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Toxic Trends: Behind-the-Screen of Social Media

Toxic Trends: Behind-the-Screen of Social Media

Social media has changed how we engage and communicate with those around us. Staying updated on people’s lives through social media, creating catch-up events through Facebook, and now, entertaining ourselves creating TikTok dances. There are so many great things that social media has contributed to our lives that allow us to stay connected with people and the world. However, during this coronavirus period, one large consequence social media brings is the toxic trends that we are being exposed to.

All over social media for the last few months have been images, photos and posts about people using this time to achieve goals, specifically concerning fitness. I’m sure none of us are strangers to the ‘Chloe Ting 2 Week Ab Shred’ or the #whatieatinaday trends that have been circulating social media since the beginning of the coronavirus lockdowns.

While it is a positive thing that people are focusing upon getting healthy and fit, it is the promotion and glorification of unhealthy ways to do it or projections and reinforcements of unrealistic beauty standards that make these trends so toxic. A study found that between 80-90% of teenagers cannot tell the difference between real and fake news, and therefore exposure to these platforms that boost invalid and unreliable information is incredibly dangerous.

These trends are not only warping our body image perceptions, but they’re encouraging people to become more fixated on the way they look, the amount of exercise they’re doing and what food (and how much) they’re eating. A photo or video can be distorted in so many different ways, and that becomes so threatening when it starts to become the perceived ‘normalised’ standard of beauty.

TikTok is the latest social media platform that is an example of these toxic trends. What once was an entertaining app filled with dance videos is now an exposed platform for videos of diet fads promoting ‘how to lose weight quickly’ or videos rating friends based upon their physical appearance. Again, it is the promotion of unhealthy ways to lose weight or the increased pressure to look a certain way to be considered ‘beautiful’.

As stated previously, not all social media is bad. The way we choose to harness the platform is a powerful tool. Whether we ourselves choose to promote more realistic beauty standards or even just following body positivity influencers, social media can connect us to platforms that help us grow in confidence, positivity, celebrate diverse beauty and bring us more realistic perceptions. Here are some of our favourite influencers:

Brittani Lancaster – TikTok
Ambar Driscoll – TikTok
Lauren Talulah – TikTok (@curvy_roamer)
Abbie Chatfield – Instagram
Stephanie Yeboah – Instagram
Joann van den Herik – Instagram (@joannvdherik)
Jessica Megan – Instagram (@jess_megan_)
Danae Mercer – Instagram

These are only a few of some powerful influencers working to break false senses of reality, spread body confidence and turn insecurities into positivity. The corrupt and toxic nature of Netflix’s ‘The Social Dilemma’ has only reinstated the need to be more careful online and how social media is very quickly becoming a damaging tool to our everyday lives.

Next time you see a body image trend, take a second to think about what’s really going on behind-the-screen.