Show me what you post, and I'll tell you who you are: a reflection on GenZ's perception on body image and mani-pulation on social media

Abstract

In a society increasingly dominated by the image cult, reports on the growth of prejudice and discrimination based solely on physical appearance have increased. GenZ is the first generation born entirely in a fully developed internet and has known social media early. Therefore, it is crucial to understand their perception of body image and image manipulation perception as they are targeted daily on social media by retouched images of celebrities and branded content. In this study, we opted to develop a survey applied to 785 GenZers residing in Portugal to collect their perceptions about this topic. Results aim to show their perceptions of body image on social media by reflecting on their own posting habits and their views on celebrity retouched images. At the end of this study, the main results are presented in the hopes that new generations will gradually begin to deconstruct stereotypes and prejudices that mark a society still dominated by the image and by the aesthetic and beauty standards.