Body Image expert Christine Morgan, CEO of the Butterfly Foundation, said she was concerned about the amount of time young people were spending on social media.
“There’s been some recent research released which shows that just 30 minutes of being involved, in particular Instagram or Facebook, significantly increases the objectification that a young person will have about their body,” she said.
“What does it look like and how does it compare to others — and 99 per cent of the time you fall short.”
She said social media simply reinforced traditional notions of beauty.
“There’s still an absolute obsession for women about the thin ideal, and for boys it’s about the lean and six pack kind of look,” she said.
“So it doesn’t seem to be shifting that.
“I think the more difficult thing is that it would be truly democratising if those people were projecting themselves as they are in reality.
“But what we know happens on social media, particularly Instagram, is that the photos that are released have all been photoshopped.”
But Ms Bhuller disagreed.
She said in general she believed social media helped level the playing field.
“There’s a lot of successful influencers that I see all the time that aren’t slim, that aren’t perfect, that don’t use filters,” she said.
“They’ve got a lot of followers, especially with mummy bloggers, we’ve got a lot of mummy bloggers and it’s because they’re real and they’re relatable.”
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-14/want-to-earn-thousands-of-dollars-posting-a-photo-on-instagram/8945670
Photo: Modelling coach Sara Bhuller is holding a workshop for young people looking for ‘instafame’. (ABC News: Antoinette Lattouf)
