24
Opinons
October 2O21
SOCIAL MEDIA Article by Abby Hernan Graphic by Jaidyn Holt
In 2003, a Harvard sophomore used his proficient coding skills to create a new site called Facemash. The concept was simple; it took two pictures of girls’ student IDs and allowed the user to choose the prettier one. That choice would then be put into an algorithm to produce a ranking of all the girls at the university. This was attractive to Harvard students, accumulating around 22,000 votes in two days. While FaceMash was short-lived, the creator’s 2004 invention, Facebook, would take off, gaining billions of curious users and forever changing the way people connect on the internet. While viewing successful people on social media can be seen as motivating, it can also give viewers a false perception of identity. Social media is marketed as a way to connect people, but it isn’t what it is made out to be. Many users, famous or not, manufacture perfection; they create a life of what people want even if it barely resembles their own. It would be naive to think that beauty standards are a new thing. From organ-crunching corsets to mercury-filled cosmetics, there is no measure too extreme if it means achieving a perfect look. However, before the rise of social media, it took a lot more than a click for people to see a deceptive model of perfection. “I know growing up, compared to now, it feels like I was only looking at people either that I saw day-to-day or in magazines,” guidance counselor and adminstrator Rylan Smith said. “Now I think you all have such immediate access to people from all over the world. People that are photoshopped, or with certain lenses on, [give] this false image of what perfect is, and everybody feels like they have to fit that model.” Overexposure to beauty standards and the rise of new insecurities is a direct response to the rise of social media. In 2018, a Pew Research Center survey of 750, 13 to 17-yearolds, found that 45% were online almost constantly and 97% used a social media platform such as Youtube or Facebook. However, social media is so intertwined with a person’s daily life, it can be hard to identify it as the root of the problem.
Despite it not being a recognizable cause, social media companies have attempted to try to hinder this toxic side of their platforms. For example, Instagram has attempted to help the problem by giving users the option to hide the number of likes a post gets. However, simply hiding the number of likes on a screen is an almost nonexistent step to solving the problem. They hide a number on the screen then sweep under the rug the photoshop, lies, self-doubt and overexposure their app provides. Instagram wants to appear like they care about the burden their site puts on users, but in reality, they don’t. Even when they seem like they are trying to promote inclusivity and acceptance, it is just a small band-aid on the cut of insecurity they have put on their users. Part of the addictiveness of social media is how a user can build their own world in it. They can post what they want people to see, and they can view people they want to become. Social media companies know the power these ideals have on their users.
