Did you know self-help books and dieting programs gross 8 billion dollars a year? Why do you think that's true? What does this fact reveal about our society?
Our society has become dependent on the media. On TV and magazines we see girls with perfect hair, glowing skin, and a size two body. People think that looking like that is the norm. We are trying to achieve something that is not possible, and will take drastic measures to do that. People buy self-help books and diet because they want to look like what they see on the TV. This has become harmful and results in health problems like eating disorders. Many teens and women have eating disorders so they can become thin and look like all the models do. This reveals that our society has become too obsessed with what is seen in the media. We are willing to alter our lifestyle just to look like what is seen on TV.
8 billion dollars a year going towards self-help books and dieting programs is exceedingly surprising, but I find it believable considering all of the pressures from around the society that cause insecurities. Media is not the only source to blame on the insecurities of many people in our society. There are, of course, tons of influences coming from that of the media. They glamorize women that are already skinny enough, and really gorgeous. Then they make them even prettier; especially in advertisements where they use celebrities to sell their products. However, in reality, famous people use their gigantic amounts of money and spend it on expensive skin treatments or physical appearance "enhancement" surgeries. Media is, again, not the only thing to blame for the degrading of normal people. Pressure also comes from friends and family. It may not be intentional, but it occurs, and can't necessarily be prevented. (Unless the individual has complete self-confidence.) Girls in particular look at their friends and see them as prettier and skinnier, but we all have to remember that people come in all different shapes and sizes. If you're built different than your friends, that doesn't make it impossible to find someone that will accept you for who you are. In conclusion, with all the pressures from peers and the media, our society turns to dieting programs and self-help books to be considered "pretty".
I think that there is a large amount of stock put into beauty of all forms in the media today. There's nothing wrong with people wanting to better themselves, and the purchase of self help books and diet programs are an expression of that want. "This year Americans will spend over $110 billion on fast food more than they'll spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined." This quote was pulled from an interview on cbsnews.com in part of their healthwatch section. The figure presented shows how measly 8 billion dollars put towards self help is. I think the media should work even more on glorifying whatever image is most useful towards healthy Americans; be that a skinny or average one. I find it more worrisome that trends about anorexia in teens are presented more than trends about obesity in teens. No matter to which extreme you're leaning, the result is an unhealthy person. Furthermore, saying that the root of beauty is loving yourself is coddling. I think when you do something respectable and brave like overcoming an eating disorder or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you start to realize you're worth loving. To sum up, the media changes our perception with the presentation of statistics more than it does with the airbrushing of faces or slimming of photos.
I agree with the previous comments as to why that statistic is true, that society has placed this pressure on us to be like those portrayed on media. Thus causing us to go purchase self-help and dieting books, and as a whole, spending 8 billion dollars on these self-help books each year. However, on the contrary, I think that it's because of us trying to be just like the media on our own, that then forces us to go purchase these self-help books. For example, a teenage girl wants to be just like the size 0 girl on TV and turns to an eating disorder to do so. Now, because this girl has an eating disorder, she must go buy a self-help book in order to fix the problem the media created.
So in summary, we spend so much on self-help books in order to look like the media AND in order to fix ourselves from the problem the media has caused.
This statistic reveals that our society has placed crazy standards for people to live up to, thus causing us to turn for help, and many times to self-help books. This statistic is not very positive because it shows how our society reaches to fix (help) themselves in whatever way possible, because they feel they are not good enough the way they are. They feel they must make themselves just like the fake people portrayed on TV and other media mediums.
I actually would expect this number to be a lot bigger. Because when you look around you see a large amount of people that can very easily list off 100 things wrong with them but a much smaller number are willing to get someone else’s help. Because everyone is in a silent competition with each other that pushes and pushes the standards and raises the bar so to speak on the level of what is socially acceptable. People like to take the path of least resistance which is very understandable, and this easiest step is usually the books or dieting because then you don’t have to feel like you are reliant on someone else. Because for some people, when they have to start asking other people for help or advice, its like they are “cheating” on the silent competition between everybody.
This doesn’t surprise me at all because of all the promotion that weight loss diets and other programs use. But a growing factor in that rising profit number could be because of the stereotypical person the media endorses. Beautiful size 2 women and muscular tall men have become the “norm”. Peoples self esteem could be greatly affected by these stereotypes that in turn would cause them to want to become skinnier and more beautiful therefore profits for many companies have increased dramatically and peoples self esteem has dropped. Our society is extremely shallow and narcissistic in regards to looks, people cannot go one day without bashing their own body or glorifying someone else’s.
Quite frankly, I am not surprised that Americans spend such a large amount of money on self-help books and dieting programs. The people of America are pressured into to fulfilling the American dream, which includes a successful job, happy home life and marriage, positive can-do attitude and a perfect body. People have recognized the American dream, and it creates a national goal for the people. When people are not confident that they will live their American dream, they feel like they are obligated to change themselves in order to reach it; this is where the self-help books and dieting programs are utilized in order to change the way they are living now. People fear that they will not fit societies norms, so they believe that they must change.
Over all, I think that this reflects American society as lazy and impatient. It may sound harsh, but self-help programs seem like the sort of thing that people turn to when they feel like giving a half-hearted attempt at changing their lives. A person that wrote a book that is full of generalized tips to finding a better life is not necessarily going to be able to you personally. If a person truly needs help, they should consult someone who will be able to create a personalized plan that will help you become a stable person. As for weight-loss, I think that a diet is the easy way out. Good old-fashioned healthy eating and exercise takes too much time, so people turn to diets to get the results fast; however, this does not mean that the weight they lose actually stays off. People tend to revert back to their old manners the minute they feel that they have reached their goals; they figure that the structure of their previous program does not apply to them any longer, so it is all right to break the rules. The broken rule allows them to break more until they are back to where they started, looking for a quick and easy way to reach their new goal.
I think this is true because people have natural desire to be thought highly of by others. Media and culture give people specific ideas of the personality, body, characteristics, etc. that others will supposedly think highly of. When people in society think there is way they can better fit in or improve their self image, they will often act on it: even if that means spending money. A positive self-image is very important in our society. Businesses take advantage of this concept and create products that will be attractive to people in this manner such as self-help books and dieting programs.
It really is amazing that self help and dieting books gross that amount of money, but that also is not very surprising. Normally, for that drastic amount of money, one would find that fact outrageous, but for this subject it is not. Probably the main reason for this being true is the obsession of self-perfection and outer beauty in our society. People believe that they have to be perfect and some will stop at nothing to become that. For example, in my project that we did for class, we found a statistic that was something like a more that half of the people in our country look at themselves as overweight. That should not be happening! The people of our society are not comfortable enough with themselves and it is taking drastic affects. This explains why billions of dollars worth of dieting help are sold. Also, a huge majority of people see themselves as "not perfect". But, perfect is pretty much impossible. Our society shows the perfect person being so amazing that their potential is pretty much out of reach! This shows that people feel the need to be better than everyone else, and they fell the need to be exactly perfect. I think that our society needs to find a way to get rid of these terrible norms, and then we may head in the right direction.
I don't think one person in the world would not want to become a better person, physically or mentally. Most Americans do not fall under the category of what is considered beautiful in the media’s standards. The media gives advice on how to look skinnier, look prettier, and be worry free all the time in magazines, TV and books. These unrealistic standards that the media puts on the world cause self esteem to go down and the want to be prettier, skinner, and healthier to go up. Our culture has trained people since they were kids to want to feel wanted, and belong in our society. The media portrays beautiful, care free people as rich socialites who have an amazing life. This is why it does not surprise me that self-help and dieting program books have grossed so much. These books are one step further to looking and feeling better which, in our minds, are things that make up a great life.
I think that self-help books and dieting programs grossing 8 billion dollars a year is true because so much of our society is concerned with image. This reveals that our society has become reliant on what is portrayed as beauty in order to determine whether they consider themselves beautiful or not. I also think this fact reveals our concern about obesity, even though being underweight is often overlooked but just as dangerous if not more dangerous to health. This could also relate to the copious amount of promotion for healthier lifestyles in our society. Dependence of media in our society plays a major role in the promotion of healthier lifestyles. The idea that because of the media humans are becoming less active is a contributor to this concern over image in society.
Self help books and dieting programs are wonderful things, when they work. However, this seems to be too big a qualifier for many of them. Self confidence, as reflected by these statistics, is on the decline, or an interest in self-improvement is on the rise. The latter is a wonderful thing. The first is horrible. Yet the two may be inherently linked in obvious ways. A low self confidence may bring various problems that need improvement to light, which can be improved. This really brings up an interesting topic similar to various stories related to Anonymous. The first of which is Anonymous vs. The Church of Scientology. They didn't reject religion. What they rejected was a corporation benefiting from it. Julian Assange did not want his autobiography being sold for profit. Can we really promise people a better them in exchange for money, especially when there is no guarantee? However, if they actually can help themselves, they can improve themselves at a cost they approve of. So, what does this all mean? The only way that these are good things is if they work on every single person who commits themselves to it. Only in that case would these be good things for the population would be to set a ridiculous scenario (ridiculous, but possible). The best thing here would be Rome's motto: Senatus populusque Romanus. The Senate and People (of Rome) together working for truth from corporations.
I think that these products make most of their profit off of peoples' insecurities. When people are insecure about their weight they seek out dieting programs. When people are insecure about other qualities they may have, they seek out a way to remedy them. This displays our societies desire to be like the images that are seen on the media. Being fed images of thin beautiful people all of the time creates an idea in peoples minds that that is the normal or acceptable way to look. People become insecure about the way they look in comparison to the media images and so they seek out any way possible to make themselves look this way. This is where the dieting and self help programs step in and offer people a seemingly perfect solution to their insecurities.
I agree with Ian that I thought this number would be latger. I think that the only reason that it is this low, to put it bluntly, is because books are a dying industry. But anyways, I think that this reveals the fact that as a society, we are uncomfortable with ourselves. We are taught from a very early age to do whatever it takes to make yourself better at any part of your life. Some aspects of this competition are good. However, other aspects are unhealthy. When the media and other factors influence our thinking to say that we are not good enough, that is taking it a step too far. To me, there is a difference between, "always try to be the best you you can be" and "always try to change yourself to meet this society's standards.".
That shows that our society wants to change or feels like they need to change something. This pressure could be from themselves or others. If it is from themselves then it might work better than not. That would be because if they felt they needed to change for someone else then it might not be what they really want. Which isn't inspiration that lasts.
I can easily believe the fact that self help books gross 8 billion dollars a year. Our desire for a fast solution to problems we brought on ourselves outweighs our sense of self esteem, and we turn to what seems to be a quick fix rather than taking matters into our own hands. In essence, that is what self help books really are: a seemingly easy way out of a problem we created, with little to no effort, time, etc. involved. It is for this reason that these books generally do not create the results that their snazzy titles and exaggerated results promise. If someone truly desires some kind of change for themselves, it must come from within them. No matter what the content of the book is, it will always be the attitude and determination that is often created through reading the self help book that will allow a person to change, not the book itself.
The question is: what does this say about our society? It implies that our society has become increasingly lazy over the past few years. We have apparently given up on trying to make changes ourselves, and prefer look to others to get anything done. This could be caused by a number of different aspects of modern life. However, I believe there is one aspect that has been more detrimental above all else: technology and the internet. With the exponential increase in technology and internet usage over the past few years, society has been accustomed to having instantaneous, accurate, and effective solutions to any problem, through the use of the vast amount of information available to anyone with a smart phone or ipod in their pocket. This has carried over to other seemingly unrelated parts of our lives, and we expect the same immediate solutions for all of our problems that we have become used to with technology.
Our society has become dependent on the media. On TV and magazines we see girls with perfect hair, glowing skin, and a size two body. People think that looking like that is the norm. We are trying to achieve something that is not possible, and will take drastic measures to do that. People buy self-help books and diet because they want to look like what they see on the TV. This has become harmful and results in health problems like eating disorders. Many teens and women have eating disorders so they can become thin and look like all the models do. This reveals that our society has become too obsessed with what is seen in the media. We are willing to alter our lifestyle just to look like what is seen on TV.
ReplyDelete8 billion dollars a year going towards self-help books and dieting programs is exceedingly surprising, but I find it believable considering all of the pressures from around the society that cause insecurities. Media is not the only source to blame on the insecurities of many people in our society. There are, of course, tons of influences coming from that of the media. They glamorize women that are already skinny enough, and really gorgeous. Then they make them even prettier; especially in advertisements where they use celebrities to sell their products. However, in reality, famous people use their gigantic amounts of money and spend it on expensive skin treatments or physical appearance "enhancement" surgeries. Media is, again, not the only thing to blame for the degrading of normal people. Pressure also comes from friends and family. It may not be intentional, but it occurs, and can't necessarily be prevented. (Unless the individual has complete self-confidence.) Girls in particular look at their friends and see them as prettier and skinnier, but we all have to remember that people come in all different shapes and sizes. If you're built different than your friends, that doesn't make it impossible to find someone that will accept you for who you are. In conclusion, with all the pressures from peers and the media, our society turns to dieting programs and self-help books to be considered "pretty".
ReplyDeleteI think that there is a large amount of stock put into beauty of all forms in the media today. There's nothing wrong with people wanting to better themselves, and the purchase of self help books and diet programs are an expression of that want.
ReplyDelete"This year Americans will spend over $110 billion on fast food more than they'll spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined." This quote was pulled from an interview on cbsnews.com in part of their healthwatch section. The figure presented shows how measly 8 billion dollars put towards self help is. I think the media should work even more on glorifying whatever image is most useful towards healthy Americans; be that a skinny or average one. I find it more worrisome that trends about anorexia in teens are presented more than trends about obesity in teens. No matter to which extreme you're leaning, the result is an unhealthy person. Furthermore, saying that the root of beauty is loving yourself is coddling. I think when you do something respectable and brave like overcoming an eating disorder or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you start to realize you're worth loving. To sum up, the media changes our perception with the presentation of statistics more than it does with the airbrushing of faces or slimming of photos.
I agree with the previous comments as to why that statistic is true, that society has placed this pressure on us to be like those portrayed on media. Thus causing us to go purchase self-help and dieting books, and as a whole, spending 8 billion dollars on these self-help books each year. However, on the contrary, I think that it's because of us trying to be just like the media on our own, that then forces us to go purchase these self-help books. For example, a teenage girl wants to be just like the size 0 girl on TV and turns to an eating disorder to do so. Now, because this girl has an eating disorder, she must go buy a self-help book in order to fix the problem the media created.
ReplyDeleteSo in summary, we spend so much on self-help books in order to look like the media AND in order to fix ourselves from the problem the media has caused.
This statistic reveals that our society has placed crazy standards for people to live up to, thus causing us to turn for help, and many times to self-help books. This statistic is not very positive because it shows how our society reaches to fix (help) themselves in whatever way possible, because they feel they are not good enough the way they are. They feel they must make themselves just like the fake people portrayed on TV and other media mediums.
I actually would expect this number to be a lot bigger. Because when you look around you see a large amount of people that can very easily list off 100 things wrong with them but a much smaller number are willing to get someone else’s help. Because everyone is in a silent competition with each other that pushes and pushes the standards and raises the bar so to speak on the level of what is socially acceptable. People like to take the path of least resistance which is very understandable, and this easiest step is usually the books or dieting because then you don’t have to feel like you are reliant on someone else. Because for some people, when they have to start asking other people for help or advice, its like they are “cheating” on the silent competition between everybody.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn’t surprise me at all because of all the promotion that weight loss diets and other programs use. But a growing factor in that rising profit number could be because of the stereotypical person the media endorses. Beautiful size 2 women and muscular tall men have become the “norm”. Peoples self esteem could be greatly affected by these stereotypes that in turn would cause them to want to become skinnier and more beautiful therefore profits for many companies have increased dramatically and peoples self esteem has dropped. Our society is extremely shallow and narcissistic in regards to looks, people cannot go one day without bashing their own body or glorifying someone else’s.
ReplyDeleteQuite frankly, I am not surprised that Americans spend such a large amount of money on self-help books and dieting programs. The people of America are pressured into to fulfilling the American dream, which includes a successful job, happy home life and marriage, positive can-do attitude and a perfect body. People have recognized the American dream, and it creates a national goal for the people. When people are not confident that they will live their American dream, they feel like they are obligated to change themselves in order to reach it; this is where the self-help books and dieting programs are utilized in order to change the way they are living now. People fear that they will not fit societies norms, so they believe that they must change.
ReplyDeleteOver all, I think that this reflects American society as lazy and impatient. It may sound harsh, but self-help programs seem like the sort of thing that people turn to when they feel like giving a half-hearted attempt at changing their lives. A person that wrote a book that is full of generalized tips to finding a better life is not necessarily going to be able to you personally. If a person truly needs help, they should consult someone who will be able to create a personalized plan that will help you become a stable person. As for weight-loss, I think that a diet is the easy way out. Good old-fashioned healthy eating and exercise takes too much time, so people turn to diets to get the results fast; however, this does not mean that the weight they lose actually stays off. People tend to revert back to their old manners the minute they feel that they have reached their goals; they figure that the structure of their previous program does not apply to them any longer, so it is all right to break the rules. The broken rule allows them to break more until they are back to where they started, looking for a quick and easy way to reach their new goal.
I think this is true because people have natural desire to be thought highly of by others. Media and culture give people specific ideas of the personality, body, characteristics, etc. that others will supposedly think highly of. When people in society think there is way they can better fit in or improve their self image, they will often act on it: even if that means spending money. A positive self-image is very important in our society. Businesses take advantage of this concept and create products that will be attractive to people in this manner such as self-help books and dieting programs.
ReplyDeleteIt really is amazing that self help and dieting books gross that amount of money, but that also is not very surprising. Normally, for that drastic amount of money, one would find that fact outrageous, but for this subject it is not. Probably the main reason for this being true is the obsession of self-perfection and outer beauty in our society. People believe that they have to be perfect and some will stop at nothing to become that. For example, in my project that we did for class, we found a statistic that was something like a more that half of the people in our country look at themselves as overweight. That should not be happening! The people of our society are not comfortable enough with themselves and it is taking drastic affects. This explains why billions of dollars worth of dieting help are sold. Also, a huge majority of people see themselves as "not perfect". But, perfect is pretty much impossible. Our society shows the perfect person being so amazing that their potential is pretty much out of reach! This shows that people feel the need to be better than everyone else, and they fell the need to be exactly perfect. I think that our society needs to find a way to get rid of these terrible norms, and then we may head in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI don't think one person in the world would not want to become a better person, physically or mentally. Most Americans do not fall under the category of what is considered beautiful in the media’s standards. The media gives advice on how to look skinnier, look prettier, and be worry free all the time in magazines, TV and books. These unrealistic standards that the media puts on the world cause self esteem to go down and the want to be prettier, skinner, and healthier to go up. Our culture has trained people since they were kids to want to feel wanted, and belong in our society. The media portrays beautiful, care free people as rich socialites who have an amazing life. This is why it does not surprise me that self-help and dieting program books have grossed so much. These books are one step further to looking and feeling better which, in our minds, are things that make up a great life.
ReplyDeleteI think that self-help books and dieting programs grossing 8 billion dollars a year is true because so much of our society is concerned with image. This reveals that our society has become reliant on what is portrayed as beauty in order to determine whether they consider themselves beautiful or not. I also think this fact reveals our concern about obesity, even though being underweight is often overlooked but just as dangerous if not more dangerous to health. This could also relate to the copious amount of promotion for healthier lifestyles in our society. Dependence of media in our society plays a major role in the promotion of healthier lifestyles. The idea that because of the media humans are becoming less active is a contributor to this concern over image in society.
ReplyDeleteSelf help books and dieting programs are wonderful things, when they work. However, this seems to be too big a qualifier for many of them. Self confidence, as reflected by these statistics, is on the decline, or an interest in self-improvement is on the rise. The latter is a wonderful thing. The first is horrible. Yet the two may be inherently linked in obvious ways. A low self confidence may bring various problems that need improvement to light, which can be improved.
ReplyDeleteThis really brings up an interesting topic similar to various stories related to Anonymous. The first of which is Anonymous vs. The Church of Scientology. They didn't reject religion. What they rejected was a corporation benefiting from it. Julian Assange did not want his autobiography being sold for profit. Can we really promise people a better them in exchange for money, especially when there is no guarantee? However, if they actually can help themselves, they can improve themselves at a cost they approve of.
So, what does this all mean? The only way that these are good things is if they work on every single person who commits themselves to it. Only in that case would these be good things for the population would be to set a ridiculous scenario (ridiculous, but possible). The best thing here would be Rome's motto: Senatus populusque Romanus. The Senate and People (of Rome) together working for truth from corporations.
I think that these products make most of their profit off of peoples' insecurities. When people are insecure about their weight they seek out dieting programs. When people are insecure about other qualities they may have, they seek out a way to remedy them. This displays our societies desire to be like the images that are seen on the media. Being fed images of thin beautiful people all of the time creates an idea in peoples minds that that is the normal or acceptable way to look. People become insecure about the way they look in comparison to the media images and so they seek out any way possible to make themselves look this way. This is where the dieting and self help programs step in and offer people a seemingly perfect solution to their insecurities.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ian that I thought this number would be latger. I think that the only reason that it is this low, to put it bluntly, is because books are a dying industry. But anyways, I think that this reveals the fact that as a society, we are uncomfortable with ourselves. We are taught from a very early age to do whatever it takes to make yourself better at any part of your life. Some aspects of this competition are good. However, other aspects are unhealthy. When the media and other factors influence our thinking to say that we are not good enough, that is taking it a step too far. To me, there is a difference between, "always try to be the best you you can be" and "always try to change yourself to meet this society's standards.".
ReplyDeleteThat shows that our society wants to change or feels like they need to change something. This pressure could be from themselves or others. If it is from themselves then it might work better than not. That would be because if they felt they needed to change for someone else then it might not be what they really want. Which isn't inspiration that lasts.
ReplyDeleteI can easily believe the fact that self help books gross 8 billion dollars a year. Our desire for a fast solution to problems we brought on ourselves outweighs our sense of self esteem, and we turn to what seems to be a quick fix rather than taking matters into our own hands. In essence, that is what self help books really are: a seemingly easy way out of a problem we created, with little to no effort, time, etc. involved. It is for this reason that these books generally do not create the results that their snazzy titles and exaggerated results promise. If someone truly desires some kind of change for themselves, it must come from within them. No matter what the content of the book is, it will always be the attitude and determination that is often created through reading the self help book that will allow a person to change, not the book itself.
ReplyDeleteThe question is: what does this say about our society? It implies that our society has become increasingly lazy over the past few years. We have apparently given up on trying to make changes ourselves, and prefer look to others to get anything done. This could be caused by a number of different aspects of modern life. However, I believe there is one aspect that has been more detrimental above all else: technology and the internet. With the exponential increase in technology and internet usage over the past few years, society has been accustomed to having instantaneous, accurate, and effective solutions to any problem, through the use of the vast amount of information available to anyone with a smart phone or ipod in their pocket. This has carried over to other seemingly unrelated parts of our lives, and we expect the same immediate solutions for all of our problems that we have become used to with technology.