Running head: MEDIA AFFECTING SELF-ESTEEM 1

Media Affecting Teen Girls Self-Esteem Carolina Cobos Polo University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
Self-esteem problems have been an issue around teenagers, and it is affecting the community. Teenagers have confronted a lot of problems that are caused by the insecurity of their bodys, these problem have caused death and sickness. There are many ways that teenagers get start with this problem, is mostly caused by social pressure, magazines, television, fashion shows in many other media. As every problem in life it has a good and bad side, there are people taking advantage of how teenagers get affected by media and using to their favor. Teachers have started to use technology in order to grab students attention and also have learned that with technology it is an easier way to teach. In these times people need to take advantage of what its given to them and if media is affecting self-esteem of teenagers the community they could also use it to improve the self-esteem of teenagers.

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Self-esteem
Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself and want others to see you. There are many types of self-esteem for example, high self-esteem that is the best one, since you love yourself just as you are, even if you are not perfect because a person with high self-esteem have the security to do things that take courage. Medium self-esteem you feel fine with your body and you are not ashamed of it but with some changes you could look better, but since you feel great with body image , you dont feel the need to improve it but when this changes it is when the low selfesteem start to grow. Low self-esteem could be dangerous because it lowers how you see yourself, if you do not start to appreciate what you are nobody will, low self-esteem have lead people to starve themselves ,in order to look skinner and what they now about how bad starving is ,they ignored because being skinner has become more important that everything they cared. It has been proven that if a person is not satisfied with his/ her appearance they would do anything to make that change and feel better about them. The problem is that is when they are trying to reach this goal and they want an easy way , theyll probably start hurting themselves for example, starving, too much exercise, but dont get the wrong idea doing exercise and having a healthy diet is good for your health but everything that is in excess is bad. How cam teenagers be in peace if almost every day the market has something new to show. Publicity persuades people in different ways to sell it, however few people realize the brainwash advertises are. Brainwash is when publicity makes you feel as if you need something and they show it in a nice way in order to make the audience want it (Fanchang, 2013).

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Why teenagers worry about body image?

Teenagers watch television as much as if they had a job, during these hours they see all types of commercials. In these commercials media only uses skinny models. Teenagers think they know what they want and teenagers will want what media is showing them (Education Digest, 2013). The social and media pressure, really affects the self- esteem of teenagers since the self- esteem is based on what you think of yourself, and a big majority of teenagers dont appreciate themselves as they should because media has taught them that being thin, tall, and tan is how they should look. When teenagers look into the mirror and dont see these characteristics they feel disappointed and not satisfied with their bodys image, for example if a girl is not thin ,but has a healthy body, media can make her feel overweight and he/ she will look for products that can help them reduce weight. Publicity, low self-esteem and the ongoing circle of societys wants are causing a high percentage of population to harm their health by leading them to eating disorders (Rosenzweig, 1999). Victoria Secrets success relies on those skinny models, which do not look unhealthy at all; in fact they look gorgeous and flawless. This models if natural and healthy consist of a really small percentage of what women in this world look like. The idea of becoming like these girls might start with buying Victoria Secrets merchandise, but big surprise when the customer wears the merchandise and does not look like Alessandra Ambrioso, although it might not be the idea of this company to cause self-esteem problem to girls, most of the customers desire this look and another some go into rigorous diets, tough exercise or even eating disorders.

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Figure1. A representation on how teenagers feel. Self-esteem problems begin when a teenager desire a body of the model she saw on television. Teenagers set their mind to do anything they can do to have the body as the models because according to the media, that body image will get you boys or girls, popularity and social status. Teenagers think that to have those three things they will at the top of the world but what they dont know is that as the years go by these three things that used to be the most important wont matter at all. These problems can bring anxiety and that anxiety leads to depression if they dont achieve for what they have been looking forward to. Depression in adolescents is very common, because of the low self- esteem (Chuub, 1997). To build a character you need confidence in yourself, as many people dont have it its affecting their whole life, this problem can bring harm not only to your health life but also to your personal life since you will grow apart from the people who is trying to help you, but teenagers are so crazy for their desire they would think you are trying to hurt them. Changing how teenagers feel about themselves is really sad to see because you can see from a happy life to a life of sickness. Getting back to their normal environment can be hard because they need to build the security they lost and build a character, the only good news about rehabilitation from a sickness is that your character would be as stronger than ever, because you will have the characteristic of a fighter that did not gave up on life or her/ his family. Insecurity is most common in high schools, because they dont have a safe environment (Waddell, 2006).

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How can parents notice?

A normal teenager is happy because they are in an age of discovery, friends, meeting new people, high-school, of course there are people that is serious and shy but when a teenager is quiet, with not even one friend, there is a problem. If a teenager is quiet and lonely theres something in his/ her head going on that is just about time that they explodes, instead is he/ she had a friend to talk to about that problem, no problem would be occurring, sometimes teenagers only need attention. Most of the times is from their parents that why they turn into trouble kids , because their knowledge is that if the school calls their parents, they would make his/ her parents remember that they have a child to take care of. When this does not work they take the hard way and that is to get sick or somewhere dangerous. If parents do not notice something weird in their kids, maybe the big problem are they and this is why the teenager is unhappy (Jacobson, 2004).

The consequences
Consequences can be really harmful and more in this situation, once the person have the disease is really hard to get out of it, because the organs are not working as they should because of the lack of nutrients in the body and it takes time to repair the damage done to your body. With the support of your love ones and the effort needed, rehabilitation can be a moment to realize what they could be missing out of life. People these days lack about the importance of the inner self, it has all become about the looks, the brand, and the size of your jeans. Self -esteem must not rely on the superficiality of the human being. The uniqueness of someone is what really matters, and media is barely advertising what is important, because their strategy is mostly to sell not to progress in the human mind evolution. Girls, boys, men and women, mostly rely their self-

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esteem on their outside. The blame on this tendency to persuade an unhealthy look cannot be blamed specifically to anyone or anything because sadly it is an ongoing circle based on people wants, not needs.( Jordan,2013).

Conclusion
This era is known as the Technologic Era, and its been said constantly that the human mind is also evolving with technology. Is it really evolved the fact that health has been forgotten by the media? Of course there are advertisements promoting heath, but are they really transmitting their ideas in a correct way? An evolved mind is not the one who sacrifices health over an irrational concept of beauty, an evolved mind knows that the models on magazines are mostly unhealthy, photos hoped and their life depends on looks, an evolved mind steps out of this circle and gives him or herself value for what his personality. Life is delicious; however there must be balance to enjoy its flavors.

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Reference Bransen, J. (1998). True to ourselves. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 6(1), 67-85. doi:10.1080/096725598342190 Children, teens, and entertainment media. (2013). Education Digest, 78(8), 21-30. Chubb, N. H., & Fertman, C. I. (1997). Adolescent self-esteem and locus of control: A longitudinal study of gender and age differences. Adolescence, 32(125), 113. Fanchang,K., Yan, Z., Zhiqi., Cuying, F., Yuan, T.,& Zongkui, Z (2013). Body dissatisfaction and restrained eating mediating effects of self-esteem. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 41(7), 1165-1170. doi:10.2224/sbp.2013.41.7.1165 Jacobson, L. (2004). Consultation with an unhappy teenager. Pulse, 64(14), 76-77. Jordan, C. H., Logel, C., Spencer, S. J., Zanna, M. P., Wood, J. V., & Holmes, J. G. (2013). Responsive low self-esteem: Low explicit self-esteem, implicit self-esteem, and reactions to performance outcomes. Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 32(7), 703-732. doi:10.1521/jscp.2013.32.7.703 Rosenzweig, J. (1999). Can tv improve us?. American Prospect, (45), 58. Waddell, G. R. (2006). Labor-market consequences of poor attitude and low self-esteem in youth. Economic Inquiry, 44(1), 69-97. doi:10.1093/ei/cbj005