Self-Esteem

Self-esteem

Live your life, not someone else’s. In today’s society self-esteem has affect many youth around the world. They are made to look and act a certain way. Self-esteem is a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the self (Rosenberg, 1975) and is a feeling of pride in yourself (Webster’s Online Dictionary, 2008). With the latest fashion stating what we should wear, how to do our make-up, and what body size your suppose to be; it can be hard for someone to appreciate themselves for who they are. Self-esteem affects not only my life; it also affects everyone. It affects the way we look or act, the media and the gender it affects, and finally how to escape these set images.
Self-esteem is our assessment of our value as a person, reflected in our perception of such things as our skills, abilities, talents, and appearance (Beebe, Beebe, and Ivy, 2009).   One’s self-esteem can affect how we see ourselves and others, and how we treat each other. In 2006 studies on self-esteem found that a weak self-esteem in adolescents had a poorer mental health, physical health, worse economic prospects, and higher levels of criminal behavior during their adulthood (Puskar, Bernardo, Ren, and Haley, 2010). It also affects how we see different genders, social comparison, and it affect self-expectations. With these views set in place we start to change ourselves; we change our beliefs, values, and traditions to try and fit in. A good example of these changes was high school; knowing from a personal experience that high school is tough. High school was the chopping block for either high self-esteem or low self-esteem kids. People usually with the higher self-esteem were more popular, wore all the name brands, and had lots of friends. Mean-while the people with lower self-esteem had less to no friends, might have been a chosen target for bullies, and didn’t wear the name brands. Self-esteem isn’t only affected by the people surrounding you; it is also set by the media.
Media... [continues]

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