Sociala medier i bildundervisning

Abstract

Discussions about social media have become a huge presence in today’s society. From discussions at home, the schools and all the way to the news and the governments. Do social media really have a negative effect on today’s youths’ mental health or is this purely speculation? And if so, how can we combat this as teachers?

We have, because of this, decided to take the opportunity to further research this subject and therefor focused just on the subjects regarding students view of themselves, their mental health and how that is impacted by the portrayal of ideal bodies on social media. We have also researched what studies say about the importance of critical thinking regarding visual communication or image communication. These areas have formulated questions that have been our basis for this work. What does previous research say about how young people’s self image is affected by how ideal bodies are portrayed in social media? What does previous research say about how knowledge in visual communication is important for young people's critical thinking in relation to social media?

Through this study we’ve used scientific research studies regarding these subjects to reach a conclusion. The result of our review has shown that social medias portrayal of ideals bodies does in fact impact students self-image negatively and is part of the reason for youths rapidly declining mental health. It also shows that more knowledge in image communication can give students a better understanding of the negative impact images can have and give them the means to combat these hurtful stereotypes.