Whether we reward it or not, as long as there is someone people can compare themselves to, it’s going to affect their mental health. Social media itself is a beauty competition, and the reward is attention. We tend to compare up, not down, so it doesn’t really matter how beautiful or rich someone is—there’s always someone doing even better who makes us feel insufficient.
nope, not at all. having someone to look up to is not the same as a barage of media and advertising soaked with the intent of amplifying and capitalizing off of body dissatisfaction and self hatred.
If Pixelfed were as popular as Instagram, it would have virtually the same effect on the mental health of young girls, especially. While an advertising-based business model does influence this, it’s not the driving factor. Social comparison is in our genes, but never before have we been able to do it at this scale. This is guaranteed to have a negative effect on mental health. The issue however is not that social media is inherently bad; it’s just incompatible with the way humans behave. It’s like drugs.
literally no lol. the advertising (more accurately, the profit-seeking) model is certainly the driving factor, supported by engagement-maximizing algorithms. and remember it’s not just social media i’m criticizing. it’s a much larger media structure including also the show this post is about, and the discussion is much older than instagram, reaching back decades. here, for example, is a study of media exposure and body dissatisfaction from 2003: 7 years before instagram.
Whether we reward it or not, as long as there is someone people can compare themselves to, it’s going to affect their mental health. Social media itself is a beauty competition, and the reward is attention. We tend to compare up, not down, so it doesn’t really matter how beautiful or rich someone is—there’s always someone doing even better who makes us feel insufficient.
nope, not at all. having someone to look up to is not the same as a barage of media and advertising soaked with the intent of amplifying and capitalizing off of body dissatisfaction and self hatred.
If Pixelfed were as popular as Instagram, it would have virtually the same effect on the mental health of young girls, especially. While an advertising-based business model does influence this, it’s not the driving factor. Social comparison is in our genes, but never before have we been able to do it at this scale. This is guaranteed to have a negative effect on mental health. The issue however is not that social media is inherently bad; it’s just incompatible with the way humans behave. It’s like drugs.
literally no lol. the advertising (more accurately, the profit-seeking) model is certainly the driving factor, supported by engagement-maximizing algorithms. and remember it’s not just social media i’m criticizing. it’s a much larger media structure including also the show this post is about, and the discussion is much older than instagram, reaching back decades. here, for example, is a study of media exposure and body dissatisfaction from 2003: 7 years before instagram.