Overall, my project went well. Speaking of a topic I am passionate about allowed for my words to come from my heart, which made it simple. The hardest part was limiting myself on touching upon more topics, as there are dozens more I would’ve loved to look into. The best part of my project (and I knew this going into it), was that I was able to present to a class of young women, which is what my topic was mainly focused on. Especially in a high school, it is so easy to compare yourself to the girls around you, and then social media enters and it is a new ball game. Social media has become a place where it is difficult not to feel bad about yourself. Besides actual pictures, numbers of likes, followers, or subscribers are a detrimental threat to someone’s confidence. So many girls can scroll through pictures of other girls (most of which have been retouched), and wonder why they don’t look the same way. I myself have struggled with this issue for years. Comparing myself has only made me feel less than, and plummeted my self-esteem, which is why I felt that so many girls would relate to this.
The survey I conducted was an interesting way to see statistics on teenagers self-esteem and how that is affected by social media. Although the results were parallel to my predictions, I believe they were somewhat skewed as people did not want to put their actual self esteem level because they were afraid I would see their email and trace it back to them.
The project related well to Susan Bordo’s theories on body image, and how girls will do certain things to change their body. Many girls will see pictures of women’s bodies (usually photoshopped) on social media, and do anything to look that way. That means starvation, extreme exercise, purging, etc..
Although there is no direct solution to this issue, parents should monitor their teenagers social media use, and keep a close eye on their self esteem levels.
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