Teenage Girls, Body Image, and Instagram Dangers PDF

**[Teenage Girls, Body Image and the Dangers of Instagram]** Emily started using Instagram when she was in her mid-teens and found it helpful at first. She used the photo-sharing app to follow fitness influencers. But what began as a constructive relationship with the platform ended in a crisis ove...

**[Teenage Girls, Body Image and the Dangers of Instagram]** Emily started using Instagram when she was in her mid-teens and found it helpful at first. She used the photo-sharing app to follow fitness influencers. But what began as a constructive relationship with the platform ended in a crisis over her body image, resulting in an eating disorder diagnosed at the age of 19. "I felt like my body wasn\'t good enough, because even though I did go to the gym a lot, my body still never looked like the bodies of these influencers,\" says Emily, now a 20-year-old student who is in recovery. Emily, who preferred not to use her real name, uses Instagram sparingly now. She is one of many Instagram users whose suffering came to light with revelations about the platform\'s owner, Facebook. According to internal research Ieaked to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook seemed to know it was damaging to teenage girls\' general mental health. In particular, they found out that the app has worsened young girls\' body image. More than 40% of them said they felt \"unattractive\" and stated that the feeling began while using the app. Another finding of the in-house study was that Instagram\'s algorithm is potentially dangerous for consumers who may not understand how it works nor know how to handle it. This is true because Instagram mainly sends images according to the user\'s online activities, a fact that may be harmful to inexperienced users. Two in five girls (40%) aged 11 to 16 in the UK say they have seen images online that have made them feel insecure or less confident about themselves. This increases to half (50%) in girls aged 17 to 21, according to research by Girlguiding in its annual girls\' attitudes survey. Social media platforms play various roles in teenagers\' lives today and therefore affect users in different ways. Instagram, for instance, focuses on people, their lifestyles and their appearance, thus having a deeper effect on young people than any other social media platforms. TikTok, in comparison, emphasizes performance videos such as dancing while Snapchat is a messaging app which allows users to create and share fun images with jokey face features called lenses. The dangers of apps like Instagram are obvious. That is why experts Iike Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics, have urged UK parliamentarians to draft an online safety bill, which imposes a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content. She says a key element of the online safety bill will be measures to regulate the algorithms that constantly manipulate what you view, which is exactly what pushes teenagers to consume self-esteem-damaging content. \"There is a lot to be done about algorithms and Al \[artificial intelligence\].\" Another expert, Deana Puccio, says the bill should be accompanied by a wider media education campaign in school so that young people learn how to navigate a world dominated by social media. She is the co-founder of the Rap Project and visits schools across the UK and abroad to discuss issues such as consent, online and offline safety, and shows how to build confidence in body image and self-esteem. She adds that teenagers should also be encouraged to make their social media posts reflect a more realistic vision of the world. \"We need to start building up people\'s confidence to post real-life ups and downs. As parents, educators, politicians, we should equip our young people with the tools, the analytical skills to make healthy choices for themselves. Because they will get access to whatever they want to. They are better at navigating the online world than we are.\" (adapted from: , Dan Milmo and Clea Skopeliti, 2 Oct. 2021) **[Questions on the text]** 1. How did Emily's experience with Instagram change over time? (2 items) 2. What did the internal Facebook research find? (2 items) 3. What are the differences between the social media platforms mentioned in the text? (3 items) 4. What do experts suggest to improve teenagers' social media experience? (3 items) **[Vocabulary]** English German ------------------------- ---------------------------------- eating disorder Essstörung recovery Erholung, Genesung sparing(ly) sparsam, schonend insecure unsicher confident selbstsicher, selbsbewusst (to) decrease abnehmen, sinken (to) increase zunehmen, steigen survey Umfrage, Studie appearance Aussehen, Erscheinungsbild obvious offensichtlich (to) urge sb. jem. drängen (to) draft entwerfen, verfassen bill Gesetz (to) impose sth. on sb. jem. etw. auferlegen, aufzwingen duty of care Fürsorgepflicht self-esteem Selbstachtung consent Zustimmung, Einverständnis (to) consent zustimmen, einwilligen