The best way to describe this phenomenon is as a never-ending cycle. Most mornings, as I arise around 9 am, I pick up my device and surf through my socials. Following with an afternoon social check, and closing with a glance at around midnight. Seems normal and healthy correct? Newsflash, it is almost impossible to scroll through social media without having an overwhelming cloud of insecurities follow you until forgotten about.
Social media apps including Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, etc., set disgustingly high standards when it comes to appearance. We as individuals are not born with insecurites, they are continuously acquired as the list of beauty standards grows more and more detailed. Personally, in most recent times, Tiktok has been the major factor of my insecurities. Tiktok is a video-sharing social network service. Most of the time, the "for you page" consists of perfectly looking people, with crystal clear skin, hour - glass bodies, etc. Sure, I may get compliments here and there (which I am so so grateful for ofcourse), but it never seems to be enough to maintain my confidence after about 3 days when I discover a new beauty expectation that I do not meet. Moving on to the topic of Instagram, influencers on this app are the main source of insecurity. Celebrities and influencers display a "perfect" lifestyle and look, when most of the time, this is never the case. These actions are only hurting society.
One thing I am proud to have taught myself throughout my experience with the unrealistic expectations is to be comfortable in my own skin. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, it is society against themselves at this point. Magaizines, social media posts, billboards, commercials, etc. need to stop putting a mask over the true person being displayed, and show how unique each and every person is. Block out those standards and be the model you are.
Christopher Apruzzi
I love how you described the modern-day beauty standard. And the sentence of how humans acquire insecurities rather than being born with them was perfect. I think that children, especially before they recognize these perfections that "need to be reached," are completely oblivious to the beauty standard and what's considered perfect or not. Even if kids are on TikTok (I know my little cousins are), they still don't have the concept of being insecure of themselves yet, and I wish that the world was not so harsh with being "less than perfect."
ReplyDeleteI love that you spoke on this. I myself have experienced these things. I feel like everyone is always trying to live up to unrealistic standard just because of what they see on social media. When what they don't realize is half of the stuff on social media is false, or even photoshopped. I know I have formed many new insecurities just based off of Tiktok itself. They constantly produce new trends, that make people that don't fit into these trends feel bad about themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis was really well spoken. I agree with you completely that today's society sets unrealistic beauty standards that are over shown and are often not even realistic. I think people often forget that many only post themselves at their best, and as a result people compare their worst to someone's best. I also love how you emphasized that the media needs to showcase how everyone is unique because our differences are what truly makes us beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this, and I love how you highlighted this topic. Many people in the media are seen as perfect, and this is completely untrue. No one is perfect, and social media can be harmful to children and teens who spend years trying to reach an unrealistic standard.
ReplyDeletePeople seem to obsessed with this preset standard so much, they are unable to adapt to new standard of beauty. Our society states that they are "accept ant" or even "open minded" but that's not really the case. Everyone needs to achieve the same beauty standard now in order to be considered attractive, and we are helpless to change as we continuously support this behavior due to the abundance of material we are given. Although we have goals to eventually be more open minded, the sheer amount of exposure to this close minded beauty standard in our society impedes us from doing this.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. I also have the habit of scrolling through social media apps when I wake up, after school, and before bed. And I, too, end up feeling pretty awful after doing so (especially when I get caught up after school and it can last way too long). But my reason for feeling terrible isn't because of seeing others' perfection; it's because of news and reading people's terrible commentary on it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is a function of me being (obviously) older and no longer comparing myself to others... or if it's because I gravitate toward more textual social media than visual...