Nowadays body image which relates to a person’s perceptions, feelings and thoughts about his or her body, is widely used in different kinds of media as it holds a very important place and is used frequently in our daily lives. Many people have concerns about their body image. These concerns often focus on weight, skin, hair, or the shape or size of a certain body part. Body image can be negative when a person feels ashamed and may feel that others are more attractive or positive when a person accepts his or her body regardless of appearance, gender, size and physical ability.
Today the increasing use and influence of media has a great impact on people around the world. The impact of the negative body image and low self-esteem is dangerous in the modern society. For example, the media tends to portray beauty as extreme thinness which cannot be the goal for all people. It can result in increasing of body shaming and medias especially tabloid magazines force these unrealistic images of how females are supposed to look. It can lead to eating disorders and make it a serious public health issue. Besides, as the researches have shown even children begin to develop disordered eating habits due to the influence of the media. This fact that children are affected by the unrealistic image of beauty is especially worrying because a negative body image can be painful and stressful for them.
As for positive image or “body positivity”, it is important for people. Media can positively impact body image in a number of ways. Health and wellness, fitness, healthy food can inspire people to lead a healthy way of life. Moreover, you can join different support groups in social media on various platforms to solve your problems and find the solution connected with your body image. It will help to understand that self-confidence does not depend on our appearance.
All these examples show that body image can be shown and understood in different ways. Online media and social media platforms influence people’s attitude to their appearance and can have negative effects. That is why people should pay attention only to images which make them feel good about themselves and their bodies.