Income Inequality In Social Media

Next, individual’s mental health is largely impacted by the stress of income inequality. Advertisements and social media platforms have an extreme effect on peoples’ level of body dissatisfaction and socioeconomic level. Often, the actors or models represented in a product advertisement perpetuate social and cultural definitions of body image and attractiveness. The media will target advertisements toward the middle and lower levels of socioeconomic status by associating the ideal skinny body type with an extravagant and desirable way of living. As well, wealth tends to be associated with specific personality traits such as, “beauty, friendly, and intelligent” while “lazy, sloppy and dirty are associated with obesity” (Nagel & Jones, 1992, p. 109). Consequently, the

As well, the wealthy people who experience body dismorphic disorder feel they have to uphold their reputation, especially when the media have portrayed social ideals that are derived from the ‘rich and famous’ (Nagel & Jones, 1992). Resultantly, an emerging concept, called media literacy, is used to critically analyze the way bodies are falsely represented in the media. A study by McLean, Paxton, and Wertheim, (2016) found that teaching this approach to participants with BDD was able to “disrupt unfavourable comparisons between the self and media images, and reduce the internalising media appearance standards as one’s own, thus reducing body concerns” (p. 20). Accordingly, it becomes the individual’s responsibility to adopt this approach by changing one’s self from within and not solely relying on simple appearance changes through plastic surgery, or a more expensive wardrobe. Therefore, those who live with BDD may be able to improve their self-esteem through the acknowledgment of how the media tends to influence their negative perceptions of