The Media's Influence on Adolescent's Body Image

Adolescence is the period of learning and growth. This time it is easier to handle than other people. For some people it may be a revelation of new experiences or ideas, and for adolescents trying to find themselves, adolescence is also a difficult and tense period. This will affect themselves and the surrounding people. In the meantime, teenagers can be identified with the surrounding people, their companions. Identifying with colleagues gives them the opportunity to see what others are dealing with problems like them and give them the opportunity to provide their advice to the person in need .

Mass media becomes a powerful force in the world, and strongly influences people's and others's perception. This applies especially to teenagers. In this article, we will explain how media influences the image of the body and self-esteem, and why media has a strong influence on young people. Differences in youth reactions of different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds to the media were discussed. This article focuses on girls, but it also evaluates teenage boys data. Finally, this article describes a possible approach that helps young people become more active media audiences and helps to prevent a decline in physical self-esteem that is common in adolescence.

There are three warnings from the beginning. First of all, this article will explain the potential impact of social media on adolescent girls and young women. The media has a major impact on the physical image of boys and young people (Ricciardelli et al. However, as many studies document the second impact, it is important to consider the cultural background in which studies are conducted. Most of the research is conducted mainly in Western countries, mainly white women (Fitzsimmons-Craft and Bardone-Cone 2012; Forbes et al. 2012; Mellor et al. 2013). There is an ongoing problem as to whether these findings apply to individuals of different races or ethnic groups. According to different subculture criteria, African-American women are less likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies than white women (Botta 2000; Fitzsimmons-Craft and Bardone-Cone 2012; Franko and Roehrig 2011; Gillen and Lefkowitz 2012).

Body images are very important issues for most teenagers, especially as they become adults. Many studies on the effects of body images and self-esteem have been in progress for ten years. However, body images have always been the focus of research in many countries such as the US and South Korea, but Malaysia has not been extensively studied in Malaysia, as research on body images is limited. Although there is research on the body image, most research focuses only on the body image of a woman, not a male body image.