Teens are constantly exposed to the media’s stream of expectations related to body image. The perpetuated ideal appearance that is often preposterous shown in media has left a residue in the mind of adolescents. The unrealistic portrayal of beauty in media has led to specific social standards, body dissatisfaction, and self consciousness amongst teenage girls. Media has naturally set social standards and expectations that female teenagers often feel obliged to follow. On average seventy five percent of teens have profiles on social media networking (Ramasubbu, “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”). With constant connections to the world of media, teens get exposed more to the unreasonable standards. For instance, the thigh gap and bikini …show more content…
Research has shown that greater females’ exposure to media containing a high proportion of ideal body images, the greater the likelihood of reporting attitudes and behaviors characteristic of anorexia nervosa and bulimia (Morrison, “Body-Image Evaluation And Body-Image Among Adolescents: A Test of Sociocultural And Social Comparison Theories”). Leading to the fact that sixty nine percent of girls in fifth through twelfth grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape (“National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders”). According to Rader Programs a study showed that after viewing images of female fashion models seven out of ten teens felt more depressed and angrier than prior to viewing the images. All of these facts contribute to the certainty that media has contributed to the body dissatisfaction in girls. One thing that teens fail to realize is that those images are airbrushed versions of model who weigh about twenty three percent less than the average women (“Ramasubbu, “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”) and the body portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only five percent of American Females (“National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders”). While most teens are obsessed with trying to reach an unreasonable goal that the media has embedded into their brains, they …show more content…
According to Ehmke, experts are starting to worry that the social media have become so integral to teenage life are promoting anxiety and lowering self-esteem. A report done by Common Sense Media has led to an emotional disturbance that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites known as Facebook depression. The self consciousness and worry that their body is not meeting social expectations has made them insecure and depressed leading them down the road to eating disorders. Seventy percent of six to twelve year olds want to be thinner (“National Eating Disorders Association”). A study also found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight than getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents (“Rader Program”) which is absurd. Not to mention that ninety percent of people with eating disorders are women between the ages of twelve and twenty five (“Family First Aid”), and that anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness (“National Alliance on Mental Illness”) which media has played a factor into contributing to these