Blog Post #3: Instagram's Transformation from Photography to Marketing by Stella Aisenshtat
The Guardian article titled "Facebook aware of Instagram's harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals" speaks to the negative impact social media platforms have on teenagers, specifically girls. According to this article, the main issue causing depression and anxiety among Instagram users is what Facebook data scientists call "social comparison". I briefly mentioned this in my last blog post, how "Influencers" portray a false image of reality that pushes an unattainable standard of beauty and life by altering the shared truth of popular culture. Baym discusses four perspectives on the relationship between technology and society, all of which can help us further understand the anxiety about the interactive nature of social media as evidenced in the aforementioned Guardian article. Namely, the perspective of the social shaping of technology. In other words, technologies have the potential to force change upon society but, simultaneously, individuals...

Hi Andie, great post! I really enjoyed reading your insight into TikTok and the body images it promotes. I personally think that TikTok as well other social media platforms negatively affect an individual's view on body image. This is because individuals feel that they must conform to this standard that has been set and will utilize un-healthy methods to achieve the ideal look. Today's generation is much more accustomed to eating disorders and other illnesses that can be directly traced back to the content one is seeing online. There is nothing wrong with videos promoting a healthy lifestyle such as fitness videos but the line is drawn when these videos make others feels that they have to look a certain way in order to be perceived as beautiful.
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