Visual technology envelops the world. From the moment one wakes up to turn off an alarm in the morning, until the moment the head hits the pillow at night with phone in hand, technology is constant. Even with this rise in technological advances, there are still drawbacks. One major drawback is cyberbullying. Physical battles breaking out in the school parking lot are not as frequent as in the past; now, the real action occurs behind a screen.
People are able to hide behind an anonymous user name and post negative and hurtful comments about people they might not even know. With cyberbullying comes effects as well. Fat-shaming comments lead to insecurity, which can then lead to depression and severe medical effects on its victims. Media is great at allowing anyone to pinpoint the spotlight on others, especially negative ones. With the help of campaigns like Dove’s “Real Beauty”, which aims at promoting different ideals of beauty, the technological world is slowly crawling its way out of the negative territory.
With the rise of visual technology, more and more pressures are being put on the minds of individuals to fit a certain body image, which has become the leading cause for the rise of many eating disorders. Tragically, eating disorders have consumed a widespread of individuals all over the world. In fact, the number of teenagers that have been admitted to the hospital due to eating disorders has almost doubled in the past 3 years(How 3) .
With this number slowly on the rise, more people are becoming educated on the history, symptoms, and causes of eating disorders. Eating disorder is a term used to describe illnesses characterized by a disturbance in attitudes and behaviors relating to eating, body weight, and body image”(Becker 1). Some examples are bulimia, anorexia, and even binge-eating. Based on a somewhat recent study, researchers found out that women are at special high risk for eating disorders. They found that 90% of the subjects tested who developed eating disorders were women. For every 10 women affected their is one man. A lot of eating disorders are not taken as seriously as they should be.
Many adults who don’t understand the new pressures on the younger generation dismiss certain eating disorders as a part of the teenage life. They think all teenagers struggle with weight and that it is nothing to worry about; but, that is where they are wrong. Eating disorders are considered a mental illness because the main problem happens inside the brain(Becker 4). Most of the time they can be self-destructive and cause many issues, since they are highly addictive, especially once the self-starvation process becomes involuntary(How 12). Anorexia is one of the most common and deadly disorders.
One in five anorexics will die, either from physical complications or suicide”(How 14). Why is something as dangerous as an eating disorder such a common issue for the average teenager? The media is a major factor in the formation of eating disorders and negative self-confidence. “Even if you’re not actively looking for encouragement with an eating disorder, even if you avoid the internet altogether, you can’t avoid the overwhelming message of our age, that weight loss is good, weight gain is bad, that thinner (harder, leaner, greener) is better”(How 11).
In America, it is extremely hard for anyone to feel confident with themselves because they are always being bombarded with images and ideas of these beautiful, perfect people plastered wherever you go. Having to see this all of the time can really put a strain on people when they look in the mirror and don’t see the same thing(The Influences 15). Although, the media doesn’t directly cause eating disorders or body issues. It puts the idea that there is something wrong with your body if you do not match the images you are staring at on a screen, magazine, etc.
They exert powerful influences on values, attitudes, and practices for body image, diet, and activity”(The Influences 54). The media has an enormous image of conforming young minds by telling them what is pretty, desirable, or how to look. Cultures are judging people based off appearance rather than intelligence or character(The Influences 9). Author Wen-ying Sylvia Chou of the U. S. National Institutes of Health states that we should change the face of social media. Instead of breeding vicious comments and cyber-bullying, we should create a supportive and encouraging face to social media(The Obese 7).
The media is on the rise for changing social media into a more diverse and realistic place, the likelihood of an immediate change is unlikely. Although, many people do believe that it would help “reduce the pressures to conform to one ideal, lessen feelings of body dissatisfaction, and ultimately decrease the potential for eating disorders”(The Influences 55). Now that cyberbullying has become more and more frequent, the change in the world is being put on hold. With the rising of time spent on social networking, it is no wonder the game has switched.
Instead of the face-to-face bullying, kids go home and get on the computer to harm each other, where they can be “hidden”. “A 2010 study found that two-thirds of young people go online every day”(Cyberbullying 4), which shows why the rise in hateful comments and arguments has been so drastic. In fact, a study done in the Consumer Health News stated that when they analyzed certain websites, more than 1. 3 million of the messages posted on sites like Facebook and Twitter were hurtful and contained the words “Fat”, “Obese”, or “Overweight”(The Obese 2).
In one study, researchers determined that, “37 percent of students reported their parents had given them no rules on Internet use”(Cyberbullying 9), which means that those students have free range to do whatever and say whatever they want. “This same study found that 26 percent of students believed their parents would be concerned about what they did online”(Cyberbullying 9). Even if students are nervous about posting something cruel online, they are able to do it anonymously which makes it easy “to be cruel to others without seeing or considering the impact of these actions”(Cyberbullying 12).
With the constant negative comments, victims of cyberbullying can start a dangerous downward spiral. Many victims become closed off and can even start to harm themselves. “Perhaps the most devastating result of cyberbullying is suicide”(Cyberbullying 7). In the past decade, companies like Dove have been launching programs like the “Real Beauty” campaign which helps women, young to old, start seeing themselves as beautiful as they truly are. “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty” was created to provoke discussion and encourage debate”(Dove 2).
When the project was started, a study was conducted in order to gather research for the areas they really needed to hit. Women from 10 different countries, ages 18-64, were questioned and out of the 3,200 women who were interviewed, the shocking percent of only 2% of those women thought of themselves as beautiful and only 13% of them were satisfied with their body shape and weight. That means that 85% of the other women didn’t think of themselves as beautiful or feel good in their own skin(The Influences 62).
The campaign started in September of 2004 when they sent out pictures of women who didn’t fit the social norms and encouraged people to cast votes of what they thought of the women. Their next step was to show real women with real curves and “debunk the stereotype that only thin is beautiful”(Dove 4). One of their projects included team of filmers getting together and putting together a video showing everyone the drastic measures photographers do to make a picture perfect before it is submitted for a magazine, website, etc.
They were shown how the photos can be changed by blemish repair, shrinking or enlarging body parts, and even making the model taller or shorter(Dove 9)! News of the campaign started showing up all over the world and people were really taking a liking to the campaign(The Influences 64). These campaigns are really helping to reshape societies all over the world and redirect social norms. Not only did Dove launch the “Real Beauty” campaign, but they also launched the “Self Esteem Project”. The project was launched in 2006, right in the middle of the “Real Beauty” campaign.
When it was realised, they stated that “the fund aims to educate 5 million young women about self-esteem through workshops and other programs by the end of 2010”(The Influences 64). Before the campaign even started, they aimed at questioning the younger generation of girls, say 12-18, about what they thought about their bodies. One of the studies showed that six out of 10 girls were constantly worried about how they looked and even chose to miss out on things because of how uncomfortable they were with their own bodies(Building 2).
Being body conscious has gotten so much heat that even little girls are starting to notice the slightest things wrong with themselves. No matter the country or surroundings, young girls start basing their body images off of what their society’s ideal body image are. Girls as young as 6 years old see themselves as not beautiful. Some girls even go as far as plastic surgery to conform to the ideals of body image(Building 1). Over the past decade, the visual technology has completely taken over the world. Social media and all of the things associated with social media are ike a melting pot for negative and hateful things to be said.
Physical battles have been traded for written digital arguments. Young girls all over the world are forced to see pictures of stick-thin models and getting the idea that they have to look just like them. Even with the rise in harmful effects due to the pessimistic media that surrounds the nation, there was little to be done to try and change those ideas; until, campaigns like Dove’s “Real Beauty” and their “Self Esteem Project” emerged from their company and opened up the eyes of many people.
With the help from Dove, the population will be able to reverse the set ideals of the world and change for the better. Dove could not have said it better when they said “Low body confidence is a worldwide issue. It can be hard to identify and even harder to address, which is why Dove is on a mission to help everyone support young people to be more body-confident”(The Dove® 1).
