The topic of Body Image being impacted by media has been one that has been around since my very first teaching placement over 23 years ago! In 2004, even before Youtube was an actual thing (2005), when Facebook just hit the scene (2004) and Instagram (2010) and Snapchat (2011) weren’t even an idea yet, Dove launched their Evolution campaign (not without its own controversy) combatting body image and the impact the media was having on our sense of self-worth and our ideas of body image.
With Smartphones in our pockets, it is easy to blame social media for the struggle with body image and indeed, our access to the filtered lives of others is definitely amplified in ways never seen or experienced before.
If you live in Canada, you may have heard that Instagram is officially piloting a no-like count. Read the details here and here.
A spokesperson for Facebook, the company that owns Instagram, said the test aims at encouraging users to focus on the photos and videos being shared, and not spend as much time thinking about how many likes these posts receive.
It is heartening to see some of the social media companies at least exploring the impact likes is having on our most vulnerable students when it comes to determining their self-worth. And while, I am excited to see the results of this experiment, there are many things we can do right now to de-emphasize the negative impact can have on how we determine our self-worth; regardless of our age or gender.
Ideas for Tackling Body Image
Talk about it!
Our final ONedSschat discussion on Body image was AMAZING! Although many students from our team were unavailable, our own Darcie Brohman and our guest panelists Ashley Newman and Aria from the Ottawa school board, along with Director of Education from Media Smarts, Matthew Johnson brought up many significant points about how we can take control of how we feel about ourselves.
Among other things, Darcie shared that we can create a “positivity pocket” in terms of who we follow online.They shared @i_weigh (Instagram) #iweigh (Twitter), a campaign created by Jameela Jamil (profanity) to combat negative body image, in addition to other people using social media to address the issue.
Check out the recording and take a look at the really great conversations happening on the Twitter chat by participating students. I’m sure they would love their voices to be heard.
These are the questions we addressed in the chat.
Q1. What is body image? (add “to you”?)
Q2. Why is it important to learn about body image?
Q3. How does social media portray the “ideal body image”? How does this affect how we view ourselves?
Q4. What is being done by various companies to promote a positive self-image?
Q5. What do love most about the way you look?
Q6. Who is your body image hero? Why?
Use images as a provocation for conversation
Whether you choose a Gallery walk or Four-Corners strategy, an image can create an excellent vehicle for conversation.
I often use this image originally shared by Media master, Julie Smith (source unknown) to begin the conversation about how social media may or may not impact our body image. Or you could ask kids to check their feed and share an example.
Determine Your Why
My why, is framed by digital leadership. Think about how using this lens might change what is posted.
Focus on positivity
Ramona Meharg shared this video on Twitter: Validation. It brightened my day and emphasizes how important it is to be seen and complimented. This is something we can do in person and online .
The simplistic approach is to blame social media. The best approach is to tackle subject head on by helping kids to understand how media works and helping them to create and share media that counter-balances the negative!
