Swipe Up for More! by Stephanie McNeal

Author:Stephanie McNeal [McNeal, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

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While Shannon struggled to contain the fallout from perhaps being too authentic on social media, Caitlin began to chip away at the identity she had cultivated for so long on the internet: the perfect girl.

That’s not to say that Caitlin thinks she is perfect. Far from it. She would categorize herself as an average person—living a blessed life, sure, but not a perfect one.

This perfection that the industry strove for, though, has been one of the damning criticisms of it in recent years. In many ways, the influencer industry has taken on the criticisms that have always dogged the fashion, beauty, and magazine sectors. These forms of media create an unrealistic image for young women to look up to, and according to many experts, they can cause more harm than good.

When I was growing up, the models that graced the magazines I read and that I stared at on billboards on the highway were incredibly thin, with almost no deviation. There was no movement to show “real” bodies in the media. Everyone was a size 0 and celebrated for it. Celebrities were shamed in the tabloids for supposedly gaining a pound or two. Undoubtedly this had an effect on my self-esteem and the way I saw myself, and my teenage girl peers. No one ever told me it was okay to be comfortable in my skin if I was over a size 2, that’s for sure.

Social media has taken on these roles in our society, but is even more widespread.

“While influencers and celebrities have existed for millennia, they haven’t held this kind of influence and power, with such an incredible lack of checks or balances,” reporter Christianna Silva wrote for Mashable in October 2021. “They’re marketers, inspirations, and an unfair comparison all rolled into one. And because it is relatively new, we’re still coming to terms with the potential harms of this violently underregulated industry.”

The issue came to a head in September 2021, when a Wall Street Journal report revealed that internal Meta data had found that Instagram was having a harmful effect on teenage girls. In fact, they found that “thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse,” the newspaper reported. Meta found that these problems were unique to Instagram because it has such an emphasis on image, aesthetics, and how you present yourself.

“The features that Instagram identifies as most harmful to teens appear to be at the platform’s core,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “The tendency to share only the best moments, a pressure to look perfect and an addictive product can send teens spiraling toward eating disorders, an unhealthy sense of their own bodies and depression, March 2020 internal research states. It warns that the Explore page, which serves users photos and videos curated by an algorithm, can send users deep into content that can be harmful.”

Another study, reported by The New York Times in March 2022, was a little less dire,

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