Self Love vs Beauty Standards

Has social media impacted our perception of physical beauty? 

It’s not surprising to find pictures of bikini clad models with hourglass figures and influencers with flawless skin when scrolling through Instagram, but are these images having more impact on us than we think?  Our exposure to these ‘perfect’ bodies and faces has the potential to change our expectation of what is beautiful, and what features are worthy of likes, comments and praise. But it’s up to us whether we let these images have a negative effect on us and the way we view ourselves and others. 

Has social media changed our perception of physical beauty? 

As increasing amounts of models are appearing on our Instagram feeds, is this changing our expectation of what is perceived as ‘beautiful’? Or is the more recent self-love movement making a comeback on these unrealistic expectations by shedding a light on diversity and beauty positivity 

We surveyed 40 teenage girls aged between 14 – 17 and here’s what we found: 

• 17 out of 40 girls felt that they were more impacted by seeing unrealistic beauty images such as models with ‘perfect’ bodies and faces, generally commenting that they were impacted by this because of the exposure these images get, being praised and idolized by their many followers and promoting unrealistic standards for young girls to compare themselves to.  
• 16 out of 40 girls felt more impacted by positive beauty images / messages being spread on Instagram because they choose to surround themselves with these positive posts on social media, often making them feel more positive and confident in themselves.   
• 7 felt neither or both. 

Regarding our question ‘Has social media changed our perception of physical beauty?’ here’s what our survey showed: 

• 11 out of 40 girls said that Instagram has not changed their perception of physical beauty, generally commenting that they don’t follow models / influencers who promote unrealistic beauty standards, or they simply choose not to compare themselves to these images or let them change the way they see themselves. 
•  23 out of 40 girls felt that Instagram has changed their perception of physical beauty because they feel that they need to live up to the unrealistic beauty standards and expectations that Instagram has created in order to feel ‘beautiful’ and ‘worthy’.  
•  6 didn’t know. 

But, has the more recent self-love movement on Instagram made a comeback on these unrealistic standards that have been created by ‘perfect’ models and influencers? Here’s what our survey found: 

• 4 out of 40 said no, believing that the self-love movement doesn’t quite live up to the hype around beauty standards on Instagram. 
• 18 out of 40 said yes, because this movement is spreading awareness and promoting diversity and acceptance which is often more welcomed than unrealistic beauty standards. 
• 17 didn’t know. 

So, what conclusion does this lead us to? From the data gathered in our survey, we can conclude that generally, people feel that Instagram has changed their perception of physical beauty because of the expectations it has created around body image etc, giving us standards to compare ourselves to and making us think there is a specific way we should look in order to be deemed ‘beautiful’ or worthy of praise. 

However, around half said that self-love and diversity images can impact them more, and around half believe that this positive movement is combatting the unrealistic beauty standards we see on Instagram everyday. So, whilst Instagram may have changed our perception of physical beauty, there is still room for awareness and positivity to be spread around self-love and body positivity. You can make a difference to the beauty expectations we feel are placed upon us by spreading positive massages and promoting self love and diversity.