Boosting Self Esteem!
Explore the issues around self esteem and what you can do to boost it and prevent low self esteem for yourself and the people around you. Spread positivity and love and accept the differences and flaws individuals may have. Mirror messages is a popular campaign to prevent self harm and stems around self acceptance and esteem. I expanded onto this campaign by creating my own interpretation to benefit my society. Take a look at my instagram page and infographic to learn a bit more about this amazing mission.
Waking up everyday unhappy and unsure of yourself because of societal expectations is what 85% of Americans feel. Low self esteem have been an ongoing issue that many individuals choose to ignore. Self esteem is the way someone feels about themselves whether it be physically or mentally. It leads to confidence and the power this abstract idea has effects the daily lives of people. According to good choice good life, “People with low self-esteem who feel poorly about themselves and judge themselves to be inferior to others are at risk, then, of not fulfilling their true potential in life (Amée LaTour, 2014).” The causes of low self esteem can block someone’s passions, efforts, and even wanting to end their own lives. There's many solutions that can raise self esteem however, society needs to understand the causes before it can be prevented.
A huge factor of low self esteem is body image. As humans there's a constant fear of the way our appearance is interpreted to others. Every morning, people fix themselves up before heading out to the world to remain somewhat presentable to yourself and society. Base on an analysis conducted by Yale University’s Sherwin B. Nuland and Jack Kanouzi, “Adolescents and young adults are subject to pressure from their environment, including parents, colleagues, and especially mass media, in order to meet appearance standards in relation to body image. This pressure favors dissatisfaction with self body image and thus can promote risky health activities, such as development of disordered eating, depression, and anxiety, all of which can continue to develop throughout adulthood.” These risky health activities started out as low self esteem issues that became a frightening thought of other serious conditions. Leading onto propaganda in the world, society is exposed to many harmful propaganda that reflects body image and low self esteem. Advertisements is a border of propaganda that shoves body image to our lives the minute the internet is in use. It is exposed through online shopping with models that have unrealistic bodies that portray themselves as realistic. Unfortunately that’s the popular trends that advertisers use to appeal to the audience. It’s rare that society sees an ad with a heavier model or a non stereotypical attractive individual promoting a product. Advertisements happens to be involved in the five filters which keeps the viewers engaged. Personally, it has became such a powerful filter because it is shoved into the faces of society and is somewhat inescapable. Low self esteem is created by social media and the persona it carries of what is attractive and beautiful. It’s using propaganda unethical in a sense that negativity is surrounding by these unrealistic ideas. Edward Bernays believed that propaganda can be used ethically if it is beneficial and efficient. A piece of advice he stated is the relationship between businesses and the public can become healthy if the relationship can vary from giving and taking. "The new technique of public relations counsel is serving a very useful purpose in business by acting as a complement to legitimate advertisers and advertising in helping to break down unfair competitive exaggerated and over emphatic advertising by reaching the public with the truth through other channels than advertising." If advertisers become more realistic with physical appearance, low self esteem can improve for the better. An example of beneficial propaganda that increases higher self esteem and take a shot at body image are the Dove campaigns. These advertisements aim towards body positivity showcasing women of all body types. Thier slogan, “loving the skin you’re in” is a perfect motto to eliminate low self esteem. These self esteem issues became a perfect opportunity to set off my mini campaign to increase awareness and make individual love themselves and appreciate the people in their corner.I have discussed dove and their campaigns in a previous post and the benefits their ad carries.
Low self esteem doesn’t affect just women it effects men constantly as well. DoSomething.org explained, “By age 13, about 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies. By 17, it's 78%. And it’s not just girls either new research shows that close to 1 in 4 boys experience body dysmorphia.” Dosomething.org created a campaign called mirror messages. Through this mission their was a variety of sticky notes and written on them were compliments as they were stick onto a bathroom mirror. I decided to add onto this concept and alter it to boost self esteem. Just like the original campaign I wanted to involve sticky notes or a piece of paper. I asked a number of individuals to write down one thing they love most about themselves and post a pic of them holding that note. After write one thing they love about someone else and give that note to them and snap a picture. Many colleagues and friends actually participated in this campaign but didn’t feel comfortable having me post a picture through instagram. However, I managed to have a few of them to grant me permission to do so. Despite the actual evidence, the participating individuals found it hard to write down one thing they loved about themselves. This made me dig deeper into this campaign so I decided to go around a few of my friend’s home and post a note where they would see it. I wrote one thing I love about them and posted a picture through instagram. I come to realize that writing down a compliment and giving it to someone is more meaningful than actually saying it. This plays a role into Joffe Helene as it was explained the power of visual material which I wanted to incorporate into my instagram. She discussed that visuals are perfect for advertising and campaigns because they made an attempt to persuade their target audiences to change attitudes and behaviors. My infographic along with my instagram showcase to issues around low self esteem. Many individuals believed that it’s not an issue that it would pass overtime but studies has shown that low self esteem has carried through adulthood. By showing statistics and visual representation it can result in people becoming more aware of self esteem and become more accepting of difference. “ Visuals can exert a positioning power on the viewer’s imagination (Boholm’s 1998).” The sticky notes will become more memorable and it will stick to the minds rather than saying the compliment out loud.
Everyone that came across my infographic was extremely shock of how self esteem affected the daily lives. It made them think how they feel about themselves and how harsh and negative they been. One person said, “It was great giving myself a compliment, since I rarely feel good about myself and I was given the opportunity to make someone else feel good too.” This mini campaign gave me the voice to change the minds of people that self esteem needs to be looked at carefully. I was able to use propaganda beneficially to create a blog to put out information that was not misleading or fake. Ryan Holiday always expressed blogs as a new tool for news. Instagram was a gateway to tell viewers that the real issue is within ourselves and there's a way to fix it. He talked about blogs being able to cover an infinite amount of information and I was able to do that with this campaign. I used propaganda ethically and stated facts without offending anyone. Even though I wasn't able to post everyone’s initial reaction to this campaign; their privacy is more important and for me to witness a beautiful thing such as self love is enough to know that this campaign was a success.
My goal for this project was to put low self esteem in the light and to prevent it from affecting so many lives. As a society, we need to learn to spread love and awareness rather than publicly shame an individual because they are different or don’t match up to the expectation of society whether that involves body image. We are all beautiful and special and it’s acceptable to compliment one another and make eachother feel good about ourselves. I created the hashtag #Boostselfesteem to spread my campaign in the efforts to eliminate self hate and be educated about the dangers it holds. “It takes account not merely for the individual, nor even of the mass mind alone, but also and especially of the anatomy of society, with its interlocking group formations and loyalties (Edward Bernays, 1928).” In order for change to happen we need to take a stand together and voice out our thoughts and act upon them. There's strengths in numbers and the power of beneficial propaganda can take us far.
References
Amée LaTour. (2014). 8 common causes of low esteem. Good Choices Good Life. Retrieved
from http://www.goodchoicesgoodlife.org/choices-for-young-people/boosting-self-esteem/
Dosomething.org. 11 facts about teen and self esteem. Retrieved from
https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-teens-and-self-esteem
Edward Bernays. (1955). Propaganda
Hélène Joffe. The Power of Visual Material: Persuasion, Emotion and Identification. Journals
Sagepub. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0392192107087919
Mindvalley. (2018 January). 5 causes of low self esteem and how to fight them. Mindvalley
Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.mindvalley.com/causes-of-low-self-esteem/
Sagepub. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0392192107087919
Saul McLoed. (2012). Low Self Esteem. Simple Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-esteem.html
Sherwin B. Nuland, Jack Kanzouzi. Self Esteem in the hands of society, An analysis of the mainsocietal factors that influence our self- esteem. Bioethics. Retrieved from
https://bioethics.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/SELF%20ESTEEM%20IN%20THE%20HANDS%20OF%20SOCIETY-1.pdf
Ryan Holiday. (2013 July 2). Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator
