User:JosebaAbaitua/sandbox/References/DHum2021/ZARATE JIMENO, Amaia

THE USE AND ABUSE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Social media and digital platforms are an appealing communication tool designed for everybody. They allow users to have instant communication with people living across the globe, thereby making possible maintaining a long distance friendship or even making new friends. As social media apps have developed and grown, they have turned out to be a great emotional scape for many people, especially for the young. However, this has led to high levels of screen usage and abuse, which have been proven to have a negative impact on mental health. In fact, depression and anxiety have greatly increased since 2011 in the US, and self-harm admission at hospitals and the suicide rate have done so as well.

As human beings, we have the need to connect with others and feel part of a group, and social media allows us to do that, but to what extent? According to research studies, people spend more and more hours on their phones: particularly, young people aged between 16 and 24 spend an average of three hours each day on social media. One of the major drawbacks of spending high amounts of time on these platforms is that one sets unrealistic standards for people, because they tend to think that the life of the people they are following is what they see on social media, but that is far from reality in most cases. All this has a great impact on the self-pressure to impress others: "Several students who committed suicide had projected a perfect image on social media—their feeds packed with inspirational quotes and filtered images showing attractive, happy kids. But behind the digital curtain, they were struggling emotionally."

One of the aspects that people tend to compare the most is body image. Particularly, the image of the female body that is portrayed is that of a thin-white-skinned woman, and most influencers and models are a clear representation of it. According to Oakes (2019) “In a survey of 227 female university students, women reported that they tend to compare their own appearance negatively with their peer group and with celebrities, but not with family members, while browsing Facebook.”. Such is the impact of social media on body image that worrying trends like “Snapchat Dysmorphia” are becoming stronger: as people are getting used to using face filters, making perfect poses, editing their pictures to look thinner etc. they are losing touch with reality. Apps like Facetune are helping to create these unrealistic and unattainable images of people. According to Hunt (2019) “When the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery surveyed its members in 2017, 55% of surgeons said patients’ motivation was to look better in selfies".