The truth behind social media
Carleton University makes October the month for mental health awareness. For the past five years, the university has been holding a mental health awareness week in the month of October to show students they are not alone. This year however, the Student Issues VP, Sissi De Flauiss has decided to make a whole month full of awareness events.
De Flauiss, says Pop the Stigma Month’s idea “Is to teach students about the resources on and off campus, and also destigmatize mental health,” adding that she decided to make it a month long so the school can continue the conversation and make it extensive.
On Thursday Oct. 17, 22-year-old twin sisters and founders of Live Life Unfiltered, Keisha and Teagan Simpson have come to school to talk to students about the negative effects of social media on one’s body image and self-esteem.
According to their presentation, social media has changed the way people see themselves, especially women. With the spike of interest in social media, comparing one’s self to another has never been easier. It is human nature for people to stack up against one another.
While in the past people would compare themselves to celebrities and models on TV and magazines, now there are platforms like Instagram which focus primarily on posting photos. It is not just celebrities that people are comparing themselves to, it’s their friends and family.
The twins are an example of many other women. “Feeling beautiful is something I’m struggling with,” says Teagan. “My legs are my biggest insecurity,” says Keisha.
Since last year, the twins have realized the negative effects of social media on themselves, as twins it is double the trouble. They talk about always comparing themselves to each other. To them being twins means they always do everything together.
Teagan has always labeled Keisha as the most likeable one, and Keisha labeled Teagan as the skinny one.
The twins addressed their personal experience with social media. How the photos they post don’t really represent their true emotions or lives. Teagan showed photos from her Instagram account where the viewer would think she is happy and living her best life. However, the truth is that she never went out to the event like the photo presents, she was crying that night after the photo was taken and came up with excuses not to go out.
Keisha on the other hand talked about photo-editing and filters. She says she doesn’t necessarily use an app to edit her photos but uses her body angles to show the best side of her.
“Photoshoped pictures of friends affects us more than models,” says Keisha.
After they realized the negativity that comes with Social Media, the twins decided to do their own research to see if others are going through the same thing as them.
One night while they were taking photos with their basketball team at the end of the school year, they analyzed everyone around them and saw how all their friends were on their phones, editing and looking through the photos, not even talking to each other for a while.
During their research, the twins found out that Instagram is the most harmful platform and YouTube as the least harmful.
Around the years 2010-13, Instagram became extremely popular. Right now, Instagram has over one billion active users, with 60 per cent of them being women.
According to the graphs showed during the presentation, that was around the same time a huge spike in depressive symptoms in women were documented.
Keisha talked about deleting Instagram on multiple occasions but always ended up downloading it again a week later. Teagan faced the same problem “fear of missing out.”
“I wanted to know I’m not alone,” says Teagan. Both twins wanted to improve their experience and have a healthier relationship with Instagram. They tried to look for pages to follow that showed people who are struggling like them, but they couldn’t find any.
They decided to create their own page, @livelife_unflitered. With over six thousand followers and the bio “A movement reminding women that behind each perfect photo there’s still a girl with insecurities and bad days.”
They also launched the #AsSheIs Challenge, which asks participants to post their photo which shows their most vulnerable side of themselves. The next date of this challenge will be on Nov. 6.