Technology has warped today’s definition of “childhood” into an experience incomparable to that of past decades. More frequently than ever, iPhones are found in the hands of people with ages in the single digits. Consequently, these young people flood social media outlets such as Instagram, following any friend, product, or celebrity with which they are even slightly familiar. (How many of us haven’t gotten an Instagram follow request from a twelve-year-old we barely know?) Consider the effects of this behavior – especially viewing posts by celebrity (or even teenage/twenty-something) women. How are young girls impacted by the content they see on social media?
A study done in 1991 showed that 42% of girls in first through third grade expressed a desire to be thinner. A separate study done in the same year reported that 81% of ten-year-olds were “afraid” of becoming fat. Where do such young girls learn to develop these sentiments? Consider this: a study done in 1998 reported that 47% of girls surveyed from grades 5-12 felt that they wanted to lose weight because of images they saw in magazines.
Even though these studies were conducted a few decades ago, today’s media influence on young girls’ self-esteem is as prominent as ever. Only now, instead of girls absorbing social constructs such as body image through the occasional glance at a magazine cover, they are being constantly bombarded with images of “perfect” women through social media.
The difference lies in the way famous “role models” are portrayed. Images of celebrity women plastered across magazine covers, while often dramatized, are rarely glamourized through a specific lens chosen by the subject. Social media, however, puts the power in the hands of the subject. When choosing to post a photo, a person selects precisely which elements of her life she wants to share with the world, and the filter through which she wants to show it. It’s not about the good, bad, and ugly; it’s about the sexy, fun, and filtered.
For these reasons, Instagram celebrity Essena O’Neill recently made the bold choice to dismantle the social media empire upon which she has founded a pseudo-career. The eighteen-year-old has collected hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram for posting beautiful, daresay “perfect” photos of herself. In late October, O’Neill deleted thousands of her Instagram photos, editing the captions on the remainder to express her disdain at all the work that goes into making a post seem “effortless.” Her goal was to speak out against the superficiality behind her (and many others’) internet self-portrayals, with the hopes of awakening the masses to the double lives many of us lead online.
What kind of effect does this have on young girls? Certainly, for those who grasp the reasoning behind O’Neill’s movement, there is a positive, even empowering message to be heard. But for the girls who may not take to heart what she is doing, the problem of social media role models still persists. While O’Neill’s new message is one of transparency, self-love, and courage, the original aims of her Instagram account – i.e., maximizing likes by perfecting her image – are rather ubiquitous across all venues of social media. One can only imagine the effects this constant motif of perfection has upon pre-teen girls, many of whom grapple with self-image and appearance. The women these girls follow on social media have become their de facto role models. With social media’s infiltration into younger and younger generations, who knows how fast the next generation of girls will grow up?
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