Notes

Many teens are influenced by the media to look a
certain way, without knowing that photoshop is taking over. Julie Mehta, in
her article, "Pretty Unreal" (January 2005), believes that the media
exposes perfect images of perfect celebrities to people, which are enough
to make anyone feel insecure or envious. Although the media is not solely
responsible for this cause, our society has become obsessed with
appearance, often teaching young audiences to place a significance to what
they look like. Shari Graydon, author of "In Your Face: The Culture of
Beauty and You" states that "the media sets up impossible comparisons.
Whether you're watching sitcoms or music videos or looking through
magazines, the images you're seeing are airbrushed and enhanced" (1).
Nowadays, people do not realize that most of the images they see are in
fact, not real. Last year in the United States, more than 300,000 teens age
18 or younger had some sort of cosmetic work done. Because many did not
feel confident with themselves, they wanted to do something in order to
feel pretty like the people that they see. The most common procedures among
teens were rhinoplasty (nose job), otoplasty (ear pinning), and skin
enhancements such as chemical peels and microdermabrasion, usually to
minimize acne scars. In extreme cases where people do not feel confident
with themselves, girls develop eating disorders and boys turn to steroids
in an effort to achieve an ideal that is not real. Evidently, since
numerous people are looking up to these photoshopped pictures, they try to
be as similar to them as possible. 16-year-old Erika, of Scottsdale, Ariz.,
told Current Health Magazine that "media has a big impact. It sets
the standard--says thin is in. If the media wasn't saying skinny is
appropriate, people wouldn't feel like they need to be so thin." (2). Since
our society is known for staying with the crowd and not having your own
opinion, everyone feels that they need to be skinny because of the media.
According to Graydon, wanting to be thinner is a huge issue for many girls,
while boys feel increasing pressure to be more buff. Boys look at singers
such as Usher and realize they'll never have those abs--or the screaming
female fans that go with them. In extreme cases, girls develop eating
disorders and boys turn to steroids in an effort to achieve an ideal that
isn't real" (2). Seeing all those artificially perfected images can hurt
your body image-the way you see and feel about your body and the way you
think others see you. Without a doubt, both Julia Mehta and Shari Graydon
are absolutely correct that photoshop needs to stop because as they might
not be aware, recent studies have shown that the more time kids spend with
image-based media, the worse they feel about themselves. Because this is
from experience and is what I see in this day and age, I completely feel
that it is necessary to put photoshop to an end.