I truly don't understands this perspective. It used to be that mass media was a tightly-controlled, walled-off garden. The set number of popular and accessible magazines, tv stations and films suffered from far more centralized control, had far less inclusion in its leadership and staff, and resulted in a hyper-narrow range of acceptable beauty and image standards. It was borderline dystopian.
Young people, by and large, could only view media that was part of this monoculture. They were already seeing it all everywhere they went. Now, with just a little looking, people can find an entire universe of body-positive media and communities that simply did not exist in the 80's and 90's. So while there may be more ways to transmit body negativity thanks to the internet, I'd argue there is not more body negativity because we had already maxed it out. It's just as bad as it had been for decades. The difference now is an alternative exists!
I'd agree that 'body positivity' is easier to find in this climate, but is it what's being often served on these platforms algorithmically? Is it the default prior to your personal 'profile' being recorded? Does it pump the 'engagement cycle' at a better rate than these 'body negative' cultures? If not, then we're not better off in this era because-- as we've seen-- the engagement cycle is a feedback loop. It amplifies itself. And the qualities of the people it attracts.
I personally do not take issue with these cultures existing; however i do take issue with how they are propagated and promoted. These systems don't afford users the full breadth of 'response options' as we would have in real life. You can't even express simple dislike or disagreement, unlike 'love' and 'like', etc. Not to mention the black-box engines of recommendation and discovery of new content in the first place.
And though i don't agree that there's ~less body negativity in the aggregate that wouldn't mean that is has less impact. A small culture highly-addicted to body negativity could have larger social impacts than widely-held-but-less-addicted. We see it across many other domains already in our 'American' culture.
Maybe this body negativity came from inaccessible people, who were famous/connected enough to be on these pages.
Now, everyone can do it, and many are around you, accessible. They are your friend's friends or your friends.
Moreover, mobile applications and web applications allows you to touch up your appearance. You look and say "I'd be so much beautiful/handsome this way, but I'm not, and never will be".
Self criticism inflicts the greatest damage since there's no restraint, no barrier to dampen down to its effects. It's very destructive.
I think the problem is people think there isn't an attractive main stream that people look to regardless of microculture (see Kaitlin Jenner for example as someone who finds themselves an outsider within a small community). But even if that were not the case, being anti-X is also a problem in itself as you are defining yourself against X.
Wanting to be "popular" has its problems but wanting to be "anti-popular" is also a problem because in the end it's not yourself. Being the not-popular also has it's own mainstream so it will have the same popular and anti-popular dynamic. So the only ones benefiting are the company and aware "influencers".
This is probably 90% rose-colored glasses, but to play the devil’s advocate, the monoculture did give people more commonality and I wonder if people were more social - and maybe even less divided - as a result. There is something to be said for people to have something in common to bond over and not being at each other’s throats all the time - often over mundane things.
Young people, by and large, could only view media that was part of this monoculture. They were already seeing it all everywhere they went. Now, with just a little looking, people can find an entire universe of body-positive media and communities that simply did not exist in the 80's and 90's. So while there may be more ways to transmit body negativity thanks to the internet, I'd argue there is not more body negativity because we had already maxed it out. It's just as bad as it had been for decades. The difference now is an alternative exists!