My Concern: Adolescents and Body Image:Body Image is the how one perceives one’s body; about how it looks, feels and moves. Adolescent is the age when body goes under various physical changes this is also the time when they go through all those mood swings where they become more concerned on how they look and become more unsatisfied about how they look than like the change. Study shows that 50 – 88 % of adolescent girls feel negatively about their physical appearance. Study also suggests that 58% of the girls wants to lose weight.
We
live in a media run society.
Adolescents are more influenced by media. They want to have the body
portrayed by the media. While trying to achieve the body portrayed in the
television and hoarding boards, they take steps that can have negative effect
in their health as well as in their personality. Most teenagers give up eating
in order to lose weight. Some start smoking marijuana and some also take
medicines to lose weight. All these can lead to a serious health hazard.
I
interviewed two ladies who go to Texas Women’s University. One was from Asian
country and one was born in African country and was brought up to America when
she was 3. They both were not comfortable in giving out their real names in my
blog as everybody can read it. I asked what did they think was the most
happening problem in adolescents today? One said body image and the other said
smoking. The lady who thinks smoking is the major problem in adolescents said
that teenagers are more influences by the society they grow up in and media
also plays a major role in the habit they adopt. Their friends influence them
as well. She added that anti smoking advertisements should be more convincing
and more in number than the advertisements of cigarettes.
On the other had, the lady who
thought body image was the major problem explained that, due to media and
various beauty competitions, teenagers are more and more interested in getting
the media portrayed body. She also said that some teenagers even commit suicide
because they did not like how they look and also because their friends made fun
of their appearance. She added that teenagers are also using all kinds of
chemicals to make them look good, which can turn out to be harmful for them.
All
three of us thinks that media plays a huge role in influencing adolescents,
positively or negatively. More positively influencing programs should be made
rather than making media a platform just for marketing.
