The Need to Be Perfectly Imperfect: The Struggle of Self-Image on Social Media

I remember like it was yesterday when I made my first social media platform account. I was in 5^th grade, which is quite young to be on social media, and it was Instagram. When it first became popular for my age, it became the talk during the school day to make an account. I raced home and made one immediately, and quickly posted a picture of my friends and I getting smoothies. As time went on, my generation got to be more creative with the trends on our Instagram profiles, and the posts became more staged. I began to plan out when I was going to post on Instagram and go with friends to cool spots to take Instagram photos. This would take hours, and many photo opts to get the right ones to post.  Finally, I would get the perfect post worthy photo, and quickly upload it hoping to get enough likes. This unfortunately is still similar to how Instagram, and how other social media platforms are still used by specifically my generation today. The difference from how it was used when it first came out, to how my generation has grown into using it today is drastic.

Currently, across all social media platforms, not just Instagram, there is a real issue of posting on social media profiles that is not representative of oneself or current situation. People post photos of themselves or their lifestyles, that protrude the life they want others to see, not what is the truth. While this does not pertain to everyone that is on social media, this affects many in my generation that was on social media from a young age. Out of my generation, women are most affected by this because of how unattainable the standards that social media sets. Specifically, The New York Times explains a study that was done in 2019 that states that two thirds of young women users when scrolling on social media feel “social media envy”. I can personally attest that this feeling of envy, is quite common for myself and others  because of the standards that are held for women on these platforms.

The issue of idealization that these posts emphasize, is what destroys women’s confidence and self-esteem on social media. It has then made women obsessed with their personal self-image and how they present themselves to the rest of the world. We’ve become intertwined with our images we put out on social media and constantly trying to represent that on a consistent basis. This becomes draining and feelings of inadequacy start to fade in. This battle of self-esteem that young women face on social media, stems from the trends on social media that started for us at a young age. We have had to grow up in this online world of unattainable standards, that has had these detrimental effects on our mental health.

While my generation has dealt with this issue throughout the past decade, there is hope for the generation behind me. Recently in the past year, there has been a huge wave of young women on Instagram posting more candid photos in a relaxed manner. The photos weren’t perfectly staged or edited with trendy filters. They showed real life, such as grabbing a morning coffee or a fun photo of nature. A study done by Nature Communications in 2020 analyzed 10,560 Facebook users and found that ones that were authentic in their self-expression on social media had significantly more life satisfaction. Through this recent wave on social media of being more truthful in your image, it emphasized for younger generations that it is more than okay to be perfectly imperfect. Hopefully, as a result of this wave, younger generations and my generation will find more life satisfaction and the feelings of detrimental self-esteem will dissipate.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Susan Jane Golding.