Social Media and Body Image

One of our discussion questions for the week is about using body image to maintain power over people and if bodies are an important way of maintaining power in society. I think the body is a very important way to maintain power. Attractiveness is important in daily life, as we have seen in previous lessons, and in the last discussion board when we listed five things we do to make ourselves more attractive everyday. Obviously people care about how they look if they are willing to go to such great lengths to make themselves better looking. People who are more attractive have more power over others because others want to emulate them,  have the attractive person like them, or simply just be associated with them. A good body image is necessary to go far in life and to make people like you.
A big part of today's society is social media, which I've always thought has a lot to do with body image, but never have seen any proof. Facebook is arguably the biggest social media website. With all of the pictures, statuses, and comments people post, it is no wonder that facebook has such a large effect on its users. People naturally want to project the good things going on in their lives to show off, and facebook is the easiest way to do that. In the summer girls post pictures in tiny bikinis, and men show off their six-pack they have been working on all summer. People only show the good things going on, not the bad, so naturally, people compare themselves to how well they think everyone else is doing. The problem is, when you only compare yourself to other's good things, you're in for some negatives. In The Baltimore Sun, they posted a study that said that 75% of facebook users were unhappy with their body. Also, 51% said facebook made them more conscious about their weight. Again, this is no surprise with all the pictures people put up of themselves, but it definitely creates a bias. The "normal" looking people don't put up pictures, so no one is comparing themselves to what they should be. This goes for media in general, but since facebook is such a big deal in today's world, it makes the biggest difference. Considering how important body image is for success, I think it is very sad that social media can have such a large effect.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-03-28/health/bal-poh-facebook-and-poor-body-image_1_body-image-facebook-users-social-networking-sites
Elizabeth Kramer