The Value of a Like

By: Ashley Price, Khalid Eltayeb, Savannah Arroyo, India Fuller

Date: April 25, 2016

I.

Introduction

Beauty is not measured by a number of likes; beauty is what we choose to see. But
according to society, beauty has become a checklist. If you have all of the requirements youre
beautiful, but if you dont, youre forced to live in a world where the people who do are idolized.
Nowadays, both men and women have become highly influenced by society, but more
specifically, social media. On a daily basis, people find themselves browsing through social
media sites and comparing themselves to others. Then, they slowly fall into a spiral of self-hate.
Because of social media, they are constantly reminded that their body is not the ideal figure.
They begin to think that the ideal body image is what models on social media have. For instance,
according to Mirror Mirror, the average American man is about 59 and weighs 190 lbs, and
the typical American woman is 54 tall and weighs 166 lbs. However, the average male fashion
model is about 61 and only weighs 160 lbs("Perfect Body Image"). the average female fashion
model is 510 tall and weighs only 107 lbs ("The Average Woman Vs. The Average Model.").
After comparing themselves to these absurd physiques, they begin doubting themselves and
asking the question Am I good enough?.
In order to prevent that from happening, we are going to flip the script and question what
a like on social media really means. We are going to show people that beauty cannot be
defined by a number of likes, and that it is what each person chooses to see. We are going to be
discussing the history behind this issue, a brief summary of the video production, and the details
behind the mental impact of social media.
II.

Motivation

When social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram began back in the early
2000s they were meant to be means of connection and creativity. However, more recently with
social media expanding, these sites have become a way for beauty standards to become more and
more prevalent. Although that was not the initial intention, the issue still stands and is more
common than ever. Since social media started, the world has become a much different place with
many social groups growing, as well as the popularity of new trends and celebrities. Many of
these trends have created issues among the social media community including body shaming and
the glorification of unnatural body ideals. With so many celebrities changing the way they look
through plastic surgery and other methods, and then gaining lots of new followers and positive
feedback, the morphed versions of their bodies become the new standard. This has a very
negative effect on men and women who feel they do not have the perfect body type. It can lead
to different eating disorders; some examples include anorexia nervosa, which is very commonly
acknowledged among females, and body dysmorphic disorder which is the obsessive focus on a
perceived flaw in appearance. Eating disorders were studied mainly among females until a
professor of psychiatry named Harrison Pope published work on reverse anorexia known as
muscle dysmorphia in the later 90s(Its Not Just Girls Boys Struggle with Body Image Too). In
fact, about 1 in 4 males deal with an eating disorder according to Raymond Lemberg a clinical
psychologist in Arizona (Its Not Just Girls Boys Struggle with Body Image Too). Everybodys
bodies are different and the fact that its becoming normal to have disproportioned bodies is

frightening. For men and women to be seen as unattractive because they can not attain these
qualities tears down their confidence and self esteem. Everyone should feel comfortable in their
own skin and not have to worry about comparing themselves to others, because all that is going
to do is make them feel worse and unhappy. There are organizations and people who are bringing
this issue to mainstream, and it has been known for a long time, but it seems as though it is being
put on hold. People can make videos and create papers and art but it takes more than that; it takes
being heard and making the problem noticed for things to begin to move forward.
III.

Project Summary

Social media was created as a space for people to share their creative side and connect
with others on a more personal level; however, social media has morphed into a platform in
which people compare themselves to others by the amount of likes/comments they get, how great
they look in a photo, or the amount of followers they have. This constant comparison to others
creates a level of self-loathing in social media users: making social media stray further and
further from its intended use. In order to change peoples use of social media back to its original
purpose, we will be conducting a social experiment.
For our social experiment we will be printing out several individuals Instagram feeds and
posting them on a board (with the amount of likes and comments they received blocked out on
each picture). From there, we will have the owner of the Instagram critique each photo on their
feed: pointing out what they like and dislike about each picture. After that, strangers will look at
the Instagram feeds and determine how many likes they believe each picture in the feed deserves
and explain how they came up with that number and what they like about each picture. After
several people have given their opinions on the Instagram feeds, we will have the person whose
Instagram it is step out and hear all of the nice comments the strangers had about their photos
and reflect on how these comments make him or her feel. This angle of creating a sense of selfconfidence in people by focusing on social media is unique because of the fact that social media
and its effects on people's self esteem is so often overlooked. Social experiments typically focus
on positively highlighting a persons in-person appearance; due to this fact, a video about a
persons social media persona is a new concept guaranteed to stand out.
There are several videos in existence in which strangers boost each others confidence
through face to face compliments, but I was unable to find a video that focused on boosting a
persons confidence through looking at the individuals social media. BiggieTV produced a video
in which they went to a beach in Los Angeles and had strangers compliment each other. They did
a really nice job of finding bubbly, kind, respectful people to participate in the social experiment
which resulted in some really nice compliments and conversations between the individuals.
However, the video is a bit long and repetitive; 3 minutes and 44 seconds of four different
couples going back and forth complimenting each other with a bit of conversating in between
becomes quite boring.
Buzzfeed also produced a video in which they had people stand in front of a two-way
mirror (thinking it was a regular mirror) and talk about their insecurities. They had a stranger on

the other side of the mirror talking to a camera about what they thought and liked about the
person critiquing him or herself on the opposite side. They then showed the recording of what the
stranger had said behind the mirror to the person who had been judging him or herself. The
person then reflected on what the experiment taught him or her. The reflection at the end of the
video was a really nice way to leave the viewer with a full understanding of the effect this
experiment had on these individuals. I really enjoyed this video because people were able to see
that strangers dont see the flaws we see in ourselves/think they see in us; instead, they see us as
exactly what we are: beautiful. This video is also a nice length of 2 minutes and 32 seconds,
which is just long enough to get the point of the video across while short enough to keep with
humans short attention spans.
Dove is also a prominent producer of social experiments intended to raise a persons selfesteem. I watched two videos they produced: one in which they placed signs over doors leading
into a mall. One door had a sign above it that read average, and the other sign said beautiful.
This experiment forced women to really consider their views of themselves and publicly label
them. The other video featured a sketch artist creating two illustrations of women: one in which
the women described their own appearance, and one in which a stranger the women had
previously been introduced to described the womans appearance. Both videos were incredibly
beautiful and inspirational because they very clearly got their message across: women are too
hard on themselves. Every woman is beautiful. I really enjoyed how they included the women
doing a reflection of what they learned about themselves throughout the experiment. They also
had a very nice, calming soundtrack in the back of the videos that really added to the emotions
that were present in each social experiment. The only negative aspect of the videos, per say, is
that they only focus on female self-confidence. For our video, we will be including both men and
women because all genders struggle with self-confidence - not just women.
IV.

Project Details

Setting up the Environment

To draw full effect to this project and to make our actors feel comfortable, the
questioning and revealing will take place in a classroom within our school that has plain walls
and dim lights. We will also be using a camera to record our interviews and Final Cut Pro X, an
editing program, on a Mac laptop to edit our videos. The people we are using for our social
experiment are both females and males from all different age groups. We are using a mix of
people because our hope is to target all genders, ages, and races to show that we are all the same
and all beautiful. The actors are not actors, they are just people with no script. Everything they
say or do is completely genuine. We have two groups of people participating in our social
experiment: first, people of all ages, races, and genders critiquing their own Instagram feeds, and
people praising the first groups feeds. We will also have a psychologist explain the reasons why
people are so critical of themselves, and how social media has affected this negative habit. The
psychologist we will be contacting is Mary Spease, a local San Diego psychologist that
specializes in self-esteem.

Implementation Issues and Challenges

This group project process and final product has many advantages. Our group dedicates a
large amount of time to put into the video to ensure a more positive self critique from the
viewers. While we may not be able to move every person viewing, we hope to change a
substantial number of people's way of thinking. Because this is a video about body image (in
which many people are insecure about) we are aware that people may not feel comfortable
answering the questions we have prepared or sharing out their true feelings. The questions we
ask require you to think hard. They are not everyday questions; they are questions designed to
help you find yourself and realize that our differences are what make us special. In order to avoid
the strangers being uncomfortable, we will be warning them before hand to let them know that
these questions run deep and will force them to evaluate yourself. The questions are serious
questions and we hope for honest and deep answers. This project is very touching and very
relatable because we target females and males. Females are usually the face of anything that has
to do with low self-esteem, but we wanted to make sure that people realize males suffer from it
just as much as the other genders do. We can have a strong impact on people if we share from
both perspectives.
Deliverables
Our video will produce three different deliverables. The first deliverable is the
affirmation that social media affects a persons self-esteem. We will deliver this message by
having our actors go through their Instagram feed and express their feelings on their pictures
(both positive and negative), why they choose to post pictures, how using social media makes
them feel, etc. We will achieve our second deliverable, the realization that people arent as
critical as we fear, by having strangers talk about the actors feeds and expressing the way the
photos make them feel. Lastly, the actors will go back and watch the strangers compliments on
their feed and realize that other people see the best in them, and that social media can be a
platform for creativity and self-love as opposed to self-hate, our third deliverable. After the
social experiment we want people to carry on the message of using social media as a positive and
supportive space by posting an unedited photo to Instagram to show that they are beautiful
without the extra attractions. It is our biggest hope that everyone walks away with the realization
that theyre beautiful and they dont need to change the way they look in order to feel that way.
Social media is such a large part in our lives right now, and it is so easy to get information out
there; so we decided to use Instagram, which is one of the best photo sharing platforms, as our
outlet.

Timeline
Print Instagram feeds, create boards, find people to participate (all details & materials ready)
Deadline: Friday, April 29
Filming: May 1st - May 15th (if needed filming can be done on the 16th as well)
Editing Deadline: Friday, May 20th
VI.

Conclusion

We all face the issue of conforming to the ideal body type. Our surroundings forced us
to adapt at an early age to the societal stencil of beauty, and limited our sense of self-love.
Throughout the years, we've been limited to one definition of beauty, the ideal slim. Society
and social media both play a crucial role in creating a sense of limited self-love and increasing
the habit of self-criticism in people. My group and I will be flipping the script and showing
people how they can use social media as a creative, positive outlet as opposed to a platform for
criticism.
References/ Cited Research : MLA Format
(Intro)
1. http://www.mirror-mirror.org/perfect-body-image.htm#sthash.LQkxwzuu.dpuf
http://thoughtfulwomen.org/2014/03/19/average-woman-vs-average-model/
(Motivation)
1. Adams, Rebecca. "It's Not Just Girls. Boys Struggle With Body Image, Too."The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
2. "Teen Health and the Media." Teen Health and the Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr.
2016.
3. Hendrix, Drew. "Complete History of Social Media: Then and
Now."Smallbiztrends.com. Small Business Trends, 8 May 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
(Project Details (Setting up the Environment)
Mary Spease
Psychologist, PsyD
(858) 888-3261

Questions:
Will you take some selfies for us, please? Take as many as you want
to get what you feel is the PERFECT picture.

 Scroll to the first picture. Would you post this to

Instagram/Facebook/Twitter? Why/why not?
List reasons why
How do likes/comments on social media make you feel?
Are the amount of likes you can potentially get a factor when you
post a photo?
Why do you delete photos off your Instagram?
Do you post pictures that the audience will like or just yourself?
Out of all of the photos you took, which one would you post on social
media?
Which one do you like the least or not like at all?
Call to Action:
People: Abril, Ali, Grant, Aaron