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Valeria Campos

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

6 December 2018

Living in a Bubble

Technology has grown and improved substantially over the years. With the growth of

technology comes the growth of social media. First it was Myspace, then it was Facebook, and

now it is Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Social media is a great place to rekindle old

friendships and keep in touch with current ones. Yet it is also a place of constant comparison to

others. Since the increase of social media usage, people have begun to compare themselves to

others. By people comparing themselves to others, comes the decrease of people’s self esteem.

Although social media is also a place to satisfy people’s daily need for a boost of self esteem, yet

it is also a place that is constantly damaging it. Social media overall, has impacted people’s lives

and has shaped who they are today. Technology has negatively shaped people’s identity online,

due to the growth of social media, which impacts the way people self present themselves online

because of the societal ideals and social comparisons.

Societal ideals has influenced people’s identity by constricting them to stay within the

box and follow the “rules.” People try to escape these “rules” by going to the virtual world, but

upon entering a virtual world these “rules” still seem to apply. As Michelle Jana Chan, a travel

writer for the ​Financial times, Condé Nast Traveler, ​and the ​Daily Telegraph,​ states in “Identity

in a Virtual World,” that even though people do not have rules in the virtual world, the online

characters still reflect human behaviors. Chan agrees that people are constricted when she writes,
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“if [people] got up an logged off from the game, if [people] didn't wave or bow or say goodbye,

that would be rude” (Chan 177). In a virtual world, people are placed in a world with no etiquette

or rules to follow, yet due to the societal ideals they still follow them. Society has constrained

people to live inside a bubble amongst many others who are following the same ideals. However

many people leave the real world or the bubble to get away from these social constraints that

have influenced them, yet they trap themselves even more in the virtual world they go into. Even

in the places they assumed they would have can freer self-definition, people's identities are still

being constraint. People are trapped into a bubble of ideals that they force themselves to follow,

because if they do not follow them then other people will consider them rude. Because of

influence of societal ideals and the bubble they live in, people start to compare themselves to

others.

Due to people constantly checking social networks such as Instagram, social comparison

has affected young women self esteem and increased body dissatisfaction. According to Richard

M. Perloff in “Social Media Effects on Young Women's Body Image Concerns,” he asserts that

because of social comparison “people are driven to assess themselves in various domains that

media thinness portrayals can exert deleterious influences, ones with potentially serious

psychological implications” (Perloff 367). In other words, Perloff believes that when people

compare themselves to society’s ideals they are psychologically damaging themselves. Since

social media allows people to share pictures, most people are sharing their aesthetically attractive

pictures, then their followers start to compare themselves to those pictures causing some to lose

some self esteem. Thoughts go through their mind, like “why can’t I be as skinny as her?” or

“why can’t be as pretty as her?” These thoughts are not thoughts that boost people’s self esteem,
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but they are quite deteriorating to one’s self esteem. Because of these comparisons people start to

lose their sense of identity and start to conform to society’s ideals. People will eventually follow

others in posting their aesthetically attractive pictures. They share their picture to have a sense of

belonging in society. People crave this sense of belonging because most people want to fit in and

no one likes being an outsider. Due to the need of sense of belonging, people are quite particular

of what photos they share and post.

Self presentation is influenced by the social ideals people are enclosed in. As emphasized

prior, people crave sense of belonging and to belong in society people begin to conform to

societal ideals. As Rachel Cohen and Alex Blaszczynski, a pair of journalists from ​Journal of

Eating Disorders​, stated in “Comparative Effects of Facebook and Conventional Media” that the

self presentation in social media has “consistently found that users strategically manipulate their

profiles in accordance with societal ideals of attractiveness” (Cohen and Blaszczynski). Cohen

and Blaszczynski point out that people share photos on social media according to what society

finds attractive. People start to lose their sense of individuality when they post what others like

and not what they like. They start to think based on what may receive more likes, more shares, or

more retweets. Social media has become this addiction that everyone needs to conform to the

societal ideals of getting as many likes. Similar to the illustration, it embellishes Facebook likes

as a cure or medicine for low self-esteem. It also portrays how likes feed people’s ego in society.

As emphasized from the illustration, likes have become a sort of medicine for people to feed off

of. These likes have become a boost of self esteem because according to society the more likes

you have, the more you belong. All of these likes starts to feed people’s ego, and because of

these likes that boost their self esteem, they stay in the bubble they have become constricted in.
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People conform to these societal ideals and because of this they stay in the same bubble as

everyone else, no longer having a sense of identity.

People trap themselves in what society makes them believe is ideal to have a sense of

belonging. When people feel belonging they feel safe, which is why they fed off of these likes, to

conform to the ideals and satisfy their needs. In “Social Media Effects on Young Women's Body

Image Concerns,” Richard M. Perloff asserts that people “use media to satisfy needs, seeking

particular gratifications to fulfill motives” (Perloff 368). Perloff is emphasizing that people are

feeding off social media to satisfy their needs of self belong. As expressed earlier, people want

more likes to feel the sense of belonging in society. The like boosts their self esteem and creates

a sense of belonging for people. Samantha Stronge expresses in “Facebook Is Linked to Body

Dissatisfaction,” that “the photos that people post on Facebook will be non-random; they are

selected with self-presentation motives, often with an emphasis on attractiveness” (Stronge 201).

This emphasizes that people are trapped in society’s ideals, and that people post pictures that are

the most aesthetically attractive to get the a lot of likes because people the attention and

belonging. People do not post photos randomly, but they are planned to satisfy society and their

ideals. Perloff and Stronge both agree that people want to fit into society to have a sense of

belonging and the only way to do so is if they conform to the ideals, therefore they sacrifice their

individuality in doing so.

Technology has shaped people to lose their sense of individuality. Since everyone is

conforming to society, people are all joining one big bubble. People’s identities have become

very similar to each others. But people need to pop the bubble of societal ideals and become

unique. Due to society’s ideals, there is very few people who share their individuality and do not
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let society’s ideals influence their identity. These people are contributing to society even with

their flaws society may not be accepted. There are people out there that do not let social media

influence who they are. They do not let society shape their identity, but they shape themselves.

Identity has been majorly influenced by social media which causes social comparison and social

ideals to ultimately change by the way people present themselves.

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Works Cited

Cohen, Rachel, and Alex Blaszczynski. “Comparative effects of Facebook and conventional

media on body image dissatisfaction.” ​Journal of Eating Disorders,​ vol. 3, no. 1, 2015.

Health Reference Center Academic​, doi: 10.1186/s40337-015-0061-3. Accessed 22 Sept.

2018.

Holcroft, John. “Uncommissioned Work.”​John Holcroft Illustrator,​ 2018,

www.johnholcroft.com/?project=uncommissioned-work​. Accessed 25 Sept. 2018.

Mims, Joan T., and Elizabeth M. Nollen. “Identity in a Virtual World.” ​Mirror on America:

Essays and Images from Popular Culture​, 5th ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2012, pp.

176–178.

Perloff, Richard M. “Social Media Effects on Young Women's Body Image Concerns:

Theoretical Perspectives and an Agenda for Research.” ​Sex Roles,​ vol. 71, no. 11-12,

2014, pp. 363–377. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1007/s11199-014-0384-6. Accessed 21

September 2018.

Stronge, Samantha, et al. “Facebook Is Linked to Body Dissatisfaction: Comparing Users and

Non-Users.” ​Sex Roles,​ vol. 73, no. 5-6, Sept. 2015, pp. 200–213. ​EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1007/s11199-015-0517-6. Accessed 21 September 2018.