Social Influence: Is It Affecting Our Self-Image?

Social Influence: Is It Affecting Our Self-Image? 

Written By: Mireia Bustamante 

Through the years of social media growth, we have seen a continuous change in how pictures and videos have grown. For example, in 2013 Vine was HUGE for younger audiences. Vine was a media app where people could record a seven-second video showing a person's humor or characteristics of them and their friend group. Many people who became popular on Vine became influencers and many individuals looked up to them and their character. As the years went on, Vine began to lose attraction as a new app, Musically came around. Musically gained tons of attention and this seemed to be the top of a downhill slope. 

What is Musically? (Now TikTok) 

Musically used to be an app where people would lipsync to songs and funny skits that would be aired on television or posted on youtube. As the app grew and gained different management, the media app was then changed to what is now called 'TikTok'. Once Covid started, many people started using the app more as quarantine was in effect and people were required to stay indoors. 

As the years went on from 2020, we have noticed a pretty significant change in how media is presented to people. Some individuals take media as a joke, and others take it seriously. 

How are people taking it seriously? 

Social media is filled with influencers who get money from people interacting with their posts, and the more likes, the more money, basically. 

As the trend to make easy money continues to grow, or no money at all, I noticed that lots of comparisons are being made, regardless of what is happening behind the screen. For example, "Why isn't my post getting as many likes as theirs?" "I have a good following, why aren't they interacting". This can create a mindset where people will begin to compare their life to everything they encounter. It can be from beauty standards or personal preferences, to eventually affecting your relationships, you get the gist of it... 

Say for example there is a new item of clothing an influencer posted, the watcher can then buy the outfit and get a completely different perception than what they had seen online, this can create false hope, overthinking about your appearance, fear of unfit standards within media's society, etc. 

It can affect who?!

This not only affects teenagers and young adults, but this can affect children who have access to social media. Children have full capacity to see everything you and I can, so if it affects us to an extent, it definitely can affect them. 

Children are developing young minds, and when they see unrealistic standards in media, they're bound to replicate that, due to the fact that they think it is normal or realistic. 

What can we do? 

Realistically, nothing. Social Media has the power to create a toxic environment around you, not physically, but mentally. The only person who has full control over the way you think is you. It is hard to view media without creating an opinion, and this goes for self-image. politics, and shareable media. But we can do it!