During an internship last year, I worked alongside a girl my age who had recently published a book. I enjoy reading in my free time so I ordered her book off Amazon and a couple days later, started reading it. It’s journal entries she wrote during her struggle with anorexia. The daily entries start on the day of admission, through hospitalization and end with her discharge. In high school, there was one girl in my grade who had developed anorexia, but we weren’t close friends. So I personally never knew someone who had struggled with an eating disorder before I met Kirsten. In her book, she discusses how social media, like most teenagers, changed her perception about herself. She goes on to discover what the true meaning of beauty is, and that “there are so many better dreams to dream than for a perfect image”. Not only does an eating disorder effect you physically, it also effects you mentally and socially. A lack of food can destroy your mental health, so her entries also include her daily struggle with rebuilding hers. An eating disorder, is just one of the problems that can arise from social media. It’s so important for teenagers to be taught how to view themselves realistically and not with a perception that social media can provide.
References:
Cunha, K. J. (n.d.). Food For Thought.
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As a mother to a impressionable 11 year old I constantly struggle with reinforcing positive body image. Kids now a days are idolizing social media influencers and looking to them as role models. I think we have to limit who are children watch/follow but most of all we have to reinforce morals and core values. Parents in this generation are too lax when it comes to who and where their children get information from. Psychology tells us that our children are most impressionable and likely to commit criminal offenses when they are outside of the home,away from parents,and between ages 13-16 and 17-21. I am doing a paper in criminal activity as it pertains to juvenile social influence. The littlest things like parents watching activities, checking in on kids when they are away, act as deterrents and reinforce family values.