Social Media's Impact on Society and Character Building
Social media plays a crucial role not only in the society but also in character building at large. In fact, social media is currently a hotbed of politics and racism as well just to mention a few. Social media seek to bring people together and also to separate others. In social media are a lot of exaggerations and discrimination which are peddled in sites like Facebook and Tweeter through videos posts and pictures which can affect people emotionally and even mentally. The users on social media have come out strongly to express their views on anything they want whether it favours others or not (Gary, Suzzane and Marvin 625). They never care what the information they convey to the public have adverse effects on them or not. One thing that is worth noting is that when the users post their content on the social media, they usually have a target audience.
The Impact of Social Media on Different Ethnic Groups
The target audience could be a particular gender which forms half the population of the world. It should not escape the fact that the affected people could be blacks, whites or Asians and this cuts across with the vigour that it carries (Donna, Scott, Tuwana and Malik 13). As a result, many wounds are healed in social media and also new wounds are created. African American are among the active members of social media and they strong come out to talk about many things that affect them. Racism is one thing they have strongly condemned. There are adverse and diverse effects of the social media on the young African-American and even adults. Research has shown that about 67% of African Americans use Facebook and at least 27% are very active on twitter and this is a significant number that if any information about them or against them is posted in the social media they would be in apposition to pick and even spread to the rest of their counterparts (Terry and Davis 79).
The Pressure on Women to Conform to Beauty Ideals
Women are known to embrace a particular wave of behaviour depending on the era that comes. They would want to copy or desire a particular physical look due to the pressure of attaining what defines beauty at that particular time (Yetunde 353). Social media is a great pointer which has contributed to this. Facebook and Twitter as already pointed out have defined what a woman is supposed to look like an African American women being very active on social media have been on the receiving end. Social media terms beauty as being slim and lean. Most white Americans have this physical appearance.
The Negative Effects of Societal Beauty Standards
The pressure for those who are plus size to reduce their body size has been at the alarming rate. The information is spread among the social media users (Donna, Scott, Tuwana and Malik 16). African-Americans have the pressure to grow thin so that they can fit in the definition of beauty and this has led to very many problems among them. The women thus have lower self-esteem issues and in turn, this has brought down their productivity. White Americans, however, keep up to the standard and are thus not a much affected as the African Americans. Most African Americans end up using unscrupulous methods of reducing their body sizes and weights thus finding themselves in more trouble and acquiring diseases that they ought not to have had.
The Deceptive Nature of Social Media
One thing that the African Americans do not understand is that the pictures of the slim women that are posted on social media are those that have been edited so that they fit the target of the owners. The African women have however not comprehended this and have ended up developing weird eating disorders in the event of trying to attain the body shape that they see on the social media. They are majorly affected and this can be very detrimental especial among the adolescent who is trying to get into the world of beauty as young women and self-finding mission. When they are exposed to such pictures they don’t leave a healthier lifestyle as most indulge in pills that can control their body shapes to emulate the ones they see on social media. Females are known to be creatures of comparisons (Ilene and Pamala 256). They compare their looks and their bodies with one another. They tend to embrace fashion and trends in the city. As if that is not enough they usually emulate what they term good for themselves.
The Psychological Toll on Women's Body Image
The main problem these young women go through is body dissatisfaction. This has led to many women not have their own natural body shapes and looks but grow inappropriately thin and lose the real image that they are. The social media influence has seen many young African Americans go for plastic surgery which later on ends up affecting them in life as they grow even older. The need for plastics surgery is to attain a perfect body size and this is accompanied by skin lighting. The women then look like their white counterparts. They feel satisfied that they are beautiful but with time they acquire diseases that could have been prevented (Mor-Barack 159). The pressure among the pear in the social media is too much that the users must fit in. It is in the media that the women obtain the notion of using pills to enhance their looks. Most of these pills are toxic and contain hormones which are not suitable for inappropriate use. When they consume such most end up suffering from cancer just because they are looking for beauty.
The Aftermath: Depression and Mental Health Issues
The shocking revelation is, these slim and very sexy ladies are only found in videos and pictures in the social media and are never seen in the live situation, clear indication that all these videos if not most of them are just edited to confuse many. The aftermath of all the struggles to make the women’s body affected has remained depression (Cynthia, Hoffner and Zoonen 1808). Once the women realize that they may never attain the said beauty or that the process they underwent affected their bodies negatively, they end up depressed and this leads to even growing thinner and result to death or a bigger health issue. Studies have proven that women who spend most of their time on social media end up suffering a lot psychologically. The information they obtain from the social media moulds them to what they shouldn’t be. Most of these women suffer mental disorders just from the description they find on the social media against them (Kimberly 203). There are a lot of hate speech that is found against the health of the African American in social media and this is the reason why most of these women engage in unhealthy diet and antisocial behaviour which finally affect their bodies. The body of a woman is of great concern not only to herself but to the society. How the woman looks is too a concern that is worth noting.
Finding a Positive Path Forward: Embracing Natural Health
In the recent past, however, African Americans have been using technology and social media to find out what a healthy diet means for the body. This has been seen from the effects of those women who rushed to gain perfect bodies and ended up starving and injecting toxins in themselves and finally suffered chronic illnesses. There has been the need to change such behaviour so that the society learns how to be natural Avon 141). A healthy lifestyle does not mean that one loses weight and grows thin. Beauty too does not mean that one becomes slender. The most important thing that crowns it all is health. A thin beautiful woman who is not healthy may never live long enough. Every practice should be pegged on health and that is why the affected minority group find out what nutrition requirements are (Maria 5). This they find out through the social media. This is an improvement and this can reverse the situation that has been the case. The new technology has brought with it a lot of new findings and invention that women can use either to harm or to improve what they are. Emulating what affects the African American women negatively from the social media is a vice that should never be welcome in the society. Everybody is uniquely created and when tries to interfere with their natural physical appearance then things may get wrong. If a woman tries and strives to look like another woman then it means that they are trying to transform themselves from one form to another form that they are not. The trouble they look for finally set in and they are altered to a very different person from their original selves.
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