As I was reading chapter one of Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman I came across a sentence that made me realize what the internet has made our society become. Postman states," Indeed, we many have reached the point where cosmetics has replaced ideology as the field of expertise over which a politician must have competent control"(4). Many people decide to chose someone because they are considered "good looking" and not because of their outstanding ideas.
Since, the media has become a large part of our lives and we are constantly on the web,our ideology on certain topics such as, physical appearance, has quietly changed. We have now started to define people that physically appeal to the eye as beautiful and attractive, because that is what we see on social media. We forget that physical appearance shouldn't be what defines beauty, but the way they treat others and what their heart has to give.
I also thought that this topic related to one of the short articles from one of the debates, "The Constant Sharing is Making Us Competitive and Depressed" by Emerson Csorba. He writes about how we are so involved in other's lives while we are on social media that we start wishing for many things that we don't have many times leading to depression. This relates to one's physical appearance because we see many people with fit bodies and extremely nice and luxurious clothing. Many identifying this as beauty making people insecure because they don't have these types of things. We get caught up in this fantasy that we forget to appreciate everything we have and all the great things about it.
- Mayra Guerrero
I also agree with how society has placed most of its emphasis on trivial qualities, such as vanity. This era of technology has subsequently precipitated an era of paranoia, where appearance or physicality trumps all else, including someone's persona or rational thoughts. Postman's fear over cosmetics becoming the prime, deciding factor of political races may be a bit extreme, but does reflect how self absorbed our society has become. Visual mediums like social media or television leaves room for an unprecedented amount of visual instead of contextual scrutiny. Whether it's commenting on a politician's weight, or devaluing an individual for their style, what is physically appealing is in danger of becoming the new definition of what is factually appealing.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading I also thought about how what is inside of a person is no longer important to those who see you. Many would rather focus on if someone looks similar to the people they see on the media. I especially like how you said that we define the physically appealing people as “beautiful and attractive”. Almost no one ever uses those words to describe how a person is inside. Really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the book!
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ReplyDeleteI too believe that the media has forced us to focus more on one's physical appearance rather than what they offer from within. There are limits to how much an individual can display on the web. Although we have the ability to express ourselves on the web, like on social networking apps, we still have a screen that borders our true thoughts and actions. The screen disguises many of our flaws that aren't shown to the media. So being, we aren't given the chance to fully know a person's reasons and thoughts or even their actual appearance. Before posting an image or comment on the web the user makes many edits to their post, this process kills its rawness and personality. The media limits how much we know a person. We are not given enough access to be able to find their insides "beautiful and attractive" but since we can view their outsides so easily, it is effortless to give them such adjectives.
This is very true, it is one of the big problems people deal with in their everyday lives. Social media sets a standard that everyone tries to meet and it just results in people comparing themselves and like you said they will become depressed.
ReplyDeleteNot only that but we begin lose ourselves in social media and forget that people are able to edit themselves and can even pretend to be a completely different person. This brings up the problem that we truly are no longer able to find the "beauty and attractive" within peoples personality. It is sad to see something like social media interfere with peoples lives so much that it can change the way we think.
Social has changed the way see many topics today. Like you said that we appeal more to the good looking person because social media has taught us that it is the pretty faces that should get the attention. We all see how many followers an attractive person has vs. one who is not as attractive. Other might also believe that since they have a pretty face, they know everything and are the best. However, we should not change our opinion based on looks but by the way they treat others and how they want to impact something.
ReplyDeleteI feel that social media makes people forget that appearance isn't what is best about a person. Someone can be the most gorgeous human being I have ever seen and still can become unattractive by the way they interact and treat others. Personality in my opinion is what the world should be looking at before anything. Also, what people forget is that Photoshop is a thing and that peoples appearance can be totally different in the real world than over a device. So before you get insecure and feel that just because you don't look a certain way doesn't mean you're not an attractive person.
ReplyDeleteSocial media has done major damage to the self esteem of adolescence. In the midst of idolizing the ones that fit the societal description of beautiful, we disregard those that are beautiful in their own individual way. This only leads to the next issue of lost of self identity. You now have unconfident individuals shaping their identity into what will grasp the most attention from their peers. Until the issue of the glorification of appearance over ideology is terminated, the next best thing is to decide within yourself if you’re going to allow this to affect you or build up your own self esteem.
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