According to a study out of UCLA, female college students are lonelier and less happy than they have ever been. In this age of “Girl Power,” we tend to compare ourselves to the girls we see on social media and television. Girls feel the need to change something about themselves in order to “fit in” or be liked by others.
The majority of teenage girls in our generation spend about 9 hours using media such as online video or music. For tweens between the ages of 8 and 12, they spend an average of nearly 6 hours on media each day. When looking at these statistics, it is easy to identify that girls tend to dominate social media, especially apps like Instagram and Snapchat.
A 2017 study found that consuming daily social media feeds of women with tight abs and thin arms deepen girl’s body shame. The same study revealed that because technology and social media has become something that is relied on in our time, girls who spend most of their time on social media were most likely to say they were sad or depressed nearly each and every day. These girls also admitted to changing or wanting to change their appearance, not enjoying coming to school, and not wanting to participate in certain sports because they felt as though they didn’t belong.
The time and effort spent thinking about how to get “fit” (or whatever that means) takes up more time than girls spend in school classes per week. We are currently living in a society where girls may look exceptional on paper, but are often anxious, or constantly nervous on the inside. No matter how hard girls try, they feel they will never be smart enough, successful enough, and overall just don’t feel as though they are enough. CNN talks more in depth on the topic of girls feeling as though they aren’t worth anything or aren’t good enough.
As Women’s History Month kicks off, please be kind to yourselves and to each other. Remember that comparison is the thief of joy, and that most often, social media profiles only display the peak moments of a person’s life. You are enough, just the way you are!