Media and the Self-Esteem of Teenagers

So, as I was contemplating what I should write for this blog post, I decided to answer a question that I had for a Spanish presentation. (Sorry, I didn’t feel like writing 200+ words about rhythm and meter.) The question was on the effect of media on the self-esteem of teenagers. Growing up, teens often feel insecure about their image in comparison to others around them. As a result, their constant exposure to media serves as an unconscious guide to how they may present themselves.

Teenagers, especially girls, try to attain the standard of beauty seen in commercials or advertisements. However, with the growth of technology, most of the images of beauty are not natural – imperfections have been erased or covered with makeup, and features have been photoshopped to better match the current definition of beauty.

In fact, the standard of beauty has really changed over the years. At some time, there was an anorexia craze and everyone wanted to look stick-thin because it was “in”. Some older paintings have subjects of plumper women because that was the ideal image at the time. Even though the beauty standard has fluctuated in the past, there is immense pressure on teens at the moment with the heavy presence of social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter where “likes” and “retweets” seem to be of the upmost importance. This can definitely hinder teenagers from gaining confidence and a high self-esteem.