How we fake a life so perfect, the standard becomes unreachable.
We live in a society that is so focused on how we look that it has become all that media portrays. Social media has become a place where unrealistic and triggering content goes unchecked for anyone to see. As a result, many believe that social media has resulted in a higher risk of eating disorders and mental illness. There are so many people involved with this issue be it my generation, social media companies, media companies, models and almost everyone with a social media account.
93.8% of Australians suffer or know someone who is affected by mental illness or eating disorders. 95.8% believe that social media has a negative effect on body image. 85.4% of people admitted to comparing themselves to those they see on social media. And 92.7% of people believe that since the increased use of social media the rate of eating disorders and mental illness has greatly increased.These statistics may not shock you, but the sad thing is that they should. We should not be living in a generation where we accept these harmful effects of social media.
Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common eating disorders for those ages 15-24 years old. It has the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness including major depression. Every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder. I’m sure you all know of the dangers and horrors that surround eating disorders, my question is then why can I type Anorexia into Instagram and after one warning screen click saying that “this content may be harmful”, can you click “show me anyways” and you are able to see a plethora of images of bones and blood. The images I found were far too graphic to show yet anyone with an account could see. Why is it when an illness such as is has that has taken so many lives yet so easily accessible to the eyes.
In a survey conducted by dove, the data revealed that on a global level, The UK and us are on the same level in terms of body confidence ratings in the world — with just 20 per cent admitting to having high self-esteem. As part of the study, women cited growing pressure from the social media highly contributing to the problem, with 77 per cent of Australians blaming “unrealistic standards” set by media as one of the biggest problems. Despite higher awareness of the pressures imposed by social media, one out of every two Australian women report they feel worse about themselves after looking at images of this unrealistic standard.
Author: Sienna Pillinger (contributor) The Indian Telegraph
