Social Media and Its Foster of Self Hatred

By Haley Hart 

Nobody is born self conscious. We all come into this world as bald, plain little blobs with no real problems. No one blasts straight out the womb with worries of cellulite or lack of hair volume, thoughts that they might be too thin, too plain, or too hairy.

The thought that any one of my features could ever even be undesirable was a completely foreign concept to me until about age 5, when I watched the wretched 2001 movie, “Princess Diaries.” The story follows 16-year-old Mia Thermopolis, who has never met her father, so of course the only logical explanation is that he is heir to the throne of the fictional country of Genovia. A lot of things happen throughout this film, some that still hold up and some that age poorly, as is the way of early 2000’s rom coms. However, as a kindergartener, only one scene stayed burned in my mind, the one where awkward, frazzled Mia, transforms into a beautiful princess through the power of a straightening iron and contacts. Not to be overly dramatic, but this scene alone is probably the root of all my insecurities, because that was when I realized I bore a striking resemblance to the main character, before the makeover montage! 

From that moment on, I grew an intense hatred for my features, especially my hair. But, I wasn't born hating my frizzy curls, it was an insecurity I was taught to have by the media I grew up consuming.

And now, it's not merely TV shows and films that are being consumed by children causing body image issues. In the modern era, we have different forms of media that have taken their place – social media – and it’s having the same horrid effect. 

Trend Cycles and Fast Fashion

On social media, fashion trends change extraordinarily quickly. One moment a certain style is praised and universally adored in the eyes of the internet, the next moment it is to be never spoken about again. This phenomenon is likely due to the ever growing velocity of the “fast fashion” industry, an industry that is only continuously supported on social media. Fast fashion, defined by Britannica, refers to,“rapid production of inexpensive, low-quality clothing that often mimics popular styles of fashion labels, big-name brands, and independent designers.” This method of production, which is typically unethically produced, allows companies to quickly manufacture clothing that is popular and currently trending on social media. This, however, has terrible consequences due to how quickly trend cycles shift. Often, these clothes are then thrown away plaguing the environment with their cheap material and toxic plastics. 

Lastly, something wonderful that social media has also provided us with is the acknowledgment and continuous discussion of physical flaws. Phrases such as “hip dips,” “legging legs,” and “facial harmony” have risen to popularity on social media platforms starting roughly in the mid 2010s. These phrases are meant to describe certain desirable or undesirable physical attributes and have almost entirely had a purely negative effect on children exposed to social media. Experts have also attributed the rise in juvenile plastic surgery and adolescent eating disorders to the physical flaws teased on social media. According to Allure Magazine’s Maria Santa Poggi, the way the internet controls these insecurities can be described as, “a perpetually hellish seasonality to the virality of these alleged bodily flaws, to the point that it feels as if we are all mere spectators to a feverish trend cycle treadmill dedicated to insecurity all in itself. She follows this statement saying, “We’re now policing our own bodies at the whims of an algorithm—and therefore criticizing ourselves at a faster pace and maybe even to a greater degree than ever before.”