The media and their perfect standards for beauty and knowledge can be compared to a sinking black hole: no light comes from it. Or like one of Shakespeare’s many tragedies, the main characters are happy, but only for a moment, before bad things take place. Body image, or a person’s perception of their appearance, is one of the most idolized things in the world, and many media platforms condone that behavior. Different parts of the world have their own beauty standards, and many gatekeep these standards very seriously. 

The unrealistic beauty standards are harmful to our younger generation, and the question many people ponder is: why? Why do people online photoshop every picture on their feed? It doesn’t help that the world we live in is full of fitness and nutrition enthusiasts. The last thing we need is for our future generations to get on Instagram and see a photoshopped body and think their own isn’t perfect. Overall, the media is such an evil place for people who choose not to use it wisely. Since our world is so demanding when it comes to media posts and entertainment, this type of manipulation can corrupt the media’s name. 

And just like Shakespeare’s tragedies, things can take a bad turn in a short amount of time. The responsibility of taking on a social media platform as an influencer is incredibly difficult to uphold. Many people are constantly slandering your name, and not to mention, influencers have immense pressure to keep their fans happy and satisfied with frequent content. Unfortunately, this struggle overwhelms many influencers, and many choose to quit. This leaves the only influencers with little to no creativity in their thoughts, and many of their thoughts are based on their personal goals.

People may not be supportive of their body type, but our physical appearance is based on genetics and is something we cannot control. The media should do a better job of filtering these harmful posts and work to educate rising influencers on how they can make the media a safe space for people who struggle with body image.