Image of Why Don 't I Look Like Her? The Impact of Social Media on Female Body Image

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Why Don 't I Look Like Her? The Impact of Social Media on Female Body Image

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The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in
the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body
dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to
the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on
their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This
paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered
eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional
advertising has portrayed women throughout history, as well as analyze the ways in
which this depiction of the female ideal has helped shaped society’s perspectives about
beauty and increased the rate of disordered eating among college aged females. Further,
this analysis assesses the ways in which the thin ideal as portrayed in advertising
encourages women to look a certain, unrealistic way. I also consider various social
psychological theories to explain how women in society form their perceptions with a
combination of what they see in the media as well as what they see in their friends and
family. I demonstrate that social networking sites (SNS) have similar effects on young
women as advertising and other forms of mass media do. Therefore, I will argue that
SNS, as a combination of real life and a personalized form of advertising, can potentially
have the same, yet amplified, consequences. Indeed, I argue that the ubiquitous and
enduring nature of social media websites result perhaps in a wider and more detrimental
impact to the body image concerns of college aged women than advertising or the media
generally

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Publication Information
: Claremont Colleges.,
Number of Pages
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ISBN
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Language
English
ISSN
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Subject(s)
Social media
Body Image
Claremont Colleges
Impact
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Type
Article
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