CSUN On Point

A reliance on social media may have a prolonged effect on young people, in part by creating false role models, and in part by encouraging ‘FOMO’, or ‘Fear of Missing Out’. But many young children start using social media at a young age.

“One of the things I see parents doing is using screen time to keep their kids entertained while they’re doing something else,” said Dr. Joannie Busillo-Aguayo, CSUN associate professor of Educational Psychology and Counseling. “My oldest granddaughter is 16 years old and social media is her life. If she’s not able to do what her friends are doing, it affects her life.”

The Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement published a report ranking Instagram as the worst social media platform, in term of its impact on the mental health of young people. YouTube was ranked as the most positive social media platform. Snapchat was also ranked as among the most negative.

According to the Pew Research Center, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular platforms among teens. Forty-five percent of teens said they’re online almost constantly.

The RSPH report recommends three possible solutions: the introduction of a pop-up heavy usage warning on social media, platforms identifying users with possible mental health problems based on their posts, and platforms alerting users when photos of people have been digitally manipulated.

Social media remains popular among young people, who say they want to do everything their peers are doing. A new iPhone update tells users how long they’ve been on their phones, and on social media specifically.

“The other day I went on my Instagram, and I look [at the update], and it says [I’ve] been on this for four hours,”  photographer Nathan Zielke said. “It was six o’clock in the morning.”

Zielke and recording artist JR Jones said they use social media to connect with people.

“I think that [social media] is literally my number one tool,” Jones said. “It has helped me build a really strong fan base, and it’s real people you can connect with, that don’t have to be in your local area. I’m reaching out to Canada, to Spain, to Portugal… it gives me a platform to share my music, and allow my music to go further than it would if I was just a local artist with no social media at all.”

Zielke has more than 29,000 followers on Instagram, and Jones has almost 34,000 followers. But Jones and Zielke, who have worked together, said they believe social media should be more about showing everyone who you really are, rather than showing people who you are trying to be. They said they’re aware of the potential for a negative impact.

“I feel like it gives me [the platform] to be a real model, instead of a role model,” Jones said. “I curse; I show the negatives; I show the down moments; I show me at my weakest moments… I think social media’s problem is it gives people an illusion that everything is great. You see the vacation… [and] you just see the picture of the sunset and the beach and stuff.”

“That’s the biggest fight with social media,” Zielke said. “I call it ‘fake flexing’. There are a lot of people out there who fake flex, and find ways to portray themselves as always being happy, always doing something…. they’ll be at home and [they’ll] post a vacation picture to make it look like they are somewhere else.”

Wrestler Sammy Guevara has about 15,000 Instagram followers. He said he does make choices about what to post.

“No one really wants to see the bad stuff,” Guevara said. “I get messages from people who get inspired from my videos. These videos aren’t solely about me. It’s a bigger picture thing… I wouldn’t call it fake energy or whatever, but some stuff is not meant for the camera and some stuff is.”

“I think it’s more important for [posts] to send a real message, and not a fake message,” Jones said. “I think it’s bad for kids to have this cookie cutter image of how life should be. You see this guy and he says all the right things, does all the right moves, with the most beautiful women, always happy… the minute the kid isn’t living [up to the fantasy], [he’ll think] ‘I’m a failure because I’m not like him’.”

Moderator: Tammera Magaña

Producers: Manuel Fuentes and Natalia Vivino

Anchor: Natalie Vivino

Social Media Editor: Mario Saucedo

Reporters: Ahmad Akkaoui, Sandy Chavez, Manuel Fuentes, Tammera Magaña, Mario Saucedo and Natalia Vivino

Moderator: Brandon Benitez

Executive Producer: Tory Isaac

Associate Producer: Andrea Tanchez

Anchor: Andrea Tanchez

Social Media Editor: Samantha Rodriguez

Reporters: Brandon Benitez, Tory Isaac, Nick Logan, Samantha Rodriguez, Andrea Tanchez and Leonard Tesher

Recently, social media have started setting a high beauty standard for both men and women.

Billions of dollars are spent annually on beauty products in this country, and a  study done by a British makeup company found that 68 percent of employers say they would not want to hire women who don’t wear make up.

“One’s sense of self-esteem is hit hard when one feels as though he or she doesn’t measure up to the classic image of the media,” psychologist Yvonne Thomas said.

“The media’s job is to tell a story, ” said Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Shira Brown, Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center. “The story being told portrays a false sense of image for the average person, especially young boys and girls, whether it’s on television, magazines or the radio…Unfortunately the story being told is [of] a particular body or hair type, which puts pressure on society’s body image.”

The Internet has become the go-to way for finding information. Many people go online to do research about health and beauty, and find the same unrealistic standards of beauty there that they would in traditional media. Experts said those standards have an impact on individuals.

“I got a lot of doors shut on me, and that really actually lowered my self-esteem and I did get anorexia,” said social media model Magi Tcherno. She said she didn’t feel beautiful until she under went a breast augmentation. Tcherno jumpstarted her own modeling career by representing herself online after she was rejected by modeling agencies who told her she wasn’t good enough. It was at that point, she said, that she became more determined and developed the self-confidence to build her own modeling career.

Dove, a personal care products manufacturer owned by Unilever, has built a marketing strategy around increased self-esteem for men and women, partly by showing many different body types and standards in their advertising.

“I believe that good things come when you show diversity in body type; good things come when you show diversity in skin color and height,” Brown said.

Moderator: Delmy Moran

Anchor: Brittni Perez

Producer: Celene Zavala

Social Media Editors:  Jordan Williams

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams and Celene Zavala

Media bombard us with ideal images of muscular men and thin women on a daily basis.

In some cases, some women and men may develop anxiety about their ability to fit this ideal image, and some may develop eating disorders.

In a survey conducted by People Magazine, 80 percent of women said actresses in movies and television made them feel insecure about their body.

Anne Jensen Smith, president of Joint Advocates on Disordered Eating (JADE), a peer education program at CSUN dedicated to awareness and the prevention of eating disorders, said the media have a huge role in defining an ideal image to Americans.

“The media is hitting us at all angles,” Smith said. “It is outwardly saying, ‘here are all these bodies that we think Americans should be.’”

Vanessa Birdsong, program therapist at The Bella Vita, an eating disorder clinic in the San Fernando Valley, said that media are not the sole cause of eating disorders.

“The root of an eating disorder has nothing to with food and really nothing to do with body image,” Birdsong said. “It has everything to do with anxiety, low self esteem, which is connected to low self worth, and even traumas.”

Birdsong said anxiety can lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, both of which involve severe restrictions of food, which can cause the brain to starve, making it hard to focus and function, sometimes leading to various heart problems, and even to death.

The National Eating Disorders Association reports that some half a million American teen-agers struggle with eatings disorders or disordered eating, and that between 3.9 and 5.2 percent of people with eating disorders will die from them.

It’s not just a problem for women.

A 12-year study conducted by Journal of American Medical Association – Pediatrics found that nearly 18 percent of adolescent boys said they worried about their weight and physiques.

Avery Rodriguez, a student involved in the Get Real! Project at CSUN, said the ideal image for a man is “[a] big chest, big shoulders and a toned body.”

Some studies show that social media sites can also have an effect on how people view their bodies.

A recent study by Florida State University found that women who spend more time on Facebook also have higher levels of eating disorders.

Birdsong said she had seen children as young as three years old in treatment for eating disorders.

“If mom or dad are pinching their own stomachs or talking about dieting all the time, kids are quick to pick up on everything,” Smith said, “and this is where they get their ideas.”

Education and awareness about body image and eating disorders are key.

“We try to alert students here at CSUN to media, and how it is effecting everybody,” Rodriguez said. “…Communication is key.”

“So often people don’t get heard,” Birdsong said, “because we have our defenses up and we’re not really listening to each other. If people stop and listen, and just are there with somebody, that can be so healing.”

“Educate yourself, ” Smith agreed, “so when you do talk to [people] openly, and you are listening to them, you know a little about it.”

Moderator: Katie Fauskee

Producer: Lauren Llanos

Anchor: Alex Vejar

Reporters: Zulay Saldana, Alex Vejar, Christopher Perez

Social Media Editor: Carly Bagingito

Beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country, but there’s not much that’s beautiful about it.

With the mass media setting the standard for what is considered ‘beautiful’, more and more people end up believing they are in need of improvement.

Magazine covers and billboards feature sexy celebrities, musicians wear skimpy outfits, and television shows star thin and beautiful actors. Some experts believe these images have an impact on the most vulnerable audience, who is becoming younger and younger each year.

“Media know that our looks are our ultimate vulnerability, and they take advantage of that,” said Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a psychology professor at CSULA. “And they start with younger audiences every year.”

Fifth-graders told researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute they were dissatisfied with their bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears. Forty percent of the 10-year-olds said they have tried to lose weight.

“It starts young,” Durvasula said. “ And then it’s that sense of ‘I don’t measure up’ or ‘I’m not good enough’…It comes from a lot of different places, but the bottom line is that it can really go to the dark place of people doing some really dangerous things with food and eating behaviors.”

It’s not just the mainstream media perpetuating the idea of an ideal body type. Roughly half of the women in the U.S wear a size 14 or higher, but many retailers carry only sizes 14 and lower. Psychologists say this modern-day shunning of a particular group can lead to disordered eating.

“Whether that’s from a message they were told by their family or their culture, or whether that’s from media images, it’s an issue of socialization,” said Dr. Veronica Stotts, coordinator for the Joint Advocates on Disordered Eating at CSUN. “It’s a misrepresentation of how we’re supposed to measure our worth; that it’s not about our brains, it’s about how we look, and we’re taught that from an extremely young age.”

Ninety percent of those diagnosed with an eating disorder are between the ages of 12 and 25, according to The Center for Mental Health Services.

“Women have learned to use food for everything but what it’s designed for,” Durvasula said. “Most women a long time ago stopped listening to themselves. Instead what they listened to is other people, (about) how they should look, how they should eat, that they should live to please.”

Durvasula is a former over-eater, and the author of “You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life”.  She said the key to controlling disordered eating is learning to accept one’s body as it is.

“Body image is how a person sees oneself,” Durvasula said. “The core of an eating disorder is when a slim woman sees that she needs to lose weight when she doesn’t. It starts inside your mind, not the body.”

Dove’s Real Beauty campaign released a video in April portraying a sketch artist working on a drawing of a woman as she described herself, and then working on a sketch of that woman as described by someone else. The first sketch, based on the woman’s own description, shows someone older and plainer than the sketch based on another woman’s description. The campaign’s message was simple: women see themselves as less attractive than others do. Millions viewed the video on Youtube within days of its release.

Durvasala said young women and men must learn to celebrate their bodies and learn to love themselves the way they are. “I want you to enjoy that body you find yourself in,” she said. “It can be yoga, it can be hiking — something to show you that this thing is a beautifully engineered machine.  Grow to love it, take care of it, and nourish it with healthy things.”

“Focus on health,” Stott said. “Get enough sleep. Move your body. Eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full. Be in tune with what your body needs at any given moment, and just treat yourself well spiritually and emotionally, and your body will find exactly where it’s supposed to be.”

Moderator: Nattashia Arrango

Anchor: Ruben Saenz

Reporters: Tasnim Hanafy and Iuliia Vazhenina

Producers: Erika Yasuo and Malcolm Hoyle