There is TONS of mostly feminist literature on how movies/internet/Barbie/etc. teach women their bodies and themselves are inadequate and so lower their self-esteem. It is a very popular feminist trope.
Sure. I should have been clearer. I guess I'm more curious about the degree to which this exists because of the internet. Assuming it's true that self-esteem takes a negative hit (at least initially) due to realizing you're a small fish in a huge pond, does the availability of information compound that effect to a level where it is exponentially consequential?
Ultimately, I think it's a very natural and spiritual process to go through—to realize you are, in fact, not the center of the universe. But it's been a more gradual process in our history. Nowadays, it's like saturation in the idea that "I suck. I'm boring. I'm ugly" 24/7 at the age of 10 or before.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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