Does social media have an effect on girls and their body image? In today’s generation social media is a big factor. Some argue that social media is good for girls because it can let you keep up with friends, and it will provoke creativity. Others think social media can cause permanent damage, it can lower self esteem, and it can encourage girls to change their appearance, for these reasons I believe social media has a negative effect on girls and their body image. 

My very first reason on why social media has negative effects is that it can cause permanent damage. Social media displays an idea of the “Perfect Body” which is 23% less than the average woman weight. Michael Rich who is a doctor at the Boston Children's hospital, he study’s people’s mental health. He discovered that girls/teens compare themselves to the unattainable body images that are displayed all over social media. Therefore this gives girls the idea that they need to be that size. They will then sometimes stop eating to lose weight which can cause anorexia nervosa, binging and purging, etc. Consequently, it can/will cause permanent damage to the body. (Thriving) Social Media can also cause suicide. A professor and his colleagues from Indiana University conducted a study where they asked 6,054 high school students if they had suicidal thoughts. 18% of the people who said they do/did have suicidal thoughts were obese. 10% weren’t. A majority of the people who said they had suicidal thoughts were girls. (Common Sense Media) I myself love social media, but it can get too out of hand when girls stop eating or are not feeling good about their physical appearance. Then it can be too late to try and stop because they have already put their body in danger.

Another reason why social media has a negative impact on girls is because it can lower girls self esteem about themselves. Social media can be good at times. For instance, it will allow girls to keep up with their friends but studies show that social media has a lot of negative impacts that can be dangerous to the girl physically or mentally. A study recently conducted by “Real Beauty” found that 90% out of 3,300 women wanted to change at least one aspect of their body. (The Dove campaign for Real Beauty) This proves that most women aren’t proud or confident in their own body’s. Michael Rich, a MPH (Mental Personal Health) knows for a fact that through the stage of adolescence independance is developed. With that girls will turn to social media for validation on things like what to wear, how to act, what to look like, because girls don’t want to be different from what society expects. They will turn to social media to see unrealistic body figures of what they're supposed to look like. In return girls will compare themselves to unachievable body images and will end up feeling bad or self conscious about their own body’s. Along with the study conducted by “Real Beauty” out of 3,300 women, 69% of the 5th-12th graders let social media influence what the “Perfect Body” was. Therefore social media causes low self esteem in girls. If you were the mom of a teenage girl, ask yourself this question. Would you want your daughter feeling self conscious just so she can talk to her friends she may see the next day?

My final reason is social media encourages girls to change their own appearance. Today the ideal body in girl’s opinion is unattainable and impossible to have unless taken to extreme measures. In 2006 Real Beauty took 3,300 women from around the world and asked them a few questions. In the results it showed that a quarter of 15-17 year old’s would undergo cosmetic surgery. (The Dove campaign for Real Beauty) The study states that a lot of teenage girls are willing to pay lot’s of money just to change their body. In addition, during the year 2012 over $11 billion was spent on facelifts, botox, breast augmentations, and other unnecessary cosmetic surgery. (Neutral News) Therefore, lots of women put a lot of money into surgery just so their not different from what’s perfect or expected.

In conclusion I believe social media has a negative effect on girls and their body image. For reasons like, it causes permanent damage, it can lower self esteem, and it encourages girls/teens to change themselves. Social media can have some perks, for instance, it is a great way to communicate, and it can improve creativity, but the negative effects are a lot more serious and consequential than the positives.

Bibliography

Rich, Michael. “How does Social Media Affect Body Image”
Boston Children’s Hospital. Thriving.
8 June 2015. Web. 4 April 2016

Roxby, Phillippa. “Does Social Media Impact on Body Image”
BBC News. BBC News services. 13 October 2104. Web. 4
April 2016

“The impact of social media and body image: does social networking actually trigger body obsession in today’s teenage girls?” 
Dove. Dove self esteem project. 27 June 2014. Web 6 April 2016

Armstrong, Stephanie.“Statistics on Body Image,
Self Esteem & Parental Influence” Heart of Leadership.
Heart of Leadership. 5 June 2011. Web 6 April 2016