Social media has changed many aspects of our everyday life. This includes the way that we think about beauty. Social media has created a niche for beauty lovers and experts to come together to form an online community. Within this community, there are many different dynamics at play. Beauty bloggers seek to educate their followers, brands use social media to advertise their products, and users keep up with their favorite bloggers and brands to see what the latest trends and newest products are. Social media has created a positive space for makeup lovers and artists. It has allowed for a bridge to connect the two like never before, closing the daunting gap between student and teacher.
The newfound relationship that makeup artists and brands have with their following is not producing negative affects, like some believe. The positive space that social media is creating has allowed for the improvement of self-confidence of users, it’s made them more knowledgeable about makeup and fostered their makeup artistry. This is important because it’s happening in the palms of users’ hands. Before, one had to go to a cosmetics counter to connect with a beauty expert. Now, this is accessible anywhere at any time. Apps like Instagram are like the new department store, with its hashtags taking you directly to whatever “department” you’re seeking.
Based on Friday’s discussion, I will rework some of the sentences in my proposal to elaborate on my ideas. It was also suggested that I broaden the effects that this has, at least for the introduction, just to emphasize the importance of my topic. My group was also concerned about me being able to write the the page requirement for the assignment, so I may incorporate the negative affects of social media (because I am focusing on the positive here). Some of the negative would include those who say that even though bloggers are trying to help improve users/ viewers knowledge of makeup and its application, there is still an unrealistically high standard of beauty. Along with this, there are also Internet trolls (what is an academic word for this? or do I even need one?) who comment mean/ offensive things on peoples’ posts, both everyday users and famous bloggers, or just famous people in general. This negative comment craze has a reversing effect on what the bloggers are trying to create. For the purposes of my paper, I will “argue” that the positive overpowers the negative because this is my stance on the issue.