Have you ever dreamt about having the perfect body? There are several negative aspects of body image on social media. Instagram and Twitter are perfect examples of social media apps where body image is a main factor. Social media has influenced children, teens, and adults to get bbl, botox, or new teeth. Today social media has caused a lot of frustration because everyone wants the ‘ideal body’. Spending too much time online, comparing your lifestyle to others can affect self-esteem, cause depression, and lead to eating disorders. Today social media has brainwashed millions of people into thinking that getting plastic surgery will help you get the perfect body. Not everybody is successful with their body transformations; failure from getting the perfect body can affect a person’s self-esteem. Someone may be unsatisfied with their body being on social media a lot causing insecurities. Social media can persuade you to change your lifestyle; which can personally hurt yourself by constantly exposing yourself to the ideal body type. This leads to constant comparison of yourself to unrealistic standards. Gender roles and/or gender relations are negatively affected by social media. For example, women’s roles vary from childcare to workplace activities displaying women dependence. On the other hand men are portrayed as more independent and less likely to express their emotions.(Social Media and Gender: A Tricky Combination, 2022) Mental health is another factor caused by the negative aspects of social media which can lead to depression. Today’s generation is brainwashed, teens believe the hype about body image. If you are too skinny it is a problem, if you are not skinny enough then you are labeled as fat. Lots of people, especially celebrities, get body shamed. For example, Coi Leray has been publicly shamed several times. According to Complex, she has addressed the body-shaming she received in connection with her red carpet appearance at the BET awards alongside her boyfriend Pressa.(Cowen, 2021). There should be a limit to what is portrayed to children on social media because it contributes to depression. Moreover, some experts have seen the rise in depression as evidence that the connections social media users form electronically are less emotionally satisfying, leaving them feeling socially isolated.(Miller, 2018). Some important factors of social media that result in affecting your mental health are memory loss, delayed sleep and poor academic performance. A study of the relationship between media and eating disorders among undergraduate college students found that media exposure predicted disordered eating symptomatology, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and ineffectiveness in women, and endorsement of personal thinness and dieting in men.(Morris & Katzman, 2003). Today’s children and adolescents grow up in a world flooded with the mass media, films, videos, billboards, magazines, movies, music, newspapers, fashion designers etc. Studies have reported a significant change in the weight and size of female and male models portrayed throughout the media in western society and the concept of the “ perfect body”. Research shows that the more teens spend time on social media, the more likely they are to have eating disorders

I would suggest to them they can fully experience college with various learning opportunities and activities and organizations throughout each semester.