The Fakeness of Facebook

Facebook. The most used social network. 1.79 billion users as of 2016, beating any other social media site. I’m sure this number will continue to grow and so we need to be cautious about the messages it can promote. Although it’s been found that face-only selfies are posted more than body ones, overall body photos are not uncommon. As with Twitter, typing in just the word ‘thinspiration’ on Facebook will quickly bring up photos of very thin women with unattainable bodies. And guess what? These photos often get hundreds of likes and comments. And what does this do? It makes the women and girls that don’t get this response feel inadequate and dissatisfied with their own bodies and faces – a negative outcome from Facebook!

Evidently, a huge amount of people use Facebook, of all different age ranges. Of course I am a member, along with my mother and even my grandmother – who is nearly 80! It has actually been found that young women and teenagers spend around two hours on Facebook everyday and as well as this, millions of photos are posted on to the site every hour. This means that there are millions of photos for people to be comparing themselves with and many opportunities to then become dissatisfied with their own appearance. I know that I for one definitely do worry about looking to chubby or having awful skin in photos, exhaling heavily when I see that I’ve been tagged in photos that I am yet to see my appearance in. However, I’ve come to realise that in real life it doesn’t really matter. No one looks good in every single photo, where’s the fun in that?!

The photos posted will include ones posted by celebrities but also family and friends, both close and distant and comparing yourself to any of these members can be harmful. As mentioned in my blog focussing on Instagram, eating disorders can indeed occur due to overuse of social media and the constant comparing. In addition to this though, mental health issues can occur as well. Unfortunately, Facebook has been linked to causing depressive symptoms. Continuously comparing yourself to other photos that you deem more attractive will bring your self-esteem down, causing negative feelings towards yourself and your body but people still continue to spend hours upon hours on Facebook – sometimes without realising the damaging outcomes it can result in. So although lots of people won’t be worried about looking their best in every selfie or comparing themselves to the ‘skinny minny’ on their timeline, other people do concern themselves and it is these people that need the positive encouragement to get body confident.

Of course, Facebook has many pros. People and family can connect from literally all over the world, instantly messaging and video calling – which is a truly amazing advance and can lead to positives such as better family or romantic long distance relationships. People also get a lot of pleasure when it comes to sharing their lives on Facebook, finding new friends online and feeling part of an online community. There are also many ‘groups’ and ‘pages’ that promote healthy eating and getting fit in a positive way. There are also groups offering support and a place to talk for things like mental health which is definitely putting such a huge online platform to really good use.

Liking, sharing, commenting is all part of the fun that is Facebook but these activities can evidently have harmful effects. Some people are even emotionally connected to Facebook which in my opinion and I’m sure many others, is just not healthy. It is important to unplug from Facebook and do things in the real world, next to enjoying the fun of online social activity. On that note, I’m signing off!