Sunday, February 16Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Please Perceive Me

People have been insecure since the dawn of time, that’s undeniable. Women have donned makeup, shaved their legs, and styled their hair in elaborate updos as far back as the Greeks and Romans (if not longer), and men have sought after the perfectly sculpted physique for just as long. Yet, the emergence of social media has undeniably exasperated this need to be beautiful to a dangerous extent. With eating disorders, steroid abuse, and plastic surgery on the rise people have never walked the line of self-hatred and vanity so precariously before.

In the age of social media, it is impossible to go unnoticed. Even if you were to spend all week in bed, stuck in an endless cycle of scrolling and liking, you are being perceived by others. Even without the need for commenting or posting, you likely have a profile picture that is popping up in the ‘likes’ of some post for the entire world to see. Even if you approach the world in incognito mode, with no profile photo and only your closest friends as followers, your activity is still readily available for others to see. And when people see, they perceive. Whether you’ve liked some stupid Instagram reel of a cat getting scared by a vacuum cleaner or an AI TikTok slideshow of what beverage you are based on your birth month, a perception of you is formed in the mind of whoever has stumbled across the fact that you’ve liked said thing. We all know this, and we are all constantly asking ourselves ‘how will this be perceived?’ when we act online.

This is even more true for those of us who post on social media. Whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, or any other platform, there is always the risk (and, for some, the glimmer of hope) that these posts will go viral. The potentiality that the faux candid photo of us snapped in a cutesy café or an underground alleyway will be seen by thousands haunts us. Will we become the next ‘it girl’ or the next victim of cringe culture?

Before social media, this level of publicity only existed for celebrities. Now, everyone can be a celebrity (if even just for a day) – you don’t even need talent or nepotism anymore! Regular people like you and I previously only faced the risk of judgement from those who actively knew us, and perhaps the odd passerby on the street, who would be unlikely to say anything to your face. But, with the distance and dissonance between screens, it’s become increasingly common for complete strangers to pass judgement on you. ‘Smile, you’re in the original’ has become so frequently typed and posted that any seasoned social media user can probably name at least one post they’ve seen it commented under. And when this judgement comes in hoards, it’s hard not to fear it.

We’ve developed the need to scrutinise everything that could possibly be wrong with ourselves – the way we look, the way we talk, the way we’re standing on camera. Does my eyeliner look more feline like or outdated-puppy-liner like? If people see this, what will they think of me? What will they assume of me? How will they perceive me? How do I ensure I’m beautiful enough for the entire world to not hate me?

Not only is this destroying our own self confidence, but the environment too. Hand-in-hand with these microanalyses, skipping along with a maniacal laugh, is the existence of micro-trends. They ease the anxiety of not knowing how we’ll be perceived, but they entrap us in a cycle of consumption. Social media has evidently created a world in which we are being frequently perceived and suspect to criticism from more people than ever before. It’s not only killing us but the world, and it’s no wonder why the line between vanity and self hatred has become so thin.

Photo by Ashley Piszek on Unsplash