A Study of Youth Appearance Anxiety in Pseudo-environment

Abstract

Social media provide technical support for people to create a perfect self-image, creating a high value pseudo-environment. The discrepancy between reality and the pseudo-environment creates appearance anxiety. In order to explore the media perception of young people on the pseudo-environment of anxiety about appearance, questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews were conducted, which were both designed based on the framework of cognitive schema, revealed that young people continuously form new aesthetic standards under the influence of the pseudo-environment, and are deeply involved in the consumption of their bodies without realizing it. Various media are utilizing the audiences psychology to continuously intensify the anxiety of appearance in pseudo-environment. At the same time, however, combining the online scene of virtual ethnography, it is found that youths who are susceptible to pseudo-environment have similar problems with their sense of identity. Therefore, measures can be proposed to alleviate appearance anxiety from the perspective of improving youths sense of self-identity and social identity.