises their own idea of body shape that doesn’t even exist.
imo it conditional, as other state insecurity before social media~ have you ever see how some insane challenge for the sake of trend or content view? like drink dangerous chemical or kick someone who jumping or prank other end up kill himself? imo such behavior just call it stupid is not enuf~ there may something on society or at least environment on those who do that kind of stuff which make them do thing that seem act of idiocy of other~ imo its not limited to skinny but sorry to say this but the USA movement of fat hmm body positive? its ok happy with body weight, lil bit chubby is ok~ the thing I personally think disturbing is the loudest (some of them) is people who so fat and they dare to ignore health risk from getting fat, some condemn skinny people~ it feel like zero sum game~ too skinny or too fat.... really? have so obsessive toward being skinny is as bad as feel good for too fat~ sometimes this cat wonder, what kind of environment, knowledge and experience those people have to act like that~
You see 'perfect' people/bodies and strive to be like them. Makes you feel insecure and develop eating disorders because people think starving yourself makes you skinnier, which it does, but it ain't healthy.
Seeing your friends following the Kardashians pressures you into following the Kardashians too~ Just your-not-so-new-case of Peer Pressure!!! (How you are coaxed into taking drugs or alcohol/cigarettes, etc!) It's just more of a psychological persuasion where we are almost brainwashed into blindly following the others(ur friends)!!!
I can't actually attach a pic( no picture adding option (TT)) of Kardashians but they are a worldwide phenomenon and rose to stardom from the show 'keeping with the Kardashians'~ Very controversial Hollywood celebrities!! (Americans and even others are pretty crazy abt them~^^) This YT link will help you~
It's because those pictures of people on the net and on TV are after they have been beautified to the max with the right "camera angle" and with the camera not close enough to see the flaws on people's faces. This causes a very beautified image to appear on screen that people often take as "normal" but when they compare it with themselves, they find that they are "very far from normal looking" and hence end up with image problems. It's just a mistake of taking something that has been beautified as the "normal" standard and finding that they don't meet up to it. The irony of it is that even beautiful people fall prey to this. In the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", (an autobiography of the Nobel Prize scientist), he does nude drawings/paintings as a hobby, he wrote that even beautiful people he invited as models think they are ugly when they see media glam shots and that he had to bring out biology textbooks to convince them that their "imperfections" is actually "normal".
Not exactly. There are extremes, like in everything in life. But the most common effect of social media apps like Instagram is that people get unrealistic expectations. The most common complaint I heard while in high school and still do in college is 'X woman got so much better looking after trying X product / losing weight with this diet, why can't I do the same?' You would expect people from Gen Z to be more aware of social media scams but teenage influencers still make millions advertising fake shit to people of their age.
In media, even before the age of social media, we are bombarded with images of woman: blonde, super slender, blue eyes, no ts no a-s, white, called "beautiful" in every magazine, in movies, she's the girl the bad guy or the good guy wants and so on and so on ad nauseam. Same for men, the brown/black haired-blue eyes mild to full jock type, the epitome of manliness. In your formative years, you are bombarded with these image that this is the desirable appearance. If you're any other else and you won't find love - and who doesn't want love? Not many people. This image of desirabilty has changed and morphed with the fashion of time, but there is always the theme that the lastest trend of body, of fashion, would make you more desirable. And it does. Why? Because people have been "hypnotised" by continually seeing these images and being told that this is the person you want to be with, that they are convinced that this is what they want to be, especially in the formative years of life - in teenagehood. If you're not naturally like the image of desirability, you are convinced to work towards it by working out, eating a certain way, dressing a certain way, surgery and or make up. Because XYZ person claimed it worked, it must work for me. And when it doesn't we feel a faliure, we're not doing enough etc; that can lead to low self esteem. Coupled with a brain that is prone, for want of a better word at this moment, to mental illness, can lead to the now well known disorders. What people forget is, or maybe from willful ignorance, our genetics may have common origin but they are not the same, we don't all distrude fat the same way, we don't all build muscle the same way. It's different between male and female, due to hormones. Its different between people of different ethnicities. Think of the East Africans who can run long distances, and West African's who are better at sprinting. It's even diferrent amongst people in the same family. Comparison is the theif of joy, "if Person A can look like that why can't I?" And when such people can't naturally, and can't afford to recreate it surgically or with props, it results in "body image issues". Even when they are able to, their view of themselves is already distorted in disatisfaction, so it is never enough . It's even worse in this day when people would use surgery to enhance their bodies, it still looks frightful, then they use tuning apps to smooth over the rest; and the moron masses are calling them beautiful continuing the cycle of "idiot hypnotism". And any detractor is called a hater. Thank you for reading my 2pence.
Although a lot of your points make sense I still see it as silly. Letting a picture of some woman heavily photoshopped to the extreme cause you to feel insecure and stuff to the point where they don’t even know what real bodies look (unless your a shut in or blind not knowing what real bodies look like you just be to fixed on yourself to notice people walking down the street don’t all look like Kim K) like and start comparing themselves with it instead makes them seem kinda dumb to me. Nonetheless I’ve known for this to a huge problem for kids especially girls who look at these people and think somethings wrong with them because they don’t look like me
it seems silly because you dont have the self image problem these people have. It's hard to truly understand sometimes what it means to be a diferent person. emotionally I dont understand people with drinking problems or gambling problems, but i understand personal differences can greatly change yow we experience things. an easy way to expand your thoughts is thinking about a food you love that people around you hate or vice versa. for example, coriander tastes like soap to some because of a biological difference, but normal peoppe cant fathom this because their experience is so fundamentally different, and some even think we are exaggerating our dislike. or girls giggling when they see a boy rolling around when he gets hit in the balls. etc.
I think Spoof, it just different matters. To some what we feel sad about is not what others may feel sad about. Depends on their personality and their situation and the environment they grew up in too. And their age where they are influenced by peer pressure and whatnot. Maybe some do look at it as that bc that's how they perceive what other 'normal' ppl or are like and they feel odd about it wanting to match up to what society likes or wants. Maybe other experiences that lead them to feel that way. And to others, maybe its the type of personality and character they would like to see themselves as or how many different things someone else has done, but they compare themselves and realize pretty far gap. I think human nature to compare a lot. Parents do, relatives do, society do, teens and social groups do. On one hand it can make us feel insecure and all kind of negativity things that it leads too. Or realize the flaws we need to improve on to get better or the inspirations that give us motivation to pursue something like. Etc.
I don’t think social media always causes body insecurities, but I do think it helps perpetuate them. Here’s an example from my own life: For context, I grew up in a relatively economically stable family, and lack of food was never much of an issue. Some of my earliest cohesive memories are of my mother standing in front of a mirror and critiquing her body, saying how fat and ugly she was (she was average). She’d change diets on a weekly basis and pinch her flesh, telling me that every donut I ate would stick to my hips. I was five. Certain foods were deemed “bad” foods while others were deemed “good”, food was never just food in my household. I grew up with the notion that “normal” (take that word with a grain of salt) women were fat, and underweight women were “normal”. It goes without saying that I don’t have a very good relationship with food. So of course, you combine this nasty, prewoven web of “bad” and “good” and “ugly” and “fat”, and you mix it with the model-esque women of Instagram, and what do you get? In some cases, sadness and general insecurity. In others, a bad case of an eating disorder. I’m not blunt enough to talk about my mental health records so I’ll stop here, but just know they’re both pretty shitty to live with on a daily basis. In contrast, had I grown up with a parent who showed me a good relationship with food, someone who didn’t restrict and criticize and ooze insecurity, maybe the glamour of Instagram beauty would be less blinding. It might still affect the way I saw myself, but there wouldn’t be as big of a crack in the foundation for insecurity to wedge it’s way in. I don’t think I made it clear, but I didn’t share this because I was looking for pity or anything of the sort. I figured there were probably a lot of people who had a similar experience to mine so it wouldn’t hurt to put it into words, and it also addresses the discussion topic effectively. And to the parents on here: don’t be like this p.s. I love my mom very much, she’s just very flawed at times
Yes, we know the average person doesn't look like Kim K, but do you see the average joe being called beautiful every two seconds? Only in the cases where they look like the current epitome of beauty. People want adulation. They want to be one of the "beautiful people" they see in media, so slender, so tanned or "flawless". You may not feel that way, different genetics, different natures and nurtures, but in this world of fast celebrity, fast lives and fast fashion - many want a piece of the cake. And they are "learning" that this is what is required to get "access" to the cake. Another thing, is though you know images are photoshopped to the nth degree, a lot of people don't know or don't want to believe it because it buys into something I personally don't quite understand, or they do know but don't know the extent to which it is done. I personally only found out the extent that these people use apps to body modify because I didn't have the time to spend an inordinate amount of time trawling social media and stumbling on the secrets to their success. If it hadn't been for my sister telling me about this insta page that outted these people, I would have remained ignorant about the excess of the issue. I used to think it was just face that was done, but the sheer amount of retouching that can be done on an app on one's phone is mindboggling, coupled with surreptitious angling of the body to diminish a body part and emphasise others. Even when presented with evidence you will still have people not believing it, and it makes me flabbergasted. Hell, you only need to compare the Getty image of a celebrity at an event to the one they post on instagram to see what they are up to. On my part, one afternoon on this aforementioned instapage solved years of minor inadequacies I felt about my body. These people are just as common looking as the rest of us. I could go as far as saying uglier, because of all the work they've had done. That these sorts of peons are being adored is one of the ironies of life. You may be of strong heart and mind, but most people are malleable. And I am not ashamed to admit I have been caught up a few times in my life. This sort of thing will continue to happen as long as bland people are placed on pedestals and the unthinking masses continue to adore them for nothing.
A lot of it is not photoshopped, just camera angles and distance enough to not show the flaws. And makeup. And you got it the other way round. They do not see these people as "beautiful", they see them as "average". And since these "beautiful" people are average, then what are they if they are not beautiful? Below average. Same thing for "people on the street", people don't usually get so close you see the blackheads and pores on their faces, but you will when you look at yourself in the mirror.