Social Media Influence On Young Women's Self-Esteem

Body comparisons occur with peers and not just with celebrities on social media. Whether young women are comparing themselves to someone they know or someone famous both affect their self-esteem. On social media girls see mass amounts of images of their friends and “thin-idealized images” (Perloff 366), all of these images cause girls to compare their bodies to others. The images influence young women to participate in social comparison because of what western culture has taught them. The women that girls look up to on social media “do not have an ounce of fat and serve as role models for troubled women” (Norris et al. qtd. in Perloff 370). The way that social media causes young women to feel about themselves is upsetting, if girls do not look the same as everyone else they feel ashamed about themselves. When young women compare their bodies to images of these

Low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction can cause mental health problems. Young women are at a greater risk of body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem, during adolescence their minds are still developing making them highly impressionable, because of this depression and anxiety can result (Duchesne et al. 1563-1565). The influence of social media can cause body dissatisfaction and this negatively impacts women's self-esteem, a lower self-esteem puts women at a greater risk of of depression and anxiety. Self-esteem is an important aspect of mental health. Body dissatisfaction leads to “a negative perception of one’s body image [which] has the effect of lowering self-esteem, [this] in turn has an effect on psychological distress” (Duchesne et al. 1566). An individual's mental health can be impacted drastically from having a low self-esteem and having a negative view on ones body. This displays the link between low self-esteem and problems like depression and