• Smita Biju Thomas
• Dr Suphala Kotian

ABSTRACT: - Purpose: You look into the mirror and do not like the way your skin looks. You see your photograph and immediately notice the bulge in the tummy. You enter Facebook just to realize that someone has tagged you in a picture where you feel you aren’t well dressed as your other friends. Do all these thoughts cross your mind when you look at your reflection. Does looking into the mirrors make you feel dissatisfied, bad, depressing, self-neglected, aged, unfit, ugly? Do you perceive yourself as inferior to others? Do you tend to compare yourself to the body statistics and parameters of beauty depicted by celebrities or media? With the rise in social media influencers, users, followers during the Covid lockdown as people got locked inside the house and found out new ways to entertain themselves, body image issues have become a major concern. No more do we have to ration the photographs to be clicked as in the era before the smartphones. The pictures can be endless in number and the beautification software is at our fingertips. Still if one is dissatisfied with the photograph, it is easy to delete it, edit it further, and look as one wants to look, hiding the wrinkles, freckles, dark circles, double chin, etc. Somewhere down the line, we are trying to counter or want to change the normal body. The natural changes of the body as one age or due to lifestyle is no more acceptable. Objective: This research was done to study the extent to which the people, who are active on social media are conscious about their appearance, and are influenced by the social pressure of appearing a certain way. Design/Methodology/Approach: Quantitative analysis with a pre-established tool of BICI (body image concern inventory). Findings/Results: The results derived depicted that the majority of the subjects have at some point of time felt discontent towards certain aspects of their body influenced by the social media trend of pictures, celebrity body type, and fashion, and wanted to present better photographs on social media. A few of them also wanted to change attributes if given a choice. The female was more influenced by the celebrity than the males. The samples in the bracket of 20-40 yrs. had more body image issues than the others. The females were more concerned about their bodies and looks than the males. Originality/Value: The study points out how analytical we become of our body and how it affects our mindset and social behaviors. Paper type: Quantitative Analysis

body image, selfies, media influence, body dysmorphic disorder, body shaming, BICI.

"Is Your Reflection Traumatizing You? ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 10, page no.e51-e60, October-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2110422.pdf

"Is Your Reflection Traumatizing You? ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 10, page no. ppe51-e60, October-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2110422.pdf