Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← RSHE
RSHEOnline life and digital wellbeing20 min★ difficulty

Feeds, filters and body image

Comparing yourself to a feed is comparing your ordinary day to other people's edited highlights, selected by software that rewards attention.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Recognise how media and advertising shape body image and expectations

Key learning points

  • • How the feed is built
  • • Edited images
  • • Protecting your own view

This lesson at a glance

  • 20 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

advertisingexpectationseditedimagesprotecting

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Feeds, filters and body image

An English teaching video on this topic from NLB Singapore. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Recognise how media and advertising shape body image and expectations

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · How the feed is built

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

How the feed is built

Recommendation systems show you more of whatever kept you watching. That is not a judgement about what is good for you. Content designed to provoke envy or worry performs well, so it appears more often.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

Edited images

Lighting, posture, filters and retouching change bodies substantially. Advertising in the UK must not be misleading, and some influencer posts must be labelled as ads, but a labelled ad is still a constructed image made to sell something.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

Why does a feed show certain content more?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

What must some influencer posts be labelled as?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Protecting your own view

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Protecting your own view

Practical steps: mute or unfollow accounts that reliably make you feel worse; follow a few that show ordinary bodies and real skills; set a limit on the apps that hook you hardest; notice how you feel after twenty minutes rather than during them.

10

Quick check

Part 10 of 16

Quick check

Which is a practical step for a healthier feed?

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

When is it easiest to notice an app's effect on you?

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 16

Worked example

Worked example: reading a post critically

A fitness post shows a dramatic 'six week' change. Questions to ask: are lighting and posture identical in both photos? Is anything being sold? What is not shown — how many hours, what genetics, what editing? Critical viewing is not cynicism; it is refusing to compare yourself to something that was manufactured.

13

Challenge round

Part 13 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

____ in the UK must not be misleading, and some influencer posts must be labelled as ads, but a labelled ad is still a constructed image made to sell something.

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Feeds, filters and body image

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Why does a feed show certain content more?

  2. 2. What must some influencer posts be labelled as?

  3. 3. Which is a practical step for a healthier feed?

  4. 4. When is it easiest to notice an app's effect on you?

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

The group chat

Ellie is added to a class group chat with twenty-six people in it. At first it is jokes and homework questions. Then someone screenshots a private message from a girl in another class and posts it. Several people laugh. Two people leave the chat. Ellie says nothing, and feels bad about it that evening.

The next day the girl is off school. A teacher asks the class about the chat. Nobody wants to be the one who tells.

Staying silent can feel like the safest choice in the moment. It also leaves the person who was hurt on their own.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. What choices did Ellie have at the moment the screenshot was posted?
  2. Who could she tell, and what would each of them be able to do?
  3. Write what you would do in this situation and why, in 6–8 sentences.

  • Thinking it through

    Writing

    Write what you would do in this situation, who you would ask, and why.

    6–8 sentences

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

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