As well as TV and Movies, there are other media outlets that tend to support the inundation of the image of perfection. Social media is used amongst such a large amount of youth that it has become a defining characteristic of the youth culture of today, arguably more so than its fashions, music or politics. On these platforms teenagers have the ability to present themselves in any way they desire, hiding away parts of themselves they don't want to share and instead projecting their idealised ‘perfect’ selves. One example of this is Instagram, a site that lets its users post and share photos. To further explore the use of social media as a tool for promoting ‘perfection’, I will look at the Instagram model Essena O’Neill and her viral story (her personal account is available to watch through the attached video) as a prime example of young people obsessing over their image.
O’ Neill had been an Instagram model from the age of 12 till 19, meaning she was paid to post certain photos promoting products such as fake tan, hair dye, teeth whiteners, clothing and so on. Eventually O’ Neill began to realise ‘social media and appearance addiction has taken over our youth’ and started removing posts or replacing their captions with the truth about the effort that went into achieving the required ‘look’ in the photo. This realisation - that she was so intensely obsessed with creating the ‘perfect’ photo - shocked Essena into asking the question initially proposed in this article: ‘why do we focus so intently on appearances?’. She makes a significant point on one caption stating ‘you listen because I look pretty’, implying that our culture has indeed come to value appearance over qualities such as intelligence and integrity. As a culture, we not only ourselves want to achieve perfection, but we envy those who appear to have it and thus idolise those people, deeming every aspect of their identity as ‘perfect’ as a result of their ‘perfect’ appearance.
Millennials.