Upturn Learning

Look around you. Everyone today is scrolling through endless pictures of seemingly perfect bodies, that they cannot help but compare themselves to. A part of them knows that these are just pictures of people that are “edited to perfection”, but the truth remains that if you’re going to see something too many times, you’re going to start believing it’s real. Considering the number of times teenagers open social media apps in a day, it would not take too long to figure out why their body confidence is going down.

In a time where we allow comments and likes on our posts to affect our body confidence, we unknowingly give other’s opinions too much power. But, the question arises, what does the power we give others really do, in relation to our body image? Well, this will not come as a shock but we become discontent with the way we look. Quoting the sisters who started ‘Live Life Unfiltered’ (a movement to show the real and unfiltered sides of some amazing women on social media), “the more time you spend taking a selfie and editing it, the less satisfied you’re going to become with your own body,” says a lot in a nutshell. We need to realise and be reminded that this discontent could easily take us down a lot of paths- none of which do good to us.

The dissatisfaction could lead us into the habit of filtering and editing our photos to look a certain way when posting on social media accounts. Although this seems harmless, it undermines our confidence and the way we look at ourselves in the presence of others. A person who feels the need to continuously edit their photos before posting online will most likely feel insecure when meeting friends or acquaintances from social media in real life, as the interaction would make them feel “exposed,” so to say.

Comparing our looks to those online, which are often achieved with the help of cosmetic experts, can lead to a cycle of self loathing and even amplify disorders like body dysmorphia, which is not easy to pull oneself out of. Body dysmorphia is a disorder where a person becomes fixated on a real or perceived flaw in their body, tries to fix or conceal that flaw, and is not able to control the negative emotions they have about their body. Research has shown that social media can not cause, but surely worsen the emotions of a person with body dysmorphic disorder, and cause them to undergo cosmetic surgeries to match up to the beauty standards that they see online. This was termed “social media dysmorphia” or “Snapchat dysmorphia” which has been on the rise ever since the use of social media. Netflix documentary Social dilemma has brought it out effectively.

To protect yourself from the insecurities instilled by social media, take proactive measures like limiting the use of social media, and taking the conscious decision to follow only those people on social media who are not ashamed of their bodies and are not afraid to post  their unfiltered selves online. Realising that more than half the content we consume online is either edited or is the result of body alterations can certainly make us introspect our social media habits and what they have done to our body image. Remember that “all that glitters is not gold.”

Urja is a fun-loving, energetic teen with a passion for writing and believes in having healthy discussions about various topics to gather perspectives. She wrote her very first poem in the fifth grade and has been writing poems and articles ever since. She also loves to read books and watch films and give her critical analysis on each scene, thanks to her English teachers. She landed the opportunity to write for UpTurn, which she thoroughly enjoys. She can’t wait to see what else comes her way in her literary journey.