“As technology takes over our lives, body image becomes an obsession […] All day we think about what others see” (Chase et al, 2015).

From a young age we are exposed to society’s depiction of desirable and presented with unattainable standards of beauty. We are bombarded with photo-shopped women on a daily basis and feel the pressures of achieving the standard of beauty being presented to us. As these standards become more prevalent and persuasive, so does the amount of women and girls with low self-worth. Many believe that feeding women with relentless images of inaccessible beauty is potentially worrying. What we don’t realise is how much these images are being digitally altered. No wonder women are incapable of reaching and achieving these ideals of beauty. “They’re not simply unrealistic, they are physically impossible, and yet those images are internalized as average and beautiful. […] “It’s a profit-driven idea of normal and beautiful that women will spend their lives trying to achieve” even though [they] are aware of how unrealistic these expectations are” (HiddenGrace, 2015).

 In an age of high engagement, how has social media affected our self-image?

With the rise of social media and the ‘selfie, it would appear that we are breeding a generation of narcissistic young people who are obsessed with appearances. Our piece seeks to explore identity, technology and this obsession with idealised beauty. Something that we have discussed at great length is the concept of self-censoring your online identity and only allowing the more desirable and appealing aspects to leak out and make it onto social media platforms.

The opinion of others has been a part of identity development for more than a century. “Now that we can interact with […] thousands of people, we’ve strengthened the impact that others have on our self-value” (Erickson, 2013). Self-image is crucial to us; we rely on others perceptions and appraisals to develop our social self. The thought of us uploading a photo that is anything less than perfect is unimaginable. Therefore every ‘selfie’ is taken with precision. The ‘selfie’ allows us to retake the image until it meets our expectations and then improve upon it by digitally altering to create a more ‘likeable self’ and show a version that we think might be more appealing to people.

This is something we wish to explore in our piece Username. We want to highlight the increasingly narcissistic society in which we care more about what others think. We also want to highlight the obsessive and meticulous process of taking selfies in order to try and find the perfect image.

Works Cited:

Chase, R. (2015) Username. [DesignerWork] Lincoln 20 April.

Chase, R. (2015) Selfie Post. 24 April. Available from: https://instagram.com/p/13HCWjKCtI/?taken-by=rosiechase_ [Accessed 24 April 2015].

Chase, R., Gudge, C., Hartley, S. and Haynes, H. (2015) Username. Lincoln.

Erickson, C. (2013) The Social Psychology of the Selfie. [online] Available from: http://mashable.com/2013/02/15/social-media-and-the-selfie/ [Accessed 15 April 2015].

HiddenGrace. (2015) Influences of Unrealistic Beauty Ideals in the Media. [online]Available from: https://www.7cupsoftea.com/forum/7CupsofTeaLiteratureClub_67/7CupsofTeaLiteratureESSAYS_266/InfluencesofUnrealisticBeautyIdealsintheMedia_14452/ [Accessed 15 April 2015].