Social media can be both good and bad for your body image. What really matters is how you use it. This requires you to use social media intentionally and strategically.
Social media can influence your body image — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Although some social media content can perpetuate a negative body image, other content can promote a positive body image and encourage a healthier mindset.
Your experience with social media is determined by the type of content you consume and the kinds of accounts you follow.
It’s possible for social media to have a negative effect on your body image.
One
This was especially true for men who used image-centric social media platforms like Instagram.
A
Here are a few ways social media can negatively impact your body image.
Cyberbullying
As with other forms of bullying, cyberbullying can target a person’s appearance and lead to poorer self-esteem and body image.
Although bullying can and does happen outside of social media, cyberbullying might be particularly challenging to deal with. For example, bullies may operate anonymously, and social media makes the victims more “accessible” to bullies throughout the day.
Unrealistic beauty standards
Filters and editing tools can be fun to play around with, but it’s easy to forget that many of the pictures you see on social media are edited.
Plus, people tend to post their most attractive, exciting, positive pictures online — not of their mundane, everyday appearance. You might be tempted to compare your everyday appearance to someone else’s edited, filtered selfie.
Compared to their “flawless” pictures, your so-called…
Read the full article here
