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Instagram is finally taking a stand against diet culture promoted by influencers and celebrities on their platform with new policies to remove and restrict these types of posts.
Itโs no secret that social media can have a seriously negative impact on the way that we see ourselves, but when did it become impossible to tell whatโs real and whatโs not?
2019 is the year of inclusivity but we seem to have backtracked slightly with how fake the internet can sometimes make us feel we need to be.
Young people are getting lip fillers and even plastic surgery, facetuning is now an essential stage in the process of uploading a photo, and apparently telling people they should starve themselves is okay.
If weโre already well aware of the effect that comparing ourselves to the unachievable standards of those we follow has on our self-image, then how on earth did it start being considered acceptable for companies to promote dieting on these same platforms?
An extremely toxic culture has somehow developed in the midst of so much body positivity and Iโm struggling to understand how somethingโs only just being done about it now.
Firstly, I think we need to establish that no matter how polished the celebrities and influencers we admire may seem on the screen, itโs quite rarely what they look like irl.
@S0cialMediaVSRealityย is an Instagram account dedicated to calling out those whose faces and bodies we compare ourselves to the most. Scrolling through countless posts of photoshopped and surgically altered women/men is never going to make us feel good enough and itโs exactly this issue that creator Diane is addressing with her account.
โThe main goal is just to show that these people are not gods, they have acne they have wrinkles, cellulite โ they’re not perfect. No one is perfect,โ she told Paper Magazine.
This is definitely a step in the right direction and Iโm relieved to see Instagram taking action as well. Diet culture is perhaps the worst form of pressure we face in order to attain โperfection,โ especially when itโs constantly present on platforms we use every day.
Having recently spent a painful amount of money on Savage X Fenty underwear because an ad popped up on my stories, I canโt say that Iโm not guilty of succumbing to clickbait myself.
However, a huge proportion of social media users are susceptible young people who might also be tempted to splash out on weight loss shakes and teas because Kylie Jenner posted a photo of herself holding them.
