Social media is an outlet for people to share ideas, pictures, thoughts, discoveries and any other aspect of life, including personal information. We have a variety of sites, including Facebook and Instagram, which we use to communicate with each other through words and images. These sites provide us with both an outlet to express ourselves and a source of knowing others, whether they are friends, family, or strangers we just met.

There is nothing bad with the idea of social media. There are always arguments that the very presence of social media threatens our view on real life and negatively affects our way of thinking, but there are so many positive factors that outlive those claims.

There has, however, been recent problems concerning the act of “body shaming," as seen in comments on pictures going viral simply because of words targeting toward the pictured body. This includes negative remarks on all body types, and has started a social media war intent on the belief that beauty comes in all shapes and forms. For example, a plus-sized woman will be shamed for wearing a certain piece of clothing, and a thin woman will be criticized for portraying what someone else cannot have.

Although this is a problem for both men and women, it is significantly bigger amongst the women population, as the standards of a woman’s beauty has constantly been challenged and changing throughout the past years.

Society today is changing its views on the ideas of body image and the meaning of self-love. Plus-size models are becoming more known, and “strong” has become the new definition of beautiful. Thinner models are being negatively looked at because of their weight, or even accused of making the average-sized woman feel invaluable to society’s standards.

The idea of perfection overruns the idea of beauty. We don’t want to be just beautiful; we want to be perfect.

Every day, there are pictures being posted that reflect one's idea of what the perfect body is, and each idea is different. With so many clashing views and opinions, it is difficult to know for sure what the real meaning of “beauty” is. In this sense, social media has become a place where people are sharing beauty standards, fashion advice, workout schedules and meal plans that aim to guide the average woman or man to achieving a certain body type.

Due to this growing phase, social media is flooded with pictures of the body that we think we are meant to achieve. We look at these pictures every day, and even if their effect isn’t sudden or noticeable at first, we slowly become more aware that we are not like the people in those images. It is human nature to look at something that seems unachievable and yet long for it to be true. We fight for what we want. However, when we fail to find the similarities between ourselves and an image, we lose control over our own thoughts, and become obsessed with being someone else.

When we find a certain workout schedule with the picture of the “perfect bikini bod” model on the front, we follow that plan without fault for those 30 days or three months or even just a week. We dedicate ourselves to those repetitive workouts and constant reps, only to discover that maybe that plan doesn’t work for just anyone. At the end of the trial, we look at ourselves and only see that we are not like the picture. We don’t see the changes that have happened unless they are comparable to that idea of toned perfection.

We compare ourselves to anything that seems closer to our own ideas of perfection. Deep down, we know we have to learn to accept ourselves because every body type and every person, no matter how different we are, is beautiful, but we also choose to turn toward those images and videos we see every day on social media. We focus on what we are not instead of looking at who we are and finding what we love about ourselves.

There are those who have been able to look at themselves and accept who they are, despite the constant nagging and challenging of those images, and not everyone will succumb to wanting perfection, but there are so many women out there who still need to match a certain image, no matter what.

There’s no way to fix this, as it would be impossible to control every picture that is posted or every idea or thought that is expressed. The only thing we can do is work as individuals and find a way to accept ourselves away from social influences and the forever changing ideals of beauty.

Look past the longing to be perfect, and find the beauty in yourself instead.