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Psychological Impacts Social Media Can Have on Body Appearance Obsession

<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Over the past decade&comma; social media seems to have taken over our everyday lives&period; It seems inconceivable to think that it was only ten years ago Twitter truly got going&period; Now&comma; on average&comma; teenagers will typically spend up to 9 hours on social media a day&period; That’s a shocking amount&comma; to say the least&period; So&comma; what are these screen-eyed teens doing with their 9 hours a day&quest; Scrolling through social media feeds&comma; posting a status to their timeline and browsing their favourite celebrity’s Instagram to see what they’re up to&comma; of course&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Not only does this aimless browsing have an effect on their physical health &lpar;it can be damaging for your eyes spending that much time staring at a screen&rpar;&comma; but it also impacts their mental health&period; Depression rates for young people have dramatically increased over the last few years&period; Some attribute this to social media&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Do You Have a Social Media Addiction&quest;<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Believe it not&comma; addiction to social media is a legitimate medical diagnosis&period; Smartphones have so much so become the norm in many people’s lives that they find themselves practically attached to them&period; Then&comma; because social media is always at your disposal&comma; it’s tempting to flip between apps several times within an hour&period; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">According to research<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> by The Manifest&comma; 86&percnt; of people use social media at least once per day&period; Of those 72&percnt; use it multiple times a day&period; This can transform into an addiction&comma; causing a knock-on effect as it takes over other aspects of your life&period; Social interaction with others offline&comma; your general working life and other family activities may all be affected&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Changing Emotions<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Social media has various benefits&comma; including being able to connect and interact with others around you&period; However&comma; when you’re online&comma; you’re also opening up yourself to a darker world of verbal abuse and comments&period; Cyberbullying is an alarmingly common problem with social media&comma; particularly for students&period; So-called &OpenCurlyQuote;keyboard warriors’ and &OpenCurlyQuote;trolls’ feel a sense of freedom online&comma; as most of the time&comma; they can’t be reprimanded for horrible comments&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Many young people have become a victim of trolling over the internet&comma; which can severely damage their emotions&comma; causing them stress and anxiety&period; Instagram does have a feature for turning off comments&comma; but this does affect the user’s overall experience of the app – which should be a light-hearted&comma; enjoyable one&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Encouraging Body Dysmorphia<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Body dysmorphia<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> is a condition that’s frequently linked to depression&period; Essentially&comma; it means a person sees their body as being severely flawed and are prepared to go to extreme measures to fix or hide what they believe to be &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;wrong” with their body&period; Often this is completely blown out of proportion&comma; and what they see in the mirror may not reflect what others see&period; It already affects around 1&period;7&percnt; to 2&period;4&percnt; of the population&comma; with this being roughly equal distribution between men and women&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Social media can definitely impact and offset body dysmorphia as users are presented with the idea of what a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;perfect body” is&period; It can trigger obsessive behaviour&comma; including over-excising and under-eating in order to achieve weight goals&period; Not only is this linked to depression&comma; but sometimes it can even lead to institutionalisation or suicide&period; Many professional therapists still fail to diagnose it&comma; which means it often goes undertreated&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>Getting Caught in a Vicious Cycle of Jealousy <&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">If you’re aspiring to be more like somebody you see on the internet&comma; you can never truly be happy or fulfilled&period; Moreover&comma; comparing yourself to friends who have more &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;likes” on their picture than you also isn’t a healthy habit&period; People often admit that seeing other people’s tropical vacations and perfectly presented children makes them envious&period; This jealousy can provoke other negative feelings&comma; which can turn into a vicious cycle&period; No matter how happy you feel&comma; you’ll always feel like there are others who are happier and living a better life than you&period;  This is extremely unhealthy for your mental health&comma; as you’ll never feel as though you’re good enough&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>A Rise in Cosmetic Surgery<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">This obsession with looking perfect has lead to a spike in young women going under the knife&period; In fact&comma; it could be said that cosmetic surgeons have benefited the most from people’s desire for the perfect face and body&period; Nose jobs&comma; breast enhancements&comma; facial fillers and lip fillers&comma; cosmetic treatments are becoming more normalised in society&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">This means that social media has the power to actually persuade people to undergo invasive treatments in order to change their appearance&period; It begs the question&semi; would these people have undergone surgery if social media didn’t exist&quest; When you’re not presented with &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;influencers” to compare yourself to&comma; there’s little reason to think that you’d need to change anything about your face or body&period; In this sense&comma; the physiological impact of social media is astonishing&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">It’s been suggested that high profile celebrities also have a responsibility to be transparent with their followers about what work they’ve had done&period; This could prevent more easily-influenced younger girls making the drastic decision to have cosmetic surgery before they’re ready&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><b>In Conclusion<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">To conclude&comma; social media undoubtedly has a psychological impact on those who use it&period; Numerous sources state that these platforms are to blame for instilling insecurities in younger people&period; As one researcher on children’s obsession put it&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the problem is that this &OpenCurlyQuote;cyber self’ can become increasingly distant from the real-world self&comma; and it can become harder to live up to the perfect image of self that is projected online&period;” <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">On the other hand&comma; that’s not to say that social media doesn’t have its benefits&period; It has connected long lost families&comma; started relationships and allowed long-distance friends to keep in touch with each other’s lives&period; The main problem with social media is the addiction factor&period; So&comma; is social media a people problem and not an actual app problem&quest; Before social media was a <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">viable profession<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&comma; users weren’t afraid to post funny videos and embarrassing snaps to share with family and friends&period; Now&comma; however&comma; there’s more pressure to present a certain image and professionals such as cosmetic surgery Manchester based practises will check mental stability before performing any surgeries&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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