"I didn't post it, so it didn't happen", - under such a motto social networks burst into our lives. Users show everything: what they eat, where they dress, where they go. It is time when reality and virtuality are intertwined so closely that sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between them. And if initially the world was captured by photographs, then the trend of today is video content. But not everyone turned out to be ready for that, filters and masks came to the aid of those who prefer tête-à-tête communication. They skillfully hide flaws, allowing you to look more attractive and add some confidence. It only became clear that all this virtual beauty clouded the real-life of specific people. Beauty expert and entrepreneur from New York Daria Mudrova told cosmo.ru that why in America they increasingly talk about naturalness and abandon stereotypes in the field of external beauty.
It is already impossible to imagine our life without advertising goods and services. I hit a search engine query, and now - for several days I am a hostage to obsessive banners, opened social networks to chat with a friend - and stuck on a video where a blogger was already trying to sell me something, decided to watch a cute video, it turned out that it was sewn up at the end advertising. It's already impossible to simply switch the channel or turn over the magazine page. The feeling that advertising is becoming trickier than us. Of course, content producers have to make various tricks, because it is getting harder and harder to promote brands every year.
It is known that Generation Y practically hardly affected by ordinary advertising, therefore, not wanting to lose profit, companies are obliged each time to come up with new sophisticated ways to convey information to the consumer. Now, Instagram is considered the largest, cheapest, and effective platform for the promotion of goods and services, as well as the creation of trends.
Most of us almost automatically begin and end the day by flipping through the feed of social networks, which is skillfully used by those who create content. It seems to me that we didn't even notice when Instagram ceased to be a platform where users simply upload photos of food, friends, and travels. IG became the main digital platform for building a personal brand, a vanity fair, selling goods, and promoting services, including beauty, which is quite natural, since Instagram is based primarily on visual content. To look more attractive and feel more confident without unnecessary troubles, masks and filters were created.
In August last year, an AR catalog of masks and filters appeared on Instagram - effects that overlap when you shoot through an Instagram camera. Initially, all the effects were only from Instagram itself. A bit later it became possible for bloggers and companies to create their filters. It would seem wonderful, this should have made our life easier: no need to waste time making make-up in reality, it is better to use it to create suitable content. But everything turned out to be much more complicated.
In October 2019, Spark AR removed filters with the effect of plastic surgery, since, according to the developers of the application, they can deform the psyche of people, pushing them to change their appearance in real life.
But Instagram decided not to stop, it began to hide posts advertising cosmetic procedures and weight loss products. According to The Guardian, such publications are hidden from users under the age of 18. We are talking about the promotion of dietary supplements, detox teas, cosmetic procedures, and special diets. If the price of the product is indicated in the advertising publication or there is a call for purchase, the post will not be shown to minors. And if the publication describes the "miraculous effect", and also added a promotional code or discount, then such a post will be completely deleted.
A month after this ban, Instagram limited publications on the topic of plastic surgery and weight loss. Representatives of the IG said that their platform should be "a positive place for everyone who uses it. And this policy is part of the ongoing work to reduce the pressure that people may experience after using social networks. "
And they know what they are talking about because as a result of a study by The Royal Society for Public Health in the UK in 2017, it turned out that Instagram has a strong effect on the occurrence of anxiety, depression, bullying and loss of profit syndrome - FOMO, an obsessive fear of missing an interesting event or a good opportunity. Four out of ten people experienced SUV (loss of profits syndrome) at least occasionally, with men more often than women. The Huffington Post published a report saying that filters, like those used on Instagram, encourage people to perform plastic surgery, in particular rhinoplasty and lip augmentation.
Recently, Cynthia Nixon's video has become viral on the network in which the actress of the once-popular TV series "Sex and the City" reads the text Be a Lady They Said ("Be a Lady, They Said"). Her main message is that in modern society, women are constant subjects of pressure. All the rules and recommendations for women that Nixon talks about contradict each other: use cosmetics, but stay natural; eat a lot, but stay slim; dress candidly, but remain chaste: "Be a lady," they said. Don't be too fat. Do not be too thin. Eat. Lose weight. Enough to eat so much. Order a salad. Don't eat carbohydrates. Skip the dessert. Go on a diet. God, you look like a skeleton..." and so on.
Girls receive a message very early that they must be irresistible around the clock: beautiful, sexy, extremely thin and so on, but this is a difficult and often impossible task for several reasons that lead to depression in young women, so now the main trend among ladies in the USA is it is to be yourself. Americans actively oppose such gender-based harassment and increasingly advocate independence from other people's opinions and confidence in any weight, age, and appearance.
Author: Daria Mudrova
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