Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter

helps us locate ourselves in different contexts to find out who we are and make meaning out of it. Comparison is also a form and a result of iden- tity, because we tend to compare ourselves with other people. That influences what we do, how we think and how we dress. There are many things on social media that change our percep- tion of ourselves and the world. What people show on social media only portrays their “high- light reel”, and never the things that seem in- significant, unpleasant or flawed. Because why should we show those moments to others? This then begs the question of to what extent social media portrays reality. Of course, some pictures or content online is authentic, such as random photos of food, cats, animals, buildings and places in the world, but what about the content posted by people about themselves? For example, why does it feel good to post mul- tiple pictures of ourselves with our friends, but unsatisfying when we put up selfies with wet hair? Why do we like to post pictures of our- selves with makeup, but never our bare and seemingly imperfect, yet beautiful faces? Why do we show and gloat about glossy, branded things, but rarely share the most ordinary things like our slightly ripped shoes or broken bags? Why? Because we feel secure and comfortable with the idea that people will never be able to see our bad moments. Only showing this “ide- alized” version of ourselves and our lives gives us that sense of confidence and pride—which to me, is not real confidence at all. Do you remember the Kylie Jenner challenge back in 2015? If you have not heard of it, it was a trend where girls as young as seventeen tried to make their lips look bigger and more luscious by placing their lips into a shot glass, and then sucked the air out of the glass to create suction. This was seen and done on almost every social media platform, and because young girls are often on social media, they were forcefully ex- posed to this type of content. Despite it being just a “fun” challenge for young people to do, it cannot be denied that challenges like these per- petuate the notion that the idea of beauty means having “big breasts” and “big lips”. Young girls then feel the need to change their identities and how they look on social media to the point that their identity no longer feels authentic anymore. They think that Kylie Jenner is “perfect”, as she often posts pictures of herself and her life that all look extremely rich and glamorous, which in- cludes a huge number of selfies that also empha- size her “luscious lips”. Only later did they find out that Jenner actually underwent surgery and received lip injections. However, some young girls may refuse to believe this, because her look has become a standard of “real beauty”. Such content is easily consumed, just as how easy it is to stream your favorite show on Netflix. Conse- quently, what these young women consume has influenced their mindset of how beauty should be, thereby negatively shaping how they per- ceive themselves and carry themselves on social media. Most of the time, with all the information that is given to us, it can be easy to get caught up in what is the trend, to the point where we slowly start to lose ourselves as individuals. Social media can be a very judgmental and scary place, and that is why we should change our perception and not fall into the “vibrant” aesthetic of people’s on- line posts. The notion that everyone’s lives are all rainbows and butterflies, like what we see on social media, is unrealistic and very absurd. It skews our perception of not only reality, but also own identities too. At the end of the day, nobody wants to post about their bad moments, resulting in an unrealistically positive and prob- lem-free portrayal of life. Maybe it would be eas- ier to stop using social media all at once to avoid such content…or maybe we can just choose not to be so easily deceived. Ultimately, it is in our control and up to what we feel is best for us to shape social media into the actual blessing that it should be. Ella is a student at EdUHK studying English Education with a minor in Film and Popular Culture. She loves books and tea! 17 JANUARY 2018

Newsletter (2017-2018) January 2018 Newsletter | Page 17