Social media users struggle with comparison and body image as social media itself and influencers are setting high beauty standards, expecting teens to look perfect at young ages. People say that social media makes them feel insecure and pressured to post or not post certain things.
Social media leaves teens with unrealistic beauty standards causing them to feel insecure about themselves at such young ages.
Junior Sophia Braun compares her life to other celebrities and influencers on the internet, she believes that social media is only leaving negative effects on people and their mental health.
“I’m always finding ways to compare myself to other people, even if their lives are fake,” Braun said.
Senior Jerrian Xiong said that one way he compares himself to others on social media is status and followers, he does this on apps such as Instagram and Tiktok. Xiong has a different opinion on social media than other students, he describes how it leaves certain positive effects on him.
“Maybe I want to learn from that and live the lifestyle like them,” Xiong said. He does not have any specific influencers that he is comparing himself to but he just talks about everybody on social media in general.
Junior Maisie Rix has a lot to say about social media and beauty standards. There are a lot of things out there that young kids struggle with when comparing themselves to others, for example perfect skin and perfect bodies is what a lot of people are talking about.
“Ways that I would compare myself to others on social media is probably beauty standards, I know acne is one, if I see an influencer who has very clear skin I tend to get really insecure. Also body standards, I see girls who are like really ripped and go to the gym a lot and that kind of makes me insecure in a way so I feel like social media has made a lot of girls insecure and filled their heads with a lot of insecurities that aren’t needed,” Rix said.
Many teenagers take breaks from social media, most of them do and it can be very necessary because of the negative impacts that going on your phone a lot can have.
Xiong said that he takes breaks from social media for a few hours or so to get his mind off of things. This is most likely because of all of the hate being spread across platforms, sometimes it can be hard to be happy and motivated after scrolling. A female student was then asked about taking breaks on social media, “I’d say that I’m on social media probably around eight hours a day, breaks would be focusing on schoolwork and that’s probably the majority of my day so when I get home I kind of just stay on social media for the entire afternoon,” Rix said.
Social media is leaving teens with very few positive impacts and mostly negative impacts. Students describe how social media is taking a toll on their lives as they are comparing their lifestyles to other peoples across all social platforms.
