The Social Dilemma is a documentary which came out in 2020 and it is all about exposing the truth about social media and why it isn’t good for mental health. The documentary features people who previously worked at companies like Google and Facebook. I thought it was really interesting to see people who were involved with these big companies coming out and exposing the truth of why they think social media is bad.

The documentary has different characters involved with the dilemma. One of them is Isla, a young girl who gets addicted to her phone, and is influenced about what people say online. The issue gets so bad that she decides to take measures that hurt herself. The other character is Ben. Ben is Isla’s brother who also got addicted to his phone but is driven to something else. He looks at his friends status online specifically this one girl who he likes. He tries to change himself to be more like the guys she posts online. I think the overall message that the documentary is trying to say is that social media can be good, but when you use it too much it begins to take over your life, in all ways. The documentary is trying to get a message out because this is reality.

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My group and I interviewed Erin Eichenstein on her work at marketing for instagram and Facebook. She talked to us about how social media can we damaging to girls and everyone in general and how herself and everyone working for Instagram and Facebook are trying to move the platforms in a more positive direction. One of the things that stood out to me is when she was talking about how many tests each ad goes through to be put on the platforms so that no one is being targeted by a negative ad.

Erin said due to covid teens and kids have been on social media and on their phone way more due to covid. This gives more room for kids to be shown a negative ad which can affect a large majority of teens mental health. If social media apps don’t take a stand to better their environment then everyone is going to continue to get affected by the toxicity of social media.

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We interveiwed Erin Eichenstein on her work for instagram and facebook marketing. She talked to us about how the advertising on social media can be detrimental towards young women. Advertising can change the way people see women in the media. This is because of an un-real or un-healthy image being shown from ads. This can overall affect the way women are portrayed and tear down how people see themselves. Over the past ten years Erin expressed that there has been a dramatic change in how woman are shown in the media, but there are still unhealthy ads showing before and after pictures being released. Erin talked to us about how there are certain guidlines on these platforms that don’t allow advertisers to show certain things. These things include some fake or photoshopped images that could negativly harm womens veiws on themselves because of the un-realistic standard.

Something that really stuck out to me is that due to covid teens and kids have been more active on social media platforms. This means that they are more likely to be affected and impacted from certain advertisments being shown. This has changed teens mental health. This mainly resonated with me because this is our generation and we are the teens being affected at such a young age. Towards the end of the interveiw we talked about a goal being set to help fix these negative body image standards. We need to keep expressing our thoughts because we are being affected and we can help make a difference.

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Today my group and I had an interview with Erin Eichenstein. Ering Eichenstein works in marketing for facebook and instagram. She talked to us about how advertising on social media has changed through the last 10 years and how there is more diversity, but their still working on it. She also told us how their has to be certain requirements before posting an ad and how it has to fit the guidelines. One of the things she said is that ads try not so say “you” when marketing things. Towards the end of the interview we talked about goals being set to help fix negative body image standards. The main thing Erin said to do was continue this project because it really helps spread the word by calling out big social media platforms.

One thing that really stuck with me was when she said due to covid teens and kids have had less time to see their friends, therefore they go to social media as a way to stay active. This has overall changed teens mental heath as they spend more and more time on it each day. This really resonated with me because I can see it happening in our generation, and if we don’t try to put a more positive mindset on the things we see on social media, it could affect generations in the future.

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My Social Justice group and I went to the Paley Center to learn about body Image and how that concept has been shown on TV over the years. My group and I sat in a theater and watched a compilation of videos. Some videos were uplifting for girls and showed how we are not weak and don’t need a male figure to be the strong and dominant person on TV. And then the other videos included teenage girls acting explicit in music videos and in TV shows. They were being shown as “sexy” and “hot” when they were very young.

We had a long conversation about this compilation of videos and we talked about how girls are portrayed in the media. It’s really great to see how some shows on TV give girls a powerful role instead of them being just a pretty face. We also watched a video that shows different children being asked to “run like a girl”. The older kids and mostly the boys showed themselves running slow and in a weak way and when the question was asked to younger girls they ran fast and showed the viewers how girls run. It was inspiring to see these young girls not listen to the Stereotype that is put on all girls.

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Body image and Social media, Sexual Harassment, and Abortion laws groups all went to the Paley Center for media to take one of the classes there. We were in a theater room where we talked about the media and women. We talked about how women in media are sexualized and objectified through various platforms. We also talked about how comments on peoples bodies can affect womens view on their bodies.

Something in this fieldwork that stood out to me was the way the media can even affect kids. They showed how older kids cared how they looked while running and younger kids who did not use social media ran as fast as they could. this shows how as kids grow up and start to use the media more, it changes how they want to look. Another part of the fieldwork that I learned about was how women are portrayed in the media. Two of the women represented are Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears. Their were many negative stereotypes that followed these women just because of hwo they were shown in the media.

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Last week my group and a few other groups and I went to the Paley Center to hear about women in the media. We watched clips from old shows, new shows, music videos, and commercials to see how media presents and make women look. We talked about comparisons between men and women in the media, and how the media makes women seem weaker, and more delicate, and how that can affect young girls. We also talked about the effect of comments at home that can make girls more insecure and not wanting to look a certain way.

Something that really resonated with me was this one commercial where kids where the ones being interviewed. It showed the interviewer asking kids, “How does a girl run?” The kids who were older ran weakly and the younger kids ran fast and didn’t care about how they look. This just shows how as kids grow up their perception of identity changes which is a big problem in the world of media today.

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Body image and Social media, Sexual Harassment, and Abortion laws groups all went to the Paley Center for media to take one of the classes there. We were in a theater room where we talked about the media and women. We talked about how women in media are sexualized and objectified.

She showed us videos of positive and negative images in the media for women. Such as some music videos with Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears. We watched an ad where first teens are asked to “run like a girl” and “throw like a girl.” The teens would try and run with there legs kicking on the side and skiping. Then they asked kids to do it and they ran fast, threw hard, and showed how there shouldn’t be a negitive stereotype on girls. Overall it was a really great and inspiring experience.

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We interviewed Lauren Smolar on her experience working for the National Eating Disorder. She talked to us about how big of an impact the media can have on peoples perception of themselves. She also told us about how social media can help bring people with eating disorders together to share their experience, which are some things the organization is working to do at the end of this month for National Eating Disorders Awarness Week. She talked about how many people struggle with eating disorders, but social media isn’t the only infulence of it.

I really enjoyed this interview because we have the perspective of a professional and we get to learn about what NEDA is working to do next. I also enjoyed this because it showed that social media doesn’t always has to be negitive, and just has to be fixed. My group and I will take this information and incorperate it into further reashearch.

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We interviewed Lauren Smolar on her experience being apart of the Nation Eating Disorder Association. She answered our questions about how to deal with the ups and downs of social media and a way to use social media in a healthy way. She explained that social media is a great place for people with similar views to interact with each other but it also can be used negatively when used to make people feel bad about them selves and can trigger and eating disorder or insecurities.

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Today my group and I had an interview with Lauren Smolar. Lauren Smolar is the Senior Director of Programs at the National Eating Disorders Association. She is important to our topic because she knows a lot about eating disorders, and in our case how they are effected by social media. I was actually suprised that giving what she does she said she believes social media is a great way to stay connected, learn more, and a good thing to have. However she thinks social media has a downside that needs to be fixed.

NEDA preparing for national eating disorders awareness week at the end of this month and is sharing peoples stories on their experience with eating disorders. They hope to do more in person events once it’s safe, but is happy with the way people are still coming to them for help during this time. I really enjoyed this interview because it gave us the perspective of a professional and we got to learn about what this organization is working to do next.

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We met with Lauren Smolar who works at the national eating disorder association. She told us about how eating disorders can run through families. She said that social media could be an effect of eating disorders. we choose her for our interview because eating disorders are a cause led by social media and it relates to body image. Her company has a hot line where you can call if you are struggling.

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This week I will present with my social justice group, about our topic Social Media and Body Image. We had a few articals about this critical issue and I am excited to show my classmates all that we learned so far. This issue is really important to me, because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions.

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This week my group didn’t present yet. We are presenting on the impact social media has on body image. We learned a lot of information throughout the process of making our slides. We worked to learn more about this topic and how it even affects teens. Because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions. This was such an imporant issue for us to learn about and now we feel like we can teach others about body image. We are excited to keep learning about this and help others understand the impact social media has on body image.

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This week my group will present an overview on our SJ topic. I am not nervous at all because I have put a lot of effort into my presentation. Our group works great together and i’ve learned a lot. Here is something I shared about my topic after researching about my topic, “Because so many of us are on social media, we are all greatly affected by the things we scroll past every day. People trying to promote and live up to certain body types as well as shaming those who don’t have that body type is having an extremely negative impact on young girls and women. Since our group members all experience this first hand, we are devoted to learning more about it and coming up with potential solutions.”

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