-> Report from wall street journal has revealed that 32% of teen girls said they feel bad about their bodies, with instagram making them feel worst, with some reporting suicidal thoughts

-> teenagers, men and women have all discussed the idea of getting plastic surgery to look more like the filtered versions of themselves (social media significantly influences plastic surgery trends)

-> there has been a direct link beteen social media filters and low self esteem, self confidence and higher cases of body dysmorphia

Is the use of technology making us more insecure about ourselves?

Everyone now has access to their own virtual plastic surgery, allowing us to try filters which shows us what we would look like with a smaller nose. 

The rise of face filters and editing apps has correlated with a surge in cosmetic surgery. There has been a link between social media and self-esteem. 

55% of plastic surgery in 2018 reported that patients were motivated by the desire to look better, the use of face fitters also shape the kinds of alterations they desire and show us what we can change about ourselves. 

Face filters use algorithms to reinforce a standard of beauty which is narrow. Dr Egger, ‘It doesn’t support individuality, it supports conformity with what the standard of beauty’.

 

Those who are not pursuing cosmetic adjustments to themselves still us efface filters and editing apps can have serious health consequences. This is because it allows us to compare the image taken and the edited image which compares their actual appearance to the idealized and unrealistic retouched appearance which is impossible to achieve in real life. 


Dive self-esteem project, 60% of girls feel upset when their appearance doesn’t match the online version of themselves. 

‘Young women who spent just ten minutes taking, editing, and posting selfies to social media reported feeling more anxious, less confident and less physically attractive afterwards compared to these who didn’t engage in these behaviours’ Diedrichs tells `Forbes. 

 

Those who are particularly insecure, the gap between expectations and reality can lead to body dysmorphic disorder, which is a meatal illness which effects one in 50 people within the US. 

This is because we become fixated and obsessed which often leads to anxiety and social isolation leading to the seeking of cosmetic surgery. The inability to live u the edited face can trigger anxiety, depression and eating disorders. 

Latest findings show that 52% of girls use filters every day and 80% have used an app to change their appearance before the age of 13. 

 

Dr Egger believes platforms have a responsibility to regulate filter use, Instagram banned filters promoting cosmetic surgery in late 2019, they currently indicate when the filter is being used. However, images can still be edited externally and re-uploaded to the app 

 

Technology cannot be changed, we can adjust and hopefully the future generations. We need to be aware of the difference between the ideals and reality.  \

 

It has been found that 82% of parents have the sex talk however Dove says only 30% of parents are engaging in the ‘selfie talk’, an open conversation between parents and their kids on the pressure of social media. 

-       The study found that 90% of young women reported to using filters or editing their photos 


'Young women told us they feel under considerable pressure to present themselves as fun, happy and sociable- as well as effortlessly beautiful - reflecting the ways that appearance pressures have extended into presenting 'a perfect self', they reflected self critically on every aspect of themselves, including their clothes, shows, style and looks, and often worried that they might 'bring friends down' in a group shot. it is hard to overstate the palpable sense of pressure they conveyed'. 
Study author Rosalind Gill, Professor of social and cultural analysis (City university of London)


The negative effects of filters 

-       94% of participants said they felt under pressure to look a particular way and more than half of these said the pressure was intense 

-       70% felt pressure to showcase a ‘perfect life’

-       86% said their social media representations did not reflect their real life. 

 

Body dysmorphia and social media filters 
Filters and mental health is having a negative effect on body image. Research has shown that young adults who frequently use filters on social media often have increased feeling of dissatisfaction with their actual face and body. They are not only comparing their appearance to 'perfect' images of others but they are also comparing against their own flittered versions. 

Body dysmorphia and social media have created 'filter dysmorohia' also referred to as snapchat dysmorphia, known as a condition where a person is obsessed with perceived flaws in their face or body. Social media has caused people to strive for unrealistic standards of beauty, contributing to increases in dysmorphia.

-> These photos when combined with other issues, can lead to low self-esteem, a poor body image and eating disorders like anorexia, all of which can be serious issues that can take years to battle and overcome. 


-> The national eating disorder information centre is a non-profit organisation that works to help people struggling with these issues and spread knowledge onto them

-> The NEDIC launched a campaign urging fashion leaders and marketers to use models with all different body types for their photo shoots and reduce the amount of retouching done in photos. 

the petition and campaign were used to help women feel empowered and shed their poor self-image, sadly even the NEDIC campaign and support from other outlets the right to end the excessive use of photoshop is a long way off. 

Until then all we can do is remind ourselves that what we see if simpy an illusion and not reality. With the hope that more awareness is brought to light this can be stoped and the misuse of photoshop. 

 

A photographer having photographed everyone from Kate Moss to the queen Rankin has helped shape modern photography and portraiture as we know it. His latest enterprise, Rankin snapped portraits of 15 British teenagers that handed over the reins to his subject to edit until they felt the images were ‘social media ready’. 

-       Each photograph was tinkered with the most common alteration being smoother skin, enhanced eyes and thinner noses, not one image was left untouched. 

-       His project is the latest addition to an ongoing conversation about the effects of social media on body image. We all love presenting out best selves online. The past few years there been increasing concern about how much damage readily available apps that can change our entire appearance in just a few clicks are doing to young people’s self esteem. 
-       One study suggested that the average millennial will take 25,700 selfies during their lifetime, which averages out to be about one a day. 

-       ‘it’s time to acknowledge the damaging effects that social media has on peoples self-image’ says Rankin 
-       ‘Social media has made everyone into their own brand, people are creating a two dimensional version of themselves at the perfect angle, with the most flattering lighting and with any apparent ‘flaws; removed. Mix this readily available technology with the celebrities and influencers flaunting impossible shapes with impossible faces and we’ve got a recipe for disaster’. 

-       in 2017 Instagram was rated the worst social media platform for mental health by people aged 14-24, with snapchat coming in just above. But apps are both heavily image focused. This impact is such that cosmetic surgeons have identified a new trend among would be patients approaching them for procedures which will make them resemble their digitally altered likenesses, dubbed ‘snapchat dysmorphia’ by Tijon Esho

-       A new beauty ideal which experts say is almost impossible to come by naturally and needs tackling before it causes lasting damage to young people’s body image. Over the past few years despite a decrease in tractional cosmetic surgery ‘non-surgical’ [procedures, like dermal filters and Botox. This produces the aesthetic prized by Instagram has grown in popularity. Millennials seeking quick and easily accessible ‘fixes’ for their insecurities.

-       ‘When we compare ourselves to other people, that has the potential to affect the valuation of ourselves’ said Jennifer Mills associate professor in the department of psychology at York University. Jennifer’s 2018 study (YORK/ Study: social media is affecting the way we view out bodies – not in a good way/ November 2018)

Found young women felt worse about their own body image when exposed to social media posts of people they thought were more attractive than themselves. 

‘we really need to educate young people on how social media use could be making them feel about themselves and how this could even be linked to stringent dieting, eating disorders or exercise. There are people who may be triggered by social media and who are especially vulnerable’
.

 

-       It is no secret that social media can blur the lines on what’s real and what’s fantasy 

-       The research entitled ‘the effect of active social media engagements with peers on body image in young women; appears in the journal body image. The study was conducted by Jennifer Mills, associate professor in the department of Psychology and Jacqueline Hogue, a PhD student in the departments clinical program. It focus on young women, aged 18-27 years old, who liked or commented on photos of people they deemed to be more attractive than themselves. 

-        “The results showed that these young adult women felt more dissatisfied with their bodies,” says Mills. “They felt worse about their own appearance after looking at social media pages of someone that they perceived to be more attractive than them. Even if they felt bad about themselves before they came into the study, on average, they still felt worse after completing the task.”

-       The research included 118 female undergraduate students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Participants reported their age, ethnicity, whether English was their first language and years of post-secondary education in an online questionnaire six weeks before the experiment. Each participant was given a questionnaire where they had to indicate using a specific scale how satisfied or dissatisfied, they were with their appearance or body image. They were then randomly assigned into one of two experimental conditions. One group were asked to log into Facebook and Instagram for a period of five or more minutes and find one peer that was the same age who they felt was more attractive than themselves. After looking at each photo, participants were asked to leave a comment of their choice. In the other group the control group participants were asked to do the same task except this time comment on a post of a family member whom they did not think was more attractive than themselves. The data showed that participants view of their own appearance were not affected when interacting with their family members. 

-       ‘I think in a lot of cases, young women who post to social media are hoping to get positive reinforcement for what they’re positing and the way in which women use social media is more appearance based than it is for men’ 

-       Mills said particularly in this age group 18-mid 20s appearance is very important, and women care a great feal about how they are perceived by other people. They are also most likely to use social media. 

-       ‘when we compare ourselves to other people, that has the potential to affect the valuation of ourselves’ says Mills We really need to educate young people on how social media uses could be making them feel about themselves and how this could even be linked to stringent dieting, eating disorder or excessive exercise. There are people who may be triggered by social media and who are especially vulnerable’’

 

 

-> Sussex headteacher Sophie Gosden, who has seen pupils’ anxiety rise said some were sleeping with phones under their pillow. 

-> The government has stated they are providing support to school

-> The Ofcom report, released in August 2020, described how lockdown restrictions left a space in children’s lives which they filled with social media, gaming and watching content. 
--> Ms Gosden ‘we’ve had some children in year 5 and 6 that have slept with their mobile phones under their pillow because they are frightened of missing out on notifications and theyd wake up in the morning and feel stressed out because they had 62 notifications that they’d feel they’d need to reply’. 

 

‘NASTY CONTENT’

Luke Savage, from NSPCC’s child safety online team said, ‘We know a huge number of children are being bullied online, or finding concerning or nasty content, often that they’re not even searching for, that they’re stumbling across – and the statistics around all of these issues point to the fact that it’s happening more and more’ 

 

 

The government is also rolling out training to senior mental health leads in every state school and college by 2025,. The spokeswomen added 

Self-evaluation occurs when someone looks for positive traits in himself based on the best person, he compares himself with

Self enhancement, on the other hand occurs when someone questions which aspects of himself need to be improved in order to reach the level of goodness of the person he is comparing himself to.

-       To avoid the pitfalls of negative comparison, in the large part how we react to comparisons depends on who we compare ourselves to, when we just want to feel better about ourselves, we tend to engage in comparisons to people worse off than we are. Although this can become an unhealthy habit, when we want to improve, though. We may compare ourselves to people roughly similar to us but higher achieving in one trait or another. 


THE DANGERS OF COMPARISON 
-       Theodore Roosevelt called comparison ‘the thief of joy’

-       Social comparison can motivate people to improve, but it can also promote judgemental, biased, and overly competitive or superior attitudes. 

-       Most people have social skills and impulse control to keep their standards for social comparison to themselves, and not to act on any envy or resentment spurred by comparison making. But their true feelings may manifest in other ways 


WHY CAN COMPARISON MAKE PEOPLE FEEL BAD
-       Comparisons are likelier to make us feel bad when we make the error of only comparing ourselves to paragons of certain traits.

-       For example many people believe they have a less active social life than others, but when making such comparisons, people tend to compare themselves only to the most social people they know. Understanding the bias can help us make more realistic and motivating comparisons. 


IS SOCIAL MEDIA HARMFUL TO SELF ESTEEM?-       Constantly checking social media feeds full of images from parties and other aspirational events can diminish self-esteem and contribute to depression. Some studies have found that such risks primary affect those high in trait of neuroticism, and other suggest that social media use can reinforce self-esteem, 


COMPARISON AND BIAS 

-       Many people fall into the trap of positional bias, comparing ‘up’ more often than ‘down’ relative to their own standing. There is a fascination with celebrity culture and the prevalence of carefully manicured social media feeds only exacerbates the effect by exposing people to an endless stream of others seemingly perfect image, homes, jobs, skills and families. 

It will cover filters, like you might use on Snapchat, as well as digital alterations of things like body shape and size.

It affects anyone who is posting a paid promotion on social media - including many influencers, actors and singers.

-> the conservative politician mentioned reality TV celebrities Spencer Matthrws and Lauren Goodger, have spoken out about their own struggles with body image. 



2017 France introduced a law requiring any commercial image that had been altered to make someone look thinner, to carry a warning. 
The proposed legislation has received the backing of the girl guiding charity, which cited its own research that suggested around half of young women aged between 11 and 21 regularly use apps or filters to make photos of themselves look better online.