Is social media putting pressure on the youth to alter their appearance?

Social media is definitely having an adverse effect on how the youth perceive themselves. With sites such as Facebook or Instagram, engagement will be a regular aspect of their daily lives. Young people are connecting constantly and with every Facebook post the user will be acutely aware that the image they present to the outside world will be scrutinized all the time, and not necessarily solely within their own friendship group.

Every hand-held device or laptop now comes with an in-built camera that is deliberately focussed on the current generation's obsession with self-promotion - the cult of the selfie. This can be seen where photographic subjects are no longer photographed in isolation. The photographer often has to be an instrinsic part of the image. With this change in emphasis comes the natural desire to be seen as photogenic.

Photographs can now be altered to such an extent that youths are being encouraged to airbrush themselves to conform to stereotypes perpetuated in other media, such as magazines where the photographs of catwalk models are unnaturally slim. Young people are particularly prone to the insidiuous side of social media - the trolls and online bullies who home in on the slightest hint of nonconformity and ridicule their targets for daring to embrace ... whatever is regarded with suspicion, from clothes to hairstyles to political opinions to sexuality to body shapes (the list is endless.)

Unfortunately there has always been a tendency to judge a book by its cover and in the internet age that superficiality has put undue pressure on youngsters to alter their appearance appropriately.