Social Learning

The concept of social learning helps me to understand that the impact of distorted representations of ideal female beauty has been enormous.

The imitation of behaviors or images presented by the media over certain period of time is called social learning. Social learning has played a substantial role in not only our behaviors but also our way of thinking. The constant, repeating messages and images that media presents are definitely affecting our values and manipulating audiences’ behaviors whether consciously or unconsciously.  People are easily influenced by the environment they grew up with. Those naïve, impressionable minds of young children are greatly shaped by the messages derived from media.

One of the typical examples of social learning is impact of advertisements of absolutely flawless female beauty on today’s generation. The overwhelming pictures of ideal female beauty on televisions, magazines, advertisements have truly manipulated our minds. They are not just pictures any more. The fact that 20% of high school girls have eating disorder undoubtedly proved that those pictures are now negatively affecting women’s values and health. We are blindly following and mocking what’s presented on the screen that is considered attractive and beautiful. In “Killing Us Softly”, Jean Kilbourne points out that the primary message that young girls get in our culture today is to be unusually thin and flawless beautiful in order to be acceptable. This distorted values forms gradually when we are surrounded by and growing up with those advertisements.  Females are greatly affected by the images presented by the media.