The Negative Impacts of The Media on The Self-Perception of The Youth

With the emergence of the internet and information technology, it is indisputable that the media has had a far-reaching impact on modern society, including the way adolescents perceive themselves. Some people believe that the media encourages youngsters to develop their sense of self, but others remain skeptical about that concept. From my perspective, I agree insofar as the media has adverse effects on the way adolescents perceive themselves in terms of their body image and self-esteem. To begin with, the media leads young people to a distorted perception of body image. "One's body is what makes us who we are. Every single person is unique due to an individual physical trait" (chima, 2011, para. 1). However, that notion is not very popular in modern society. The youth are now being bombarded with the news, pictures, and footage of gorgeous models, encouraging them to strive for an ideal but unrealistic appearance. They are motivated to lose weight and purchase more products to meet the far-fetched beauty standard. As a result, the more they engage with the media, the more dissatisfied they feel about themselves. To be more specific, in a study by Renee A. Botta (2003), reading and processing magazines lead 28. 0% of girls to anorexic behavior and make 41. 6% of girls "drive to be thin"; only 23. 4% of participants feel satisfied with themselves when reading magazines regularly (p. 397). In other words, girls who read beauty and fashion magazines frequently are more likely to have great dissatisfaction with their bodies and pursue the ideal figure regardless of their health. Furthermore, the media contributes to the negative peer pressure among the youth and undermines their confidence. Following the exponential growth of the internet, people now can interact with each other regardless of time and geographical distance; however, the more connected we are, the more critical peer pressure we may experience. This issue is much more damaging to the youth, who are struggling with an array of pressures and changes, and triggers a host of adverse consequences for adolescents, including depression. Continuously seeing and reading news about the peers leading fulfilling life may make youngsters stuck in the vicious cycle of comparative self-criticism, hence killing their self-esteem. Not to mention, according to Roy F. Baumeister et al. (2003), people who have low self-esteem are more susceptible to depression, social isolation, and passive behavior, which hamper them from grasping the chance to learn and develop themselves (p. 4). Given many apparent demerits of media, some critics argue that many media platforms, especially social networks, play an important role in self-esteem boosting. In other words, by getting positive responses to their posts, adolescents are inclined to be more confident about expressing their personalities because positive feedback “signals acceptance by others” (Burrow & Rainone, 2016, p. 1). For this reason, the opponents believe that the sense of belonging offered by social media, in fact, helps the youth enhance their self-perception. While that may be the case, it appears that the number of young people experiencing lower self-esteem due to social media uses outweighs the number of people having high self-esteem owing to social media. To be more specific, in a study about the association between social media use and adolescents’ self-esteem conducted in 2021, Valkenburg et al. stated that, in their survey, up to 21% of participants are negative susceptibles while only 16% of participants are positive susceptibles (p. 56). Besides, peer pressure and the possibility of negative responses still exist in social media environments and can diminish the youth’s confidence at any time. In conclusion, social media has many detrimental effects on the self-perception of the youth, especially on their body image and self-esteem. Therefore, what people need to concentrate on now is guiding youngsters and helping them approach the media correctly and effectively without being trapped in false self-perception.