We are Living

Nadine Mehanna - Grade 7

in a Dystopia and Are Yet to Admit It

I sat idly in my car, on the way to school. My face rested on my fist, as I looked out of the window. Cars swooshed past, the greenery became blurry and the buildings dominated the sides of the streets. My older sister pulled out her phone agitatedly. In the corner of my eye, I saw her go through the apps on her phone and open one that had become immensely popular. A pink musical note over a blue background: TikTok. This app, for the people who are not aware of it, is software that is based around lip-syncing and posting short 15 - 60 second clips of content. My sister pressed on the square-shaped app and was greeted with a page of videos posted by other people all around the globe. She made her way to her profile by using the toolbar at the bottom, clicked on “Drafts” and chose a sound to make a video with. Once she found a song that she liked, she began filming. Making sure that she was in the right lighting, the right position, and the right filter was chosen, she pressed lightly on the red circle at the bottom of the screen. The music began to play, as she lip-synced the lyrics to the song. The lighting made her eyes look lighter, which she considered to be more attractive. The position that she was in meant that any sign of fat or imperfection needed to be hidden away.

The filter meant that her little specks of acne were covered. She stopped filming. After replaying what she had just filmed, she deleted the clip. Her hand moved towards her hair, as her fingers interlaced with the strands of her golden-brown hair. She pushed them to the other side of her head and looked at herself in the phone screen. She began filming again. More lip-syncing. She stopped and deleted the clip. After a few seconds of waiting to make sure that the light was hitting her eyes in the correct manner, she began filming again. The lyrics of the song had been carved into my mind by then. I turned and looked at her. Engrossed in her appearance, she did not look at me nor did she realize that I was looking at her. And the cycle continued. Film. Delete. Film. Delete. Until she was satisfied. In the end, she decided that she was going to delete the clip and move on to doing something else.

All that effort, but for what? Does this sound healthy to you? This idea that one has to look a certain way to be perfect or attractive in such an unattainable manner simply puts me in a state of awe. Yet, on most days, I don’t think much of it. It is simply my sister enjoying herself, after all… Right? Clearly not. When I stopped as thought for a fraction of a second, I realized the strange behavior that we are now accustomed to. What does this say about our society?

I don’t usually have a fraction of a second to think, hence why I realized this when I made way for some thoughts to be processed. When I surf the internet, I am bombarded with propaganda, misinformation, and temptation - to the point where I don’t even have enough time to process the inhumane and impossible standards that people my age have to meet. One second. Just one second of thought. What could I do with more time to think?

After that event in the car, I began to truly ponder. COVID-19 hit us all with a wave of unexpected rules and regulations; how did this affect use of social media? One would have expected a decrease in usage, as more children had more time to do different things at home. However, the opposite happened. More people used social media as they were getting gradually more bored. And with this increase, mental health decreased exponentially. This beauty standard has simply been pushed forward now more than ever. What can we do to solve this dilemma? In my opinion, we have to educate people about the unhealthy standard that has been created to profit of insecurities of young adults. We can do this through documentaries and articles – simple, yet persuasive, manners to grasp their attention. The issue is that these platforms are addictive, meaning that removing them would be difficult, but reducing the amount of time spent on them could be beneficial when it comes to their mental well-being.

We are Livingin a Dystopia and Are Yet to Admit It

I sat idly in my car, on the way to school. My face rested on my fist, as I looked out of the window. Cars swooshed past, the greenery became blurry and the buildings dominated the sides of the streets. My older sister pulled out her phone agitatedly. In the corner of my eye, I saw her go through the apps on her phone and open one that had become immensely popular. A pink musical note over a blue background: TikTok. This app, for the people who are not aware of it, is software that is based around lip-syncing and posting short 15 - 60 second clips of content. My sister pressed on the square-shaped app and was greeted with a page of videos posted by other people all around the globe. She made her way to her profile by using the toolbar at the bottom, clicked on “Drafts” and chose a sound to make a video with. Once she found a song that she liked, she began filming. Making sure that she was in the right lighting, the right position, and the right filter was chosen, she pressed lightly on the red circle at the bottom of the screen. The music began to play, as she lip-synced the lyrics to the song. The lighting made her eyes look lighter, which she considered to be more attractive. The position that she was in meant that any sign of fat or imperfection needed to be hidden away.