Entourage
Eden Tartour
Entourage questions our behavior on social media, the way we represent ourselves online, and the way it impacts our self-esteem. Entourage targets teenage girls, an active group on social media who is deeply affected by Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Royal Society for Public Health asked teenage girls in the UK how social media apps impacted their mental health and wellbeing and the results showed that social media led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness.
This thesis encourages young girls to accept and love themselves the way they are, the way they look, and the way they act without filters. According to Robin Dunbar, a respected anthropologist who described our social network as layered, our closest groups of friends include an average of fifteen people—this is why Entourage limits our interactions to fifteen people at a time. The app allows its “cliquers” to post and react through instant GIFs, videos and pictures encouraging them to accept who they really are. Moreover, because social media have been described as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol, Entourage limits its users to be active on the app only five minutes a day.
At Entourage we believe that the app will help teenage girls sharing their true selves with their best friends leading them to feel physically and mentally better. With time and perseverance, Entourage will prove that having a healthy online presence will make us feel and be better.