Fashion, Media, and Self-Esteem. Paper Example

In the contemporary world, many young people look up to images and advertisements portrayed in the media to become aware of their own bodies, behavior, and self-worth. They acquire experiences, which influence them to adopt unhealthy behaviors including eating disorders. For example, girls at overweight are showing a concern to be at a healthy weight with those even as young as five years so that they can be accepted in their society. Young individuals are no exception in the fashion world because they want to improve society's feelings about themselves. Recent research done by Osadan and Hanna (2015) asserts that media negatively affects the young people's self-esteem, ideas of self-worth, and body image. The paper will discuss in detail how individuals are affected by the unrealistic standards of society.

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There is a time I felt that I did not measure up to society's standard of how I was supposed to look and act. I was publicly silent for a decade. I had low self-esteem because social media and society were two things that were pushing me back from my capabilities. At one point in my life, I felt like social media and society were like my enemies. I was experiencing many difficulties due to the fact that I ignored myself and started looking at other people's lifestyles. When it came to society's perception of beauty, I was not the most attractive girl. A lot of people made comments about who I was and how I looked. Something that was affecting me at that time was popularity; I wanted to look descent like an actress. I felt like I did not measure how society wanted to see me.

Social media made me inadequate because it was the only place I could express who I really was. It all started when I first had Facebook; to this day, I remember when I opened my account and I requested every single person including those that I did not know to accept my friend request. Eventually, as days went by, my attention on social media was failing and my self-esteem was declining. Looking at media and the whole idea of perfection and body image; all was like a disease to me. I felt like someone was telling me to be perfect and someone was telling me to look perfect but in reality it was society. I was being pushed from the person I was to the person society wanted me to become. I did things because I thought I will be cool if I did them. Going back to my Facebook and Instagram accounts, I was discouraged by the number of followers I had as compared to my friends. I had a few followers and kept on asking myself why they are so much popular than me.

The unrealistic society's standards can lead to negative thinking and low self-esteem. Social media tells people that they need to pretty so as to be worthy in society; this has given young women a wrong perception of food. Also, the unrealistic standards distort people's mindset, something that makes them forget that everyone was made in the image of God. Many people desperately emulate the types of fashion and body shapes they see thus end up damaging themselves both physically and psychologically.

In conclusion, people can now understand that society's standards are at many times unrealistic. They can recognize that there are many someone's idea in terms of beauty is personal and it should not impact on the self-esteem of the other. Therefore, it is important to focus on the self even if there social media and society are a threat. It is important to love the self to maintain good self-esteem and health.

References

Osadan, R., & Hanna, R. (2015). The Effects of the Media on Self-Esteem of Young Girls. Acta Technologica Dubnicae, 5(1), 37-44. Retrieved from: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/atd.2015.5.issue-1/atd-2015-0031/atd-2015-0031.xml