A Filtered World

How social media affects our self perspective

The Highlight Reels

Social media allows us to connect with loved ones, meet new people, and stay up- to-date on current events. It can also leave us inundated with messages about how we should look, what we should eat, how we should dress, and how we should feel. Often times, we receive mixed messages with everchanging information, making it difficult to ever feel good enough. We compare ourselves to online "influencers", celebrities, or even just our friends and family's seemingly picturesque lives. The thing is.. we are comparing ourselves to filtered world; whether it's an airbrushed photo, a perfectly curated meal, or a smiling, happy family- we are just seeing the highlight reels. Most people choose to only share the positive parts of their lives, it's like watching a highlight reel that leaves out the rest of reality. When we are comparing people's highlight reels to our own real life, we are setting ourselves up for feelings of inadequacy. Comparing ourselves to other’s “best lives” leads to unrealistic expectations, which then lowers self-esteem when those expectations aren’t met.

The Un-Reality

Time spent scrolling through feeds and timelines can affect how we think, and how we see ourselves. Photoshop, Facetune, and hundreds of other apps allow users to completely transform how they look in photos. There are even apps that can superimpose yourself onto a background (like a tropical vacation or private jet). With all these altered (and sometimes just completely fake) pictures flooding our feeds- how can we possibly feel good about ourselves just as we are? These comparisons also fuel the fire of negative body image, eating disorders, and self-esteem issues.

Diet Culture

Diet culture is defined as set of beliefs, values, social practices, and social norms associated with restricting food, rigid nutrition and weight stigma. Diet culture demonizes certain ways of eating while praising others, labels foods as "good" and "bad", promotes weight loss as a means of achieving higher status or acceptance, and increases feelings of shame and guilt around food and body. Diet culture doesn't just affect those struggling with eating disorders- it affects all of us. Someone can get involved in diet culture without even realizing it; diet culture doesn't just mean being on a "diet". Diet culture messages can include promoting body transformations (the classic before & after photos), "clean eating", replacing foods with "healthier" options (I'm sorry, but no bell pepper tastes as good as a bagel), and detoxes/cleanses/flat tummy teas/weight loss shakes, etc. The weight loss and diet industry profits directly off our insecurities around our bodies and our health, so much so that it's currently worth 64.7 billion dollars!

Try a Social Media Cleanse

Your body doesn't need a cleanse, but your social media might. We cannot completely avoid societies messages through all forms of media, but we can make a conscious decision on what we chose to follow. We can decide what content we choose to follow and what messages we chose to receive and internalize. Do a social media cleanse! UNFOLLOW ANY ACCOUNT THAT MAKES YOU FEEL BAD ABOUT YOURSELF! Take control of your feed, follow what brings you joy and what's in line with your value system. Seek out body-positive influencers, inspirational accounts, etc.; or delete social media all together! Take a break, remove those apps from your phone for a little while and see how you feel.

Choose Authenticity

We can choose to work towards presenting our authentic selves on social media. Try skipping the filter and share images that show the real you and a balance of different moments that reflect realty. Check in with yourself about what you’re using social media for – is it to stay connected to others? To express your own values? Or to gain likes/admiration? Why are you following the accounts you’re following? Having awareness of the impact social media has on you and what your motivation for using it is the place to start to embrace and share your true self. Being authentic is a conscious decision, we’re never going to be 100% authentic all of the time. Of course, none of us want to post our absolute worst life events or a picture where we feel terrible, but we can find a balance and take the figurative (and literal) filter off sometimes and lean into authenticity!

-Tiffany Smith, LMHC