Answer the following question: Why do you think eating disorders are on the rise for both men and women?
Search the internet and find a photo that reflects how social media has shaped society's thinking and maybe our own. Please make good choices when choosing your picture! When you find that perfect photo please post the URL and discuss the following questions in 1-2 well-thought out paragraphs. (Please don’t just write your answers to the questions – try to write down your ideas in an organized way.) Once they are all uploaded we will comment on the photos and discuss the reality behind these photos (If there is any).
What is the ‘reality’ behind these photos?
How does a photo like this affect your own thinking about body image?
How do you feel the media has shaped your thinking?
What do you think we as a society can do to change how photos like this create our perceptions of body image?
Eating disorders are on the rise for both men and women because of social media. I feel like this generation is on social media more these days and the internet usually has a big influence on people. If a man or woman sees a someone famous on the internet being fit and eating less, then they will most likely follow. These trends are closely related to how a person is “supposed to look like” according to the social media trend. I chose this image because it represents eating disorders that are caused by a challenge made up by someone who stacked coins on their collarbone. This challenge was created along side the many eating disorder trends, for example, the bikini bridge, thigh gap, and belly button challenge. All these trends relate to eating disorders and offering individuals to starve themselves to successfully complete these challenges. When in reality they are just hurting themselves doing so. This photo doesn’t affect my own thinking about body image because I do not follow trends to make myself happy. I do what I want if I want to and if a trend is on social media, I don’t bother reading into them. Body image is just something these individuals want to make themselves happy and look great for others. They want to show off their accomplishments to others and post them under a challenge to make themselves feel happy. This is the sad truth about social media ruining the nature of life. I personally hate this photo because it is misleading and a danger to those wanting to follow the trends of social influencers on Instagram or Twitter. Body image is just a mindset a person wants and what they push to be. It’s dumb and ignorant to follow a challenge to stack coins on their collarbone to show off to others that they are skinny and/or starving themselves. It is one thing to be fit and muscular to show collarbones, but starving to fit in is just unacceptable. Having a specific body type or not having this or that on a person’s body is the reality of our world. Social media cuts into the minds of individuals and expects this perfect body for everyone to go by. Society can stop trying to make trends go popular by using hashtags or replicating these challenges. These trends are annoying and need to stop due to the harm it could place on society itself. Stop replicating these trends and posting it on social media could help a lot because it will not spread to others in other states and countries.
REFLECTION: In this discussion, we were asked to answer a question about why eating disorders are on the rise for both men and women. Then find a picture on google representing how social media has shaped society’s thinking of body image. I decided to focus on social media challenges that reflect on body image. I chose a picture of a challenge going around called “Collarbone challenge.” These types of challenges that are going around and spreading like wildfires are dangerous because the message it represents is horrible. It is stating that people should be skinny enough to balance a stack of coins on their collarbones. This discussion was great because the entire class got to see how social media society misrepresent things and focuses on the wrong ideas. There are messages behind social media challenges and people need to stop hash tagging these challenges on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites. I liked this discussion post because I got to read all the great responses that my classmates replied with.