- How Instagram filters affect your mental health
- Camila Cabello reflects on her body and mental health after her latest photos on the beach
There is no doubt that social networks, increasingly supportive when it comes to giving voice to issues related to mental healthhave a multitude of benefits that can help Internet users to carry a healthy life style. However, it is no secret that sometimes the online universe can open the gates of hell to the real world due to the pressures it imposes in certain areas. Camilla Hair, an expert in responding to those who try to ‘body sham’ her, wanted to talk about this topic on her profile. “I have always worn bikinis that are too small without giving a damn about how I look, until I saw the pictures online and people’s comments and I broke down. I reminded myself that what was really affecting my self-esteem was not my actual thoughts, but that I was appropriating the ideas of the prevailing culture, a culture that has become so accustomed to relating a specific image of “healthy body” with an aesthetic that is not real for many women. People use ‘Photoshop’, go on restrictive diets, overtrain and pick angles where their body looks different from its natural shape, when we take a deep breath or eat,” explains Camilla.
This is how networks affect how we see ourselves
The data about eating behavior disorders (EDs) are worrying. In Spain, according to data from the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), there is a prevalence of between 4.1% and 6.4% in young women between 12 and 21 years of age and it has a clear female profile: nine out of 10 people with these disorders are women.
“Social networks act as a precipitating factor”
–
–
Raquel Velasco, psychologist at bluaU de Sanitas, points out how the digital world encourages to a certain extent the proliferation of these disorders, particularly among young people who show special vulnerability. Although behind these eating behavior disordersthere are other factors that are not talked about so much that can play a very important role, it is true that, social media they act as an important precipitating and risk factor for the appearance of these problems. Above all, in the stage of adolescence, in which our adolescents are very focused on seeking the acceptance and admiration of their peer group. In this way, they will try to imitate the Beauty canons unreal that set trends in the networks,” he says.
–
Tristan Fewings/Disasters Emergency CommitteeGetty Images
–
–
There are numerous studies that indicate the effect that the ‘online’ universe can have on the way in which we face our image. Even research published in Science Direct pointed out that women who look at Instagram have more problems with their own image than those who look at platforms like ‘Facebook’, where the word is more important than the images.
“We must be vigilant regarding the influence and impact of social networks”
–
–
It is not only women who suffer its effects. The gay men They assure that Instagram reinforces the image of “men crushed in the gym with a sculptural silhouette”, and there is even talk of ‘Bigorexia’, a muscular dystrophy suffered by those men obsessed with gaining muscle mass. Both the vigorexia (need to gain lean fat and a distortion of body image) or the orthorexia (an obsession with healthy food that interferes with their daily lives) have been extolled by social networks and the ‘fitness’ movement that accumulates millions of followers. “We must be vigilant regarding the influence and impact of social networks since they can be triggers for certain problematic behaviors of mental health and generators of a negative relationship with sports, with food and our body”, warns psychologist Raquel Velasco.
Although we are aware that the physical is not essential, Cabello herself assures that the effects of constant exposure to perfect bodies on social networks ends up affecting anyone. “I follow women who embrace their cellulite, their big bags, their stretch marks and her weight changes, and yet I’m still a single woman in my twenties with a lot of promotion ahead of me and I want to think I look good. Although I know that my appearance is not linked to how healthy, happy or sexy I am, the message that the world does not stop sending resonates in my head, “says the singer.
This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Profiles that help and accounts that confuse
There are many public figures who remind their legion of followers that what is shown on social networks is seldom free of touch-ups, flattering poses and filters that end up damaging and affecting mental health. From Veronica Costabetter known as Vikika Fitness, to the journalist and ‘influencer’ Danae Mercer, there are many who make an effort to remind us that changing our body does not imply changing the body image we have. This is how Mercer explains it. “There was a time when I was obsessed with being thin. I was skipping meals, memories and moments. I convinced myself that if I lost a certain weight, if I reached an ideal weight that I had set for myself, I would feel good and strong. I thought that people would love me and that maybe, maybe, I could love myself too. I now weigh more, I am older and I have never felt more secure with my body and with myself. I’m still working on it, but when I see my cellulitis I am not ashamed”, explains Danae, known for sharing images on her networks without filters in which simply the poses and the way in which the clothes she is wearing change her silhouette completely visually. “Don’t forget that what you see on Instagram is altered. Do you know why so many ‘influencers’ are photographed in front of the mirror in lingerie? Because the mirrors act as a warm light, something similar to the light of sunset and sunrise, so the light favors the skin. For its part, the mirror blurs the image, and that is why stretch marks, for example, are hidden, ”she explains in a video in which she compares the reflection with her real body and explains how to pose in front of the mirror to obtain different results.
as pointed out Cailtin Moran in the book ‘More than a woman’, it is not normal for us to hate ourselves all the time. That image of perfection that we impose on ourselves and that comes in so many cases from the networks is affecting us both physically and psychologically, and that is why Camilla wants to send a final message. “I am talking about all this because we see pictures of women who are praised for their physical appearance, for being fit or for being supposedly healthy, but what is actually being healthy if you are obsessed with your appearance to the point affect your mental health and make it impossible for you to enjoy life? Who am I trying to be attractive to, if I can’t really relax, have a good time or enjoy a day at the beach? She comments on it after confessing that to enjoy a day at sea, she bought a bikini and made sure not to eat anything heavy, because she was aware that the paparazzi would take care of turning her rest day into a real session of photos. “I stuck my stomach in for so long that my abdominales. I barely breathed or even smiled, because I was very aware of where the photographers were, so I couldn’t get carried away”, he confessed after acknowledging that although he came out well in the images, he has never spent a sadder day on the beach. ” I felt the emptiness and sadness of our culture’s thinking, which became mine,” he says.
–
Delmaine DonsonGetty Images
–
–
As much as the singer we follow people on our social networks who show their bodies without filters, the truth is that there are more and more investigations and testimonies that indicate the residue that the tyranny of normative aesthetics has in our lives. According to The American Journal of Cosmetic Surgerycosmetic surgery procedures have increased in the last decade due to low self-esteem, while for its part the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery points out that many patients come to clinics with their photos passed through an Instagram filter, such and as it happens in Spain, where the Spanish Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery explains that one in ten patients appears in the consultation with a photograph that has been especially praised on Instagram.
slaves of the body surveillance, we have become a society so used to filters and perfect poses that we need our real image to be identical to the virtual one, something completely impossible that has terrible psychological consequences. As much as dissatisfaction with personal image is usually the apparent reason for these disorders, so we cannot forget that these are diseases whose origin is complex and multifactorial, studies indicate that greater exposure to technologies and networks social, cases of eating disorders they go off, and with them, of course, the mental ones.
In closing, we must point out how important it is to escape from comparison culturewhich pushes us to follow the advice that many ‘influencers’ who share with their followers nutritional advices and exercise tables. As much as these beauty and wellness tips have good intentions, they make us compare them with what we do and with our lifestyle, thus increasing the pressure we have on ourselves and then focusing on negative emotions. Our society links health with a certain aesthetic, so we believe that those who have a specific appearance are the ones who will give us the best health advice. The only way to escape this spiral? Learn to love ourselves, which is possibly the most complicated operation of our lives and the one that is undoubtedly the most worthwhile.
