This article discusses the negatives of social media. The title of the article is “Why don’t I look like her?” And that’s a pretty serious question that social media users have when scrolling through beauty influencers’ accounts, celebrities’ accounts and that one ‘pretty’ girl they know. It’s also a question that I’ve asked myself before too, but then I have to remind myself that I’m a guy and men have different facial features than women do, BUT I see this as both inspiration and a challenge. Firstly inspiration to create their faces on my own but also a challenge by challenging myself to perfect my artistry to recreate their looks. I just thought that I should outline that before continuing given my stance on how I think social media is changing the beauty industry. I feel as though it is a space for users to teach and to learn, not a negative space for users to hate on each other.
The article says that, “no one wants to look bad on the internet.” I think this is a really powerful statement because it’s true. We create an online persona via Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, ect. and we always want to look our best. The article says that many users will edit their pictures before posting them, or take them at angles to hide their self perceived flaws. I think that it’s great that we have the technology to edit pictures and take pictures so quickly in the palms of our hands, but as social media users, we have to realize that what we’re seeing isn’t always reality. And sure, if you have a major pimple and you want to blur it out in your selfie, go ahead. But it’s when people go overboard with their editing and create an entirely new person, we create unrealistic standards of beauty. The article continues to say that in print media (which is being replaced by the digital) we know that the models have probably been edited in some way; we expect it. What we may not expect is that every day users are editing their own pictures in this same way. So, we see a model in a magazine or ad and think, “wow she’s gorgeous, I want to look like her.” And then we take a look around at the people we see in real life and think, “hmm, no one really looks like her, I guess that means that that picture is altered.” After all, we do expect pictures to be altered for campaigns. But when we see everyday people online look like the models that we see who we already know have been altered, we think, “wow this average person looks like that model, but they must actually look like that because they’re not a model and therefore can’t be photoshopped.” Although this is simplified, I think the message still shines through. Young girls (and boys) are seeing their peers appear to be unrealistic, which in turn diminishes their self confidence because they don’t look like their peers.