Jenny Bathurst: "The more technology advances the worse this will get"

Don’t you find it bizarre that apps and platforms, simply places for individuals to share images of themselves, brings to light and makes us so much more aware of our body image. Because really, we see other ‘bodies’ every day: walking down the street, at work, in a coffee shop, even on television. We consistently come across others in all shapes and sizes, but somehow it seems to be social media and other online platforms that has caused so many of us to look at our own bodies and try to find every which way to make it look anything but how it does naturally. I say ‘somehow’, but I think really we know exactly why this is.

Social media is fake. Okay maybe not all of it. The pictures I post of my cat laying in the sun aren’t fake, and neither are the completely dreadful images of me on my mum’s account. (Thank goodness it’s set to private.) But the vast majority of all we see on Instagram, Facebook, you name it, is edited, warped, distorted and perfected until it is ‘enviable.’ Some might argue otherwise, but I really believe that this is the word that is subconsciously focused on in the online world. Hey, I’m sure I do it too without even realising.

Images and captions and stories are posted with the general effect of ‘Wow, that’s amazing she had that opportunity’ or ‘I wish I looked like that’ or sometimes ‘I look dreadful compared to them, something must be wrong with me.’ Yes, jealousy and insecurity was of course a ‘thing’ before the internet. You hear someone is going abroad somewhere idyllic or just landed their dream job and there is sometimes a bit of a sting, but at least that’s often real.

I’ll say it again. Social media is fake. I so fear for future generations as parents are handing their children these devices at younger and younger ages, because I truly don’t believe it is going to get any better. I remember being so appalled on finding out that influencers use apps to whiten their teeth, remove any spots or moles, smooth their skin and warp their bodies. Perhaps I was just naive and too young, but I assumed that the thinking with posting an image was ‘Ah that’s a nice picture, I’ll post that’, without any premeditation deciding on what needs to go and what needs to be added. The more technology advances the worse this will get. And it scares me. And this is coming from the mouth of a 21-year-old who uses and engages with social media every day. It is our responsibility to say over and over again, ‘This is fake. This is not reality.’ and educate future generations on what is real. We are all beautiful, we are all perfect, and we don’t need an app to prove that.