Penn State students capture how media impacts mental health, self-perceptions, future goals | Lifestyle

Waking up in the morning, many Penn State students roll over and pick up their cell phones to check their social media accounts and look for new notifications.

Then, when the day winds down, they grab the remote control and plop down to watch a new TV episode or the movie topping Netflix’s weekly charts.

Regardless of the type of media students consume, most people can’t avoid mass media or social media altogether due to its prevalence in daily life.

In fact, many female students on campus said the platforms can have “drastic” impacts on their mental health, sense of self and perceptions of their role in society.

Reality vs. perfectionism contained within social media posts

Emma Hogan is a member of Her Campus at PSU, which is a daily online publication platform that creates content pertaining to college women, and she said the group often discusses issues like social media and its corresponding effects on daily life.

Hogan (freshman-education and public policy) said she’s seen social media and mass media environments positively change since she was in middle school, especially regarding mental health impacts.

“Social media has gone a long way, and I think we are going away from the whole ‘perfectionist’ realm,” Hogan said. “A lot of people are being more honest with what they post now and not editing so much out.”

Hogan said she believes many news organizations have made improvements in inclusivity and representation, which often can positively impact girls’ self-esteem and feelings of self-worth.

However, she said “there’s still room to improve” within social media platforms and to make it more conducive to real conversations and representations of people’s daily lives.

Hogan said she believes people who face mental health struggles because of social media should distance themselves from the platforms if need be and realize social media is a “highlight reel” where people place their “happiest moments” — not their entire life that’s filled with ups and downs.

When scrolling through social media, Hogan said she “loves seeing photo dumps,” which are random posts filled with the “little things that made someone happy throughout the week.”

She said people tend to post unedited or less modified pictures in a photo dump on Instagram, which breaks the trend of only posting “positive moments” online.

“[Photo dumps] are just very honest,” Hogan said. “And I really like that direction we’re going because I think it’s really inspiring to see other girls who are just the same as you with no filtering out the other, [less pleasant] stuff.”

For instance, Hogan said people may keep their acne in the photos they post during a photo dump, rather than editing it out.

She said she believes people are also more likely to share honest updates about their lives — even the hard patches and struggles — on their platforms.

Despite the negatives entailed with social media, Hogan said the platforms have been “helpful” to her over the years, especially “with exposing problems that other women go through” and allowing for widespread education of relevant social issues and lifestyle topics.

Hogan said she previously didn’t know much about eating disorders before hearing more about them on social media from women speaking out about their personal experiences.

She said she’s also seen more “women empowerment and body positivity” online and in mass media, which are “really good steps” to breaking down the stigmas and stereotypes still prevalent in society.

Although many micro-influencers, especially those with fewer than 30,000 followers, have used their platforms to spread awareness and positivity, Hogan said she wishes more mainstream, popular accounts were moving in a similar direction.

Hogan said celebrities — such as media personality Kim Kardashian, model Kendall Jenner and YouTuber Charli D’Amelio — are examples of people who have large follower-bases but fail to use their platforms to promote positive change or create a more honest, realistic environment on Instagram.

“There’s still more pressure for women on social media — and women in media in general — [compared] to men, but it’s improving,” Hogan said.

With regard to social media filters, Hogan said there’s a fine line between those that completely change a person’s face to look “perfect” and those that are “fun or funny” in nature — like those that alter your face to look like an animal or a baby.

She said the video filters that “literally just clear your skin, make your lips bigger, make your nose smaller and give you mascara” can be dangerous to people’s mental health and self-esteem because they create unrealistic beauty expectations.

“You’re going to judge your own appearance when the filter comes off,” Hogan said. “I don’t really see any benefit to those [filters] other than to make people think you look like that.”

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

Unrealistic standards and expectations within social media

Lauren Colvin, administrator for Schreyer for Women, said via email that her biggest issue with modern media is the way “it perpetuates the idea that women are supposed to be enemies instead of friends [or] allies.”

Colvin (sophomore-public relations) said she doesn’t understand why she’s supposed to be “constantly competing with other women” rather than “working with them” to build each other up in the process.

She said social media can promote competitiveness and personal comparisons where they don’t need to exist.

“Media continues to show [and] idolize unrealistic body standards either by using doctored images or choosing models or actors who may or may not have achieved their stunning looks through unhealthy means,” Colvin said. “I don’t think the media is entirely to blame for this because it is [a] consumer-driven market, [and] it shows the public what it wants to see. But, nonetheless, these unrealistic body standards are hurtful to women and girls — especially young girls.”

In middle school, Colvin said she felt “uncomfortable” in her body because “it didn’t look like the ones in magazines [and] on TV,” and since she was “a bit bigger than the other girls in [her] grade,” she was always attempting to hide herself.

She said she tackled her insecurities and anxieties by reading books about body image and openly talking with her mom about her feelings.

“Thankfully, I was able to grow out of that fear and learn to love my body the way it is,” Colvin said.

Colvin said she started following health influencers on social media a few years ago who educated and trained on nutrition, kinesiology and psychology.

She said these accounts helped her “see more representations of beauty, strength [and] health,” which did “wonders” for her and her perceptions of self.

Beyond the impacts on body image and mental health, Colvin said modern media pushes standards of living that judge women who deviate from the accepted models and norms.

“As for a female’s role in society, I think the biggest thing these days is women are supposed to be ‘super moms’ — they have a career and take care of their kids,” Colvin said. “If they can’t do that, or aren’t doing that, or chose not to have kids, those women are somehow an anomaly or less productive members of society, which I think is absurd.”

She said the modern media creates “shame” around those who don’t want to have kids, while also creating a demanding atmosphere for women who do choose to become parents.

Colvin said representation is an important consideration in the media industry.

When looking back at her relationship with media, Colvin said she’s felt represented by modern media portrayals that have captured her interests and strong personality.

She said Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games” series was her “first role model in the media” because Colvin related to “her quiet strength,” and she “fit the same basic physical profile as her.”

Colvin said she also found both the portrayal of Ruth Bader Ginsberg in “On the Basis of Sex” and Peggy Carter in Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” to be “influential characters” for her because she could identify with “their strong personalities and outlooks on life.”

Colvin said she hopes to see “a continuation of the current trend of representation for every body type in the media” because “there are so many beautiful ways to be healthy and beautiful.”

She said she “can’t wait for the media to catch up to all of them” and more conclusively showcase all of the beautiful people in the world.

Alyssa Sholder said she’s witnessed how social media can negatively affect people’s mental health due to “unrealistic beauty standards” and perceived expectations for “perfection” in all components of one’s life — from their professional life to their friendships and family relations.

Sholder (sophomore-kinesiology) said many girls “get stuck in their heads too much” because of social media, and they start developing self-doubts due to comparisons to other people online.

She said many people perceive their social media feeds to be “real” and contain realistic content with every swipe made through friends’ and influencers’ posts.

While changing the color of a photo may be “fine,” Sholder said modifying one’s photos to remove perceived blemishes may contribute to the “unrealistic” atmosphere surrounding social media overall.

“It makes them want to be something they’re not when most of that stuff is always fake anyway,” Sholder said. “It just sets up a wrong example for them to follow.”

If faced with negative mental health outcomes from using either social media or mass media like TV and movies, Sholder said people should “stop looking at it, stop focusing on it [and] take back control by focusing more on [themselves] and less on everybody else.”

Caitlin Graham said the interactive elements of social media — like direct messaging and commenting functions — were created to elicit positive social interactions and connections between online participants.

Although positives have developed from these interactive resources, Graham (freshman-veterinary and biomedical sciences) said they have not been completely constructive, beneficial or encouraging.

Graham said some people use their social media platforms to leave mean, unsolicited messages on other’s posts and feeds, an activity that often transpires behind the perceived safety, distance and anonymity of a computer screen.

According to a study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, approximately 50% of children aged 10-18 years old have experienced at least one form of cyberbullying via social media.

Graham said seeing hateful messages online can cause devastating mental health impacts on the receiver, especially after repeated exposure.

In order to avoid negative comments, Graham said some people may “make their life look more positive or more fictional than what it really is,” which continues the cycle of unrealistic representations in media.

Gianna Golato said constantly viewing “idealized” body types on social media can lower people’s self-esteem over time and cause people to become uncomfortable with their own appearance.

Studies conducted by the Florida House Experience have found 87% of women compare their bodies to those seen in media, and following that comparison, approximately 50% of women felt more unfavorably about their bodies.

Golato (sophomore-advertising and public relations) said she believes more people are aware of the problems facing the social media industry, which has caused some to take combative and preventative measures.

Over the past year, Golato said she’s witnessed increased “supportiveness” on her social media feed as “girls have been specifically trying to look out for each other.”

She said many people have started commenting positive messages on others’ posts and hyping their friends up when possible.

Although she’s seen improvements within her own social media circles, she said there’s a long road ahead in transforming the environment online.

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

Representation issues and successes in media

Katherine Ellis, a Ph.D. candidate in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and French and francophone studies, said many people may not fully understand the “importance of the function of representation” and visibility in modern media.

Beyond the formal education people receive in institutions, Ellis said humans as a “social species” learn from each other, and “social media has really assumed this kind of vice grip on the kinds of [opportunities] we see available to us.”

“In a way, if we don’t see it, sometimes we can’t imagine that it’s a possibility, and it really restricts the self-actualization of girls that are growing up because they don’t necessarily see a variety of ways of being in the world around them through social media or mass media,” Ellis said.

According to 2020 Statista findings, $132 billion were spent on social media advertising throughout the year, and the spendings are expected to continue growing as well as marketing strategies geared toward social media.

Ellis said the advertising and commercial sales industries have especially leaned on the ways “women and girls have been valued and continue to be valued” to sell their products effectively to the public, which often comes in “superficial and dehumanizing ways.”

“They’re trying to create a sense of not being good enough on a really fundamental level,” Ellis said.

Ellis said she recently came across the show “My Killer Body with K. Michelle” that discusses the “serious epidemic” facing women — one that involves women “seriously disfigured and dying” from cosmetic surgical procedures to meet idealized beauty standards.

According to Ellis, the phenomenon can be traced to advertisements and social media, which the show discusses openly as being a key inspiration causing people to “fundamentally change their body in ways that ultimately caused them a lot of pain and sickness.”

Ellis said media messages are “incessant” and coming to people “every second of every day” since phones are always in people’s hands or an arm’s reach away.

“People feel like they need to live up to these standards,” Ellis said. “But it’s impossible because it’s not real.”

To broach upon the prevalent issue, Ellis said improving “advertisement literacy” is one route to take so people learn to recognize advertising strategies and when the platforms are not “reflecting an objective truth.”

Growing up in a media landscape, Ellis said it can be hard to differentiate and identify the broadcasted messages because they get “ingrained” in society.

“It’s in our faces so much that it actually becomes invisible in a way, and so you don’t necessarily know to what extent people are really suffering,” Ellis said.

Despite the improvements, Ellis said she still worries about the “function of advertising” because although diverse models are being added to the equation, “we’re not solving the problem, which is telling women and girls that they have to be considered pretty and beautiful to be OK with themselves.”

Ellis said she learned that a feature of some eating disorders is an activity referred to as body checking, which entails spending increased “time in front of the mirror reevaluating your body and the way you look.”

With social media dominating daily life, Ellis said she learned that “checking” has transitioned to the digital platform. People will post a picture of themselves online and check to ensure they’re perceived by others appropriately based on the number of likes and comments on each post.

Ellis said she believes there’s been an increase in body type diversity in media over the last few years, which was something she noticed even when watching Disney’s new movie “Encanto.”

“I was really surprised to see the body types that are represented,” Ellis said. “It’s not just the one character that is clearly not the body type that is frequently associated with women and girls in Disney and Pixar historically. Really, overall, people were starting to look a lot more like the proportions we’d typically see if you went outside and looked around at [everyday] people.”

Hogan said she believes the media and content people consume have an impact on their ideals and perceptions of the world, especially when looking back at the figures she looked up to as a kid and her current goals for the future.

“The people we choose as kids to be our role models have an effect on us,” Hogan said.

If the role models people have available to them are unrepresentative of the individual’s ideals, background and outlooks, Hogan said it may negatively influence their self-perceptions and confidence in their future life paths.

Hogan said her two favorite female role models from books and TV were Hermione Granger from the “Harry Potter” series and Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde.”

“And now I want to go to law school,” Hogan said. “And I like pink and yellow and bright colors. And I like reading. I mean you can kind of see a correlation that the role models that I picked, I relate to a lot.”

Hogan said it’s important for girls to see women in the careers they’re interested in and pursuing the passions they’re intrigued to follow.

She said viewing less women in relatable roles can be a “deterrent” for some people when they’re trying to choose a life path.

“The girls that I follow on Instagram usually do similar activities to me and have similar interests and similar feeds,” Hogan said. “So if you didn’t have women available as role models — those that were smart and creative and promoting good things — I don’t know if it would be the best situation for younger girls trying to figure out who they are.”

For instance, Hogan said she follows first generation law student and educational content creator Averie Bishop on Instagram and always enjoys seeing her feed.

“She’s young, and she’s fun, but she’s also an influencer/lawyer,” Hogan said. “She’s really open with [sharing] things like, ‘I have this deal with Microsoft, and I’m using it to pay off law school debt.’ She gives tips and tricks.”

Even though influencers like Bishop are similar in age to Hogan, she said “they are still role models” for people to look up to and relate to.

“Even now that I’m in college, and they’re barely a few years older than me, I’m like, ‘Wow, look at what they’re doing,’” Hogan said.

In modern TV and movie representations, Hogan said she believes “we definitely still have a problem with the mean girl trope,” which involves making the main character the “pick-me girl [that’s] always very different from the other girls, is edgy and always has those beat-up Converse.”

Hogan said movie and TV portrayals that depict the main character as extremely different from the other girls in the town often simultaneously act to “put down the other girls” featured in the story.

When sitting down to watch a movie, she said she’s easily able to differentiate stereotypes “like the girl in the pink skirt is clearly dumb, and the beat-up Converse girl is clearly the smart, empowered one.”

She said such stereotypes are worth improving and fixing because “there’s nothing wrong with showing both femininity and intelligence” while lifting up other female characters at the same time, rather than “putting them down.”

Hogan said “slight adjustments” would “make all the difference” in many movies and TV shows currently out or airing.

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT

Transforming one’s feed to uplift their faith

Lauren Shovlin, president of the Students for Life Club at Penn State and member of the Newman Catholic Student Association, said she always felt a “constant need to compete against other girls for getting the most likes or having the most followers” when growing up with platforms like Instagram.

She said social media imposed “pressure” on her to “present an image of herself and what she wanted to be,” especially by pushing her to feel like she needed to “post something with the right filter” or release photos that would show everyone that she’s “having an amazing time and has a lot of friends.”

As someone who’s struggled with eating in the past, she said “social media has made it so easy to view women’s bodies,” which makes it easy to form unhealthy “goals” to reach in terms of body image.

According to a study published within the International Journal of Eating Disorders, 51.7% of girls participate in restrictive eating or exercise plans with a total of 75.4% of the girls having at least one social media account.

Shovlin said many women have “a desire in their hearts to be cared for and to be loved,” and she said social media can influence how women go about achieving this desire.

After evaluating her relationship with social media, Shovlin said she realized she tends to post photos when she’s “at [her] lowest moment” — almost to “counteract” her negative feelings by posting a positive photo on social media.

As she’s grown in her faith, Shovlin said she’s worked to get “rid of toxic accounts where [she] feels the urge to compare [herself] to people and their unrealistic beauty standards.”

In turn, Shovlin said she began following more Catholic accounts that have allowed her to focus on growing her faith.

“I really think following accounts that align with your values are so, so important — just to see those on your feed,” Shovlin said. “They can really bring you back to recenter you and help you remember what’s really important.”

For instance, Shovlin said she follows Emily Wilson, a Catholic content creator who “has felt such a call in her heart to speak into women’s hearts” about relationships and struggles women face throughout their life.

Besides Wilson’s account, Shovlin said she spends time following Rev. Mike Schmitz, who creates videos answering “a lot of Catholic questions and how to incorporate faith into your everyday life.”

Shovlin said it’s important to follow accounts rooted in beliefs because many popular social media accounts distribute “sinful” content against her Catholic faith — such as psychic accounts and those focused on “manifestations and crystals.”

“It just scares me that young girls are seeing this [content] on TikTok and Instagram, [and] they don’t know what any of that means,” Shovlin said. “I just feel like it’s sucking people down this crazy rabbit hole, and it just shows that social media itself can be so inherently toxic.”

While the social media platforms commonly promote destructive accounts and content on their “For You” pages, Shovlin said people are unlikely to see religious posts on their feeds “unless they’re avidly seeking it out.”

“The messages being perpetuated aren’t positive — I think it’s just inherently negative,” Shovlin said. “Social media was created to be addicting since the longer you’re on it, the more money they get for advertisements.”

She said social media is “feeding into our need to feel loved” and works to “distract” from reality by fueling an addiction to watching other people’s carefully-curated “highlight reels.”

Shovlin said people should evaluate the reasons they use social media platforms.

“Are we [using social media] because we’re bored?” Sholvin said. “Are we doing it for a distraction? Are we trying to find validation? Because it’s an endless cycle — you’ll never be validated from it. It’s just sucking you more and more into it.”

During the Lenten season, Shovlin said she’s participating in a ‘Social Media Fast’ where she doesn’t go on Instagram, Facebook or other platforms in order to “cleanse” herself of “how toxic it can be.”

After participating in the cleanse for a few weeks, Shovlin said she “feels much lighter and more confident in [herself] because [she’s] not constantly comparing — or subconsciously comparing — [herself] to other people throughout the day.”

Shovlin said many media forms, especially advertising, use “horrible messages they’re trying to normalize” to sell their products and appeal to consumers.

For instance, Shovlin said many women are attired in “scandalizing” outfits or placed in “scandalizing” situations for commercials and movies, which normalizes an over-sexualized, immodest culture.

During the Super Bowl 56 halftime show performance, Shovlin said her party turned off the TV because the group didn’t feel comfortable watching the inappropriate showings and messages portrayed.

Shovlin said the media systems contribute to an “egotistical culture where it’s a competition to see who can use each other” — especially in regard to hookup culture where people “objectify” each other to meet their desires and wants.

“We treat ourselves like we are just happy to get whatever the guys will give us,” Shovlin said. “But it’s like, ‘No, we’re called to be more than that.’”

Shovlin said modern society makes people focused on themselves, rather than how they can interact, help and form relationships with others.

“As someone that is pro-life, I try to promote a culture of life, and that means being a self-gift to others [because] we were created to be gifts, and love is the sacrifice,” Shovlin said.

Rather than promoting a cycle of self-serving or objectifying behavior, Shovlin said people should focus on how they can help others — instead of how they can use others to meet their own desires.

“You’re supposed to be sacrificing [and] giving yourself to others like Christ did,” Shovlin said. “But we’re just competing to see who can use each other the most, which is such a perversion of our whole point of being here, which is why we’re so unfulfilled and so depressed because we’re just taking and taking and taking from others.”

Shovlin said many women feel like they need to wear immodest attire due to the media images available to them.

However, she said many women — including herself — find satisfaction by wearing virtuous attire, which is a heavily supported idea in her religion but a topic that’s barely discussed or promoted within mass media platforms or social media.

With the widespread use of mass media and social media, Shovlin said many unhealthy and immoral ideas are “normalized” because people continually see the messages presented before them saying, “This is OK.”

However, Shovlin said people need to take a step back, recognize the content, understand how their chosen media is impacting them and evaluate if changes need to be made.

“A lot of shows and media are pushing bad agendas, even if it’s subtle, on you,” Shovlin said. “It can be really easy for girls to get really caught up in it all. It’s important to realize that you can’t compare your life — even your eating — with anyone else. It can be easy to compare, [but] I just want to warn against it.”

MORE LIFESTYLE CONTENT