The Internet Makes Me Feel Fat

It's good that men and women are worried about their bodies. The internet gives and extreme impression of what is "normal", yes, but ignoring body image altogether to avoid guilt is not healthy either. Sure lets blame the internet. How about instead of focusing on not being "fat" we are more focused on being active and healthy? Because it's not cheap and it's not easy? In America weight is it one of our biggest concerns because it is leaning us towards obesity, diabetes, heart complications, etc. You know the whole song and dance. If you are on the computer all day obsessing then you get what you "paid" for.

When you think about it, a lot of the things in The Matrix is really kind of limited, not exactly the kind of thing you'd do if you "free your mind." Sure Neo can fly, (so can Superman, that's not exactly new) but that kind of "power" is based on or references the limitation of gravity, which is also limited to the idea of a body located in space for that matter. Even if you're going to do that, why not teleport?

So the freedom that comes with the online world is also one that references existing structures, the fact that we have a body, social needs and the like. Simply put, a lot of the influence with stuff like this is peer pressure, or at least peer influence. While social influence is powerful, it is by no means the only factor nor is it the most intelligent - but a lot of people seem to act like it is. If you follow the crowd you probably don't think for yourself, or just don't think period - and if the crowd largely consists of people like this it's no wonder it's not very smart. Rather than being a unique individual that contributes to the collective, people tend to try to fit in to the collective and be preoccupied with being accepted and liked - and a bunch of people looking to follow someone else isn't exactly a recipe for genius.

So to me this positive reinforcement from the virtual world is just the same crap turned upside down. For better or worse, it's all waiting for outside influence to change you, when it is questionable that you'd even want to be changed in that particular way. We can talk about how twisted our standards are, but why even identify with that at all? Outside of how we're hardwired biologically, standards as a psychosocial construct will only limit you. So the question is, do you really prefer being with the/a crowd over being free?

IT'S JUST A MOVIE!!!

Shame on this writer. In supposedly lamenting that the internet is bad for body image and self-esteem, she tells men that Laurence Fishburne is 'fat'.

SecondLife is loaded with Ken and Barbie doll-like avatars. I, for one, chose to create a short, average looking, 300+ lb avatar ....Sarita Jonson. It is odd to watch "cool," size 4 avatars walk away from me when I approach. The male ones usually teleport away quickly. In real life I'm a size 10. It is to our society's demise that we fail to focus on character ---- we'd rather have an image. :(

"The increasing opportunities to immerse ourselves in fantasy stunt us in reality."
Pretty profound statement and very true. The majority of people will choose to do what is easiest, rather than what is right. It's much easier to look at fit celebs and tell yourself 'they're in good shape because they can pay for a trainer and dietician,' or pretend to take pride in your health, than it is to actually get off your butt and exercise and eat right every day.

This article, my apologies to the writer, is not very good. It doesn't cover a lot of area, it doesn't seem to reach a distinct conclusion, and the examples she uses are ambiguous, confusing, and hardly relevant. The way it is written seems very amateur, also. I didn't need to read this and I learned nothing from it. Just because an article is about modern self-image and will certainly get a lot of hits does not mean that it is worth publishing.

"The increasing opportunities to immerse ourselves in fantasy stunt us in reality."
Pretty profound statement and very true. The majority of people will choose to do what is easiest, rather than what is right. Much easier to look at fit celebs or pretend to take pride in your health than it is to actually get off your butt and do it every day.

This article, my apologies to the writer, is not very good. It doesn't cover a lot of area, it doesn't seem to reach a distinct conclusion, and the examples she uses are ambiguous, confusing, and hardly relevant. The way it is written seems very amateur, also. I didn't need to read this and I learned nothing from it. Just because an article is about misconstrued self-image and will certainly get a lot of hits does not mean that it is worth publishing to the public.

Note: I apologize for the multiple posts, my web browser clearly is screwy. Could a webmaster please delete the duplicates?

simply "How you see yourself". Meaning Morpheus would not be able to change his weight (thought I still don't see why that would be a big issue). An excellent point was brought up about this second reality, however the mindset of the author seems to jump all over the place with few to no transitions. Additionally, the jokes were very difficult to appreciate. That's as nice as I could make this sound, sorry =P

I appreciated the direction this article was supposedly going based on the title, but in reality the good reading only occurs in the 4th to last paragraph and dissipates shortly after. At the risk of sounding like a Matrix fanatic, I find this necessary since so much was alluded to the film throughout the article: At no point in the 3 movies is it said you can altar your own image, this "Second Avatar" in the film is

I appreciated the direction this article was supposedly going based on the title, but in reality the good reading only occurs in the 4th to last paragraph and dissipates shortly after. At the risk of sounding like a Matrix fanatic, I find this necessary since so much was alluded to the film throughout the article: At no point in the 3 movies is it said you can altar your own image, this "Second Avatar" in the film is

I appreciated the direction this article was supposedly going based on the title, but in reality the good reading only occurs in the 4th to last paragraph and dissipates shortly after. At the risk of sounding like a Matrix fanatic, I find this necessary since so much was alluded to the film throughout the article: At no point in the 3 movies is it said you can altar your own image, this "Second Avatar" in the film is

great article. :) I'm so glad someone finally pointed out that sites like "Second Life" cause Americans to try to be too "perfect" like celebrities. we can't hide our looks in real life, why do so online?

i thought the article was abt the internet making you feel fat but instead goes off topic talking abt the matrix, tv shows & air brushed pix in mags. what happened to THE INTERNET - shouldn't it focus on how everyday there's a new site with 20 weight-loss ways or brand new fad diet or MSN's endless superfoods, i think a discussion of that rather than morpheus's physique would've been more interesting. in defence of morpheous: freedom from the matrix is about finding your individuality, your own self not trying to be a lookalike neo/keanu. he had to be his own person to act his own role - it'd deafeat the purpose of an alternate existence in neo became the generic look for all males in the film.

I hate the idea or rather fact because that's what it is now that the internet on a whole has now become such an important factor in making people think in a particular way. People's own sense of judgment , morals honesty and everything else seem to have just gone down the drain. What I suggest? Indeed there's a lot a really good info out there capitalize on what you need to grow, develop so you can later contribute to this rapidly deteriorating global community.

WOW! What's with you people? Yea i said it; "you people...! Nothing else but Being fat would make me feel fat. Yes, there are "normal" or "ideal" sizes for humans based on their frames. Those stats are pretty LEANient too (ha ha)! But geez people....if you are fat THAT should be what makes you feel fat. If you are blaming it on sights or skinny people that you see on the internet or wherever, then it's YOU blaming it on whatever you wanna blame it on. I truly believe it would do you (the one who happens to be fat) VERY well to stop blaming anything other than YOUR eating too much and less-than-healthy lifestyle on your "fatness" or how you feel about your weight and/or size. If you dont like being fat, or feel that you are, get off your fat ass and fix it! Don't sit on your chair or lounge around on your sofa with your laptop surfing around the internet, looking for things to bitch about, while downing your bag of chips and a soda or two!