Social Media Vs Mental Health

Is your social media affecting your mental health?
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Photo: Bright Light Content

These days you can't go on your favourite social media apps without being bombarded by the 'ideal body' or 'perfect lives' that make you feel nothing but rubbish about your own. But have we finally got to the stage now where we are starting to doubt the accuracy and believability of the people we once aspired to?

Take the Kardashian family, the prime example; the queens of social media and the perfectly airbrushed photos. Nowadays though, the youngest of the clan and billionaire Kylie Jenner can be found lounging about on a €250million yacht for her 22nd birthday not to mention their children are riding around in toy Ferraris styled in Gucci onesies with a matching purse. That kind of extravagance is surely alienating their fans (and haters) even further from the grandeur of their lives than ever before.

So what about the 'normal' people? The extreme pressures that these 'model celebrities' unwittingly endorse, (perhaps actually through no fault of their own and actually purely down to THEIR lack of self-confidence), is leading to more mental health problems in young people than we've ever seen before. Ironic, given the fact that the platforms that are supposed to allow people to communicate and express themselves is actually doing the complete opposite and confining young girls and boys to their rooms stuck in front of a computer screen reading a revolving door of online abuse and idolising these unrealistic expectations.

It seems even celebrities themselves are getting fed up of the influx of perfection too as we see more and more of them posting more realistic photos will full bellies and cellulite and the rise of the 'Instagram vs reality' picture-a way to post a 'cute' picture and a more human one all at once, (well, Rome wasn't built in a day). There's also been a much needed increase in curvy models, take Iskra Lawrence, Ashley Graham and Tess Holliday, and tummy rolls in advertising, and why the hell not?!

It's pleasing to see that society seems to be rejecting what was once the ideal and now celebrates the female body in many more of its natural forms with this evolving even just over the past few years and now on a more regular basis.

So to the extravagant celebs adorning our news feeds, you're not 'of the people', you are forcing an ever growing wedge between reality and celebrity and you are damaging for our mental health. We no longer aspire to have the Kim K butt and Kylie lips, (yes, some still do, I know!) but on behalf of impressionable girls and boys, women and men, young and old, we love natural and we want more of it!

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