Eva Nashtatik: The effect of Social Media on Self-Image

I chose to do my project on the effect of social media on self-image. In the last decade, social media has become an integral part of our society and the way we interact with others. Although it is meant to help unite people from all across the world, it somehow makes us feel more alone. My goal is to dive deeper into this paradox and help understand the world of social media more. I am able to recognize some of it's positive effects, like allowing us to easily communicate with those who live in other parts of the world. But, social media has become a means of comparing ourselves to someone else's life. Personally, over time, I have become less active on social media because I've noticed myself becoming too focused on "likes". I began to feel like if I didn't get a certain amount of likes or comments, then I would feel like my content wasn't good enough. In addition, social media is only a snapshot of people's most perfect moments. People tend to only post the highlights of their lives. Young users, however, who compare themselves to these "instagrammers", will view themselves negatively if their lives don't look like those in the pictures. When in reality, these "instagrammers" are paid to sell content through photos that can grasp a user's attention and entice them to buy the product. With this project, I hope to learn about what we can do to allow people to have a more positive experience on social media. I plan to discuss in more detail the various effects social media has on our confidence and self-worth by using examples from different platforms.