Within the past few weeks, I was scrolling on Snapchat’s “Discover Page”, when something caught my eye. In the midst of all the daily news and polls provided by various magazines and newspapers, one headline from the Daily Mail read “Chandler is That You?! Matthew Perry looks worse for wear in first sighting since Friends reunion”. After clicking on it, I was shocked at what I saw. A column massively based on how the former Friends actor, Matthew Perry, looked. Simply dressed in a basic T-shirt, basketball shorts, and sneakers, he was criticized many times throughout the article for “not looking his best”, despite the article also saying he was just out for a coffee run with a friend.
To be honest, I hadn’t seen one of these “shaming” tabloids since the early 2000s, and couldn’t believe it was still around today. You all remember, the “50 Best and Worst Beach Bodies” headlines that both uplifted the “fit” celebrities of the season and completely trashed the ones who had any signs of normal bodily texture.
However, it’s not all too surprising that articles like this still exist, as social media has been essentially the app-based form of these things for years.
Photoshop usage has recently skyrocketed in apps such as Instagram and TikTok, with apps enabling video photoshop recently coming into light.
And while photoshop itself is not the problem, the way it has been formatted overtime to encourage unrealistic standards is.
Day after day, photos with slimmed waist and enlarged hips and lips are shared to the platforms, causing an uproar of harm amongst their users.
In a study conducted by Match in 2017, 51% of social media users have reported that the various apps make them feel more self-conscious about their appearance, and that is only subject to increase as the years go on.
As a comparison, with that statistic, more than 1 in every 2 people you pass by are struggling with their image due to these photo and thought sharing apps we carry in our pockets. So if you yourself have been worrying about your looks due to media platforms lately, you are definitely not alone.
It’s not just social media’s effect on body image, either. Whether we realize it or not, social media pushes this concept of needing to have a picture perfect life, 24/7. Whether you have a following of tens, hundreds, or thousands, you most likely wouldn’t want those that follow you to see you feeling lonely, sad, or stressed. It’s understandable, we enjoy putting our best foot forward into the world, no matter what the situation, but it also affects us more negatively than we think.
By just scrolling through post after post of people having fun, laughing with friends, or looking perfectly manicured while on errands, we subconsciously spawn a fear in our minds of missing out, and commonly create the idea of “since everyone else appears to be having such a great time, they must be doing better than I am.” Which is just simply not true. We have to remember that everyone is human, and have good and bad days, no matter how they present themselves online.
In 2018, researchers took 143 students from the University of Pennsylvania to two groups, those who could use social media every day with no restrictions, and those who were limited to 30 minutes of social media usage per day. After the experiment concluded, those who spent only 30 minutes per day on social media reported a lower severity of depression as well as loneliness.
After taking a 2-month social media break myself earlier this year, said improvements were evident within the first few days. Somehow, having absolutely no idea what is going on in the world around you brings an aspect of peace to the table, whether you choose to leave social media behind for a few hours, days, or weeks. So for those considering taking the leap of logging off as well, I highly recommend you try.
