Thursday, January 9, 2014

False Perception, Body Dysmorphia And The Social Media

We live in a world where bodies of athletes taking grams of illegal drugs such as anabolic steroids are put on a pedestal. Millions of people are sharing photos of bodybuilders and other strength athletes everyday vie online social media. Usually, the images are accompanied with some kind of a cliche quote like: “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”, “If you can't stay the heat, stay you of the kitchen.”, “How bad do you want it?”...etc. While of this is an amusing activity in itself what is happening has also negative consequences since an opportunity for development of false perception is present.

I have news for you: it's all an illusion and the lifestyle of fitness and bodybuilding professional is a well orchestrated pipe dream meant to produce financial gains for some due to the ignorance of others. Since online social media have become a catalyst for the human narcissism sites like Facebook are also responsible for the cult of the steroid bodies which have become the norm.

IronGangsta is not against sharing photos over the Internet. The real problem hides in the fact that as always people fall for a classic Hollywood like scam, and in the end of the day remain frustrated and even hate themselves because they cannot achieve something that seems to come so easy to others.

If you are not 8% body fat, you are “phat”.

If you don't have 18 inches “ripped” arms with bulging muscles, you are a “fagget who should try lifting some weights.”

Similar language is quite common on bodybuilding forums where all it takes to convince someone that you are not using steroids and all your “gainz” are real is to just say: “I am a natural bodybuilder and you are just jelly (slang for jealous).” The illusion has grown so much that people have accepted the bodies of professional fitness models as something “natural” and even supposedly easily achievable by anyone who trains hard and eats plenty of vegetables. If you fail – it's your genetics that are to blame! {More on genetics here}.
How does someone who is not perfect feel when he or she lists through photos of professional fitness models who look like they've came straight out of Photoshop? It's like being a broke person in an expensive restaurant – you just feel weird and others look down on you. Most of the time people even start criticizing themselves for not being good enough, to the point where self-hatred eats them from the inside out.

Thinking bad things about yourself is never a good thing – it's like having a computer virus damaging your otherwise well working software. Therefor it makes perfect sense to limit your possible sources of viruses such as Facebook

IronGangsta's advice is to be more realistic and to try to see through the fake in front of you and appreciate yourself a little more. Sometimes it's very hard, but as Bruce Lee has said:


“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”