Teen Self-Esteem and Social Media

Valeria Lukyanova mostly known and recognized as the human barbie doll, an internet celebrity not only known in Ukraine her home country, but with the power of social media is known internationally. Another well known face is Justin Jedlica who is popularity comes from looking like the human ken doll his story is also widely known, because of the platform of social media. Both with two very different stories, Justin Jedlica was bullied through his teen years due to a hormone dysfunction which caused his tissue breast to grow , was also teased for having a big nose which caused him to get his first surgical procedure just at the age of 17. This was also a very expensive and dangerous procedure for it being a medical procedure it is understandable, but then this became a surgery addiction just at age 18 he did a procedure that could have killed him with his face basically rotting away since then he has had 57 procedures done. These are more extreme cases but they are real and proof that people will go to such extremes to recreate their identities through surgeries and mutilation trying to find some new acceptance of who they believe they need to be, look like etc. These are very extreme measures but if young kids are knowing and learning this from a young age can influence a kid and a teens perspective. Seeing that surgery is the easiest way to go while there can be different methods, and not giving your body more time top developed and just putting unnecessary chemicals in it can be unsafe. What they also don't see is that they are promoting this and cases like these are a growing danger appearing in young people's attitudes and practices - and teens now are willing and wanting to change what they were born as, and are trying to make changes that are driven often by social media trends or what they are seeing and sharing online.

  My senior project will focus on how social media affects teens self-esteem With its rise and explosion dominating almost every aspect of our lives, its pervasive power has crept into not only how we do business, and communicate, but also how we socialize and live out our very own public lives. Everyone is susceptible to its influence and that influence is magnified when it applies to young girls who follow their heroes and every burgeoning fashion trend, trying to keep up or ahead of the curve to stay relevant and popular in an increasingly fast paced changing world. Enter social media as the engine that drives and pushes our expectations, tastes and desires and its influence on how we see ourselves is multiplied.Young girls are heavily influenced by social media and its reliance on advertisements and how it represents young women - their bodies, makeup, lipsticks etc.  ents of social media and the expectation social media puts out of a person's body can make a person see their own body differently. Throughout the years we have seen the effects social media can have regarding eating disorders, mental disorders, and the newest of them augmentation amongst teens not quite so new but it one that has arose throughout the years. It has gotten to the extreme of girls and boys wanting to permanently change their own appearance and many cases are because of the influence of social media. It is understandable if a surgery must be done for medical purposes for example if  rhinoplasty needs be performed for chronic sinus problems when your nasal septum is divided which can cause allergies this is an understandable condition. While teens nowadays do not have a clue of what they are really getting themselves into nor the precautions that should be taken , less do they know the risks and awareness they should have while getting these types of surgeries. Much more goes on to getting this procedures done , teens body changes so much each day hormones ,chemical, body features etc. now adding unnecessary chemicals to a young teen body , you should be properly well informed to the chemicals entering your body and the effects it can cause to your body.

Duck syndrome. The term refers to the way a duck appears to glide effortlessly across pound while below the surface it's feet work effortlessly across a pond while below below the surface it's feer work frantically, invisibly struggling to stay a float. This it's is how many people do in social media to appear they have such an easy lifes with no flaws, when in reality they post the best pictures of many pictures. They only flaunt the best of the best things to clothing, perfect espresso, and body shots. Which most like took many shots to get and for many editing apps. with social media, teens can create their lives, and the resulting feeds read like highlight reel, showing only the best and most enviable moments while concealing efforts  that those images are causing distress for many kids. We have always seen famous people in tv, movies, magazines, etc we have seen that but now with this social media experience of seeing people our age and to even seeing people near us have a good social media sponsorships can only make a person wonder hat can i do to get that. For some people it can be a full time job there is this o called instagram models that can do advertisement photo shoots and get paid for that. Business see that teens are following these pages  and are even looking up to these people. Girls see these pictures almost on a daily and try to stay a float with everything going on, when not seeing what these people are really going through. Teens have school and worry abouts to be worrying about body images everyone has a unique things and insecurities but those insecurities can go away , teens body change constantly. Is that for some teens their social feeds can become fuel for negative feelings they have about themselves. Reading and seeing things that they feel like they have a lack of can be devastating for a teen. Mostly for the younger generation seeing it since such a young age and already having an insecurity or a medical condition with mental health or eating disorder social media can be a trigger for that. If it is use incorrectly can be a very dangerous source, of information, expectation , and false appearances.

One major thing some social media has for example instagram, facebook,and twitter ; is the ability to make personal profiles available for public or friends to view and scrutinize, allow them to pass on their judgement with their comments, commenting on their personal life making a person change options just by a simple comment that can change everything.

Negative feedback lowers the self esteem of individuals while positive feedback increases the self esteem to a very high extent. This is a tool that can be a great one getting feedback for many things for business materials or foe even a cooking recipe perhaps, but once that feedback is about a picture posted that can be where it can affect a teen seeing what they can say about them good or bad. If anyone will say anything can be a stressful situation for a teen mostly if they feel like their life is revolving around social media and opinions other persons have of them. Teens are already going through much with school, hormones, and stressful situation they might be having on their day to day life, and adding this other stress in unjust. These comments and likes do not determine a person nor there value but there intellectualism and values. A person can really get rapped all in this and trying to maintain or increase their social standard regarding social media. For example these so called instagram models these are basically girls or boys with a high following. They can get payed and do sponsorship is this a how social media is ranking a person, advertisers know how to get into teens head or whatever there audience may be. Someone with a mental disorder or someone who already seeking help may not see it like this this may add more self doubt and bring down the person's self esteem. To put that self esteem up is where it can take an unhealthy path, unhealthy maybe seeking methods that can lead to, causing your body to be unhealthy and giving you an unhealthy mind set by always thinking what those comments say are true. People can just be jealous and you do not know the intention they are saying with those comments with.People can say whatever they want because they are hiding behind a screen, there is also the point that depending on those comments can lead to a low self esteem or a very high one but regardless if you are letting comments and social media run how you can feel about yourself then most likely social media can be consuming you.

For a proper self love and healthy self esteem everything should come from within, not social media constantly telling a person what is correct and incorrect. Only a  person should decide that when it comes to their self esteem and being happy with oneself.This also brings kids to want approval the reason they post what they eat ,to what they do, to what they wear is approval from whom they believe are their friends. When actually in social media most of the time teens have not just the people they know but friends of their friends to even suggested that social media throws at you and so on, most teens do have way have more followers than people they know. Things that might affect them can even be coming from people they have not even met or seen nor people that are close to them yet their judgement can affect a person so much to even drive them to a certain degree.Teens just being teens are already vulnerable as it is and this just adds on more from comparing and contrasting physical appearances to even another person's life. Let's consider on how crushing it might be for children to post pictures (Sharon Powers)maybe the teen posting that pictures really feels good about that picture and someone commenting something negative can have that kid asking questions about himself. Snapchat is also a big part of social media with its latest updates this year giving filters which can be seen as friendly and no harm, but what the latest filters have been doing is smoothing out a persons face, making maybe your nose much thinner,having bigger eyes, giving you colored eyes, maybe even making your jawline more chiseled and even lighting your skin tone.At this point it is making a person not look themselves if you really recognize it it's like photoshopping but a more easier and faster version of it. Someone who may be dealing with a low self esteem may become concern of their appearance and might want to look like how those filters presume you to be on a daily basis this is when looking a surgical changes does not seem so bad. Being able to follow celebrities on social media can be concerning we, celebrities get to show us  their day to day to day life and teens can be living like celebrities, people see all they do and try to portray it to the extremes. Celebrities, these so called celeberties or instagram models promote and advertise so much because they are being paid to do that and teens that believe everything, believe all those people actually use all the products they are promoting, while most that is their business.

Advertisement is big part of our daily lives while being on our phones to seeing it on our phones , an advertisement on television the most effective way to reach an audience is through social media. With social media you can go to a tag the product you are promoting and go straight to there page which is all about that product and links that take you to buy that project on that same app. A product promoted a lot and regarding health and appearances are teas, yes teas that are ensure you to lose weight in the fraction of time of working out. Some who is struggling maybe with losing weight and wants a faster way to lose it can maybe seek to this and in most cases these so called teas to lose weight are not productive. While promoting these teas the pictures posted alongside the teas are mostly pictures of instagram models posing in bikinis or is some sort of fitness gear. Why does it have to be usually a very thin or fit person, advertisers only want to sell the product don't think of how a teen or a person dealing with mental or physical disorders may feel. They are portaing that, that product will make you look like that and when in reality what the people advertising those products are really doing in real life can be working out, having meal preps for a healthy living without that product.

Mean while someone who is waiting anxiously to see results can see that only using that product will not help them, then begin to seek other sources to accomplish what they wish. Social media also tells you other sources which progressively start to become more dangerous. Another thing which is advertised extensively and pretty popular that even celebrities promote are waist trainers, waist trainers are to slim down your waist with a very intense compression. These waist trainers were originally made to be exercised with, Kim Kardashian and all her sisters are all the  promoters when most people believe that they all have had many procedures done to have their bodies to look that way but someone seeking for a easy option may see this and think otherwise. Waist trainers can cause damage if not worn properly, they are suppose to be worn at least six hours per day,but wearing a waist trainer can even cause organs to move trying to get a slimmer waist, make exercising more difficult to exercise,make it difficult to even breathe for certain people, bruising ,make it difficult for your blood to flow causing numbness.

These are just some of the symptoms caused by waist trainers there are more  dangerous than benefits coming from this a teen who is just trying to look for a quicker results can get rapt in all the celebrities, to people who are just instagram famous and get this without seeking on additional information on what are the side effects, blindly going into social media can be a trick. Finally the biggest and the most dangerous endorsements many people with a great following do is promote their clinics or doctors they get their surgical  procedures, Giving an idea to the young teens the most known plastic surgeon  who is promoted by The Kardashian family is Dr.Simon Ourian. Many of the advocates who endorse their plastic surgeries online, talk about their experience,but they do not show the process of it all only what they want to be seen , after scaring and bruises are healed that is what they show to their audience. Teens who are seeing this blindly and wanting to go into it uneducated about the risks and factors that should be taken regarding to augmentation and plastic surgery caan be a very dangerous thing. There is more to just getting this process everybody is different so in regard, everybody will react to this treatment differently.You have to be mature and responsible and truly know what you are getting into, before and after these procedures. Knowing the right information from if the clinic is safe ,has everything sterilized , to how well other performances have gone.Going through that amount of pain to just follow a trend or trying to get acceptance it is not worth it, a teens body changes when going through puberty, you  never know if that what  you are most insecure about can be the next trend people bring out, or it can just go away while your body begins to develop, and adding those unnecessary chemicals and hormones to your body.You will never know how your body was meant to be and see it fully develop with all going into your system your body will not fully develop to its full potential, even causing health problems later on in life.

   In conclusion social media affects teens way more than expected with teens having mental disorders and eating disorder or self body image issues. Maybe it's someone that doesn't have any of that it can still affect seeing it on a daily basis from advertisers and promoters just being thrown at you so constantly you begin to have self doubts or things you may want to change to be accepted. Augmentation surgeries is such an uprising from girls seeing other girls their age get them. Kylie Jenner was 17 when she got lip fillers girls began to say if kylie got them why can't I, girls are growing up that because one does it they can do but it does not mean that it is the same for everyone they are much more things to take in consideration going through all of this. To get a tattoo you need to 18 getting a tattoo is something very dangerous also and very permenten. Then why is it for augmentation surgeries you can just get them while this is putting things in your body something that can allegedly be something more dangerous. Teens can be insecure about things how i am sure, most teens have something they are insecure about. This does not mean you have to change it or put yourself through mutilation and so much pain maybe that is something that makes you unique.

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