Social Media Effects on Teens
In the TED Talk, “Why Thinking You’re Ugly Is Bad for You,” the speaker talks about the low self-esteem among teenagers created by social comparison in an image-obsessed culture. They care about the way they think they look, not how they actually look.
It has an impact on both academic achievement and their health. Because they have lower self-esteem, they take more risks with alcohol and drug use. Also, it has a great impact on society. To solve this serious problem, the speaker suggested three way: educating for body confidence, being better role models, and working together.
As the TED speaker said, teenagers reflect how they believe others see them, independently of their judgement is true or not. And, they evaluate themselves by social comparison. Reference group, such as their family, friends, club activity, and company, would be their comparison.
The way they look is just a part of their identity.
I think self-esteem in their appearance in Japan is lower than that in America. Because of their "ideal" imagination, some Japanese teenagers have an operation to put folds in their eyelids or make up as if they had plastic surgery.
However, people try to solve this problem. In 2018, Miss America ends swimsuit competition and the movement was a topic all over the world with #byebyebikini.
Also, in Japan, beauty contest is famous in almost all universities. However, these days, some of them started to abolish the contest. People argue for and against the measure, but it is true that the society started to change this bad habit.
We must not judge people by only one perspective.
I think that the Ted talk and this article you wrote is spot on. So many girls on Instagram post about their perfect clothes and their perfect body because all they do is workout and they post about their perfect everything and it is hard for girls to look at that and think good about themselves in comparison. I know personally I will scroll through random girls feeds and compare myself to them, but I always try to remember that I am me and they are them and we are supposed to be different.
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