Edited by: Lavanya Goswami
Scrolling through my Instagram feed the other day, I realised that I couldn’t recall a time when I hadn’t seen it filled with gorgeous faces and random people: people that I had no association with, nor would ever know. I wonder if it’s ever happened to you?
What was surprising, was that most of them weren’t even celebrities! They were simply people with a platform: common folk who put themselves out there.
The number of social media users has jumped by more than 13% since this time last year, with the latest data showing an increase of more than half a billion users in just 12 months. There are now 4.48 billion social media users around the world, which is equal to almost 57% of the world’s total population.
More than half of the entire world has some sort of social media presence now, because it’s so easy to have one. However, my point here is not to berate social media or its users — God knows that would be incredibly hypocritical; I just wanted to shed light upon how it has almost completely evolved our presence on the internet and to a rather large extent, people’s perceptions of not only themselves but other people as well.
Social Media has made it increasingly easy for people to ‘sell’ themselves. Not literally—in the sense that anyone who has a social media account these days, has an easy way of marketing themselves: a way of turning their account into a platform that they can profit off of.
After all, what is content but creation? After all, what are followers but supporters? And if you’re lucrative enough, they can even become your employers, your patrons.
As opposed to the early days, when social media was simply about sharing common interests among a close circle of people, social media these days has become increasingly subject to capitalisation And it’s nobody’s fault. It’s the very nature of social media: it demands attention. Increasing followers, likes and public attention is addictive, and affects us, even if we do not want it to.
Moreover, in an age when internet celebrities and social media influencers are huge, it’s difficult to not view social media as something that can improve your life. Here are influencers being handed incredible opportunities at their doorstep; some even getting the chance to walk prestigious runways and attend exclusive celeb events such as the Met Gala! It’s difficult to not view social media as something that can improve your life and in numerous ways. Because it can! While it may seem that this phenomenon—this new direction of self-employment is beneficial, it’s important to ask questions about who exactly is benefitting from this and what agency means in this sphere.
Although controversial, it would not be inaccurate to say that a lot of people (especially women) profit off of their bodies and attractiveness, especially on apps (ex. Tiktok, Instagram) that demand one to reveal their appearance. While this in itself, might not be questionable, let’s talk about those who do not have agency over their content and the things they put out there. I believe, the very small percentage is actually a lot more than one might fathom:
Children and teenagers.
Because of how widespread social media is, people from all age groups are on it. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that there are kids as young as six or seven on social media apps — many even with large social media followings, despite the age restrictions.
The age restrictions, at the end of the day, don’t really do anything. They’re just a customary warning plastered onto a metaphorical cigarette box for the sake of courtesy. The internet doesn’t care if you die of lung cancer, neither do the big conglomerates who own these apps. They don’t care if a six-year-old is smoking if they can profit out of it. Is comparing smoking to being on the internet excessive? Perhaps, but not if you really think about it.
Children and teenagers sharing the same space as these grown adults, consuming the same videos and being exposed to the same kind of content that everyone else is, while being in a more vulnerable state of mind, just leads them to follow in their steps. You can’t tell me that a thirteen-year-old has agency over posting “thirst-traps”. You can’t tell me that kids really know what they’re doing when they aren’t even halfway through school yet. This culture of advertising and marketing our bodies to profit from, does not stop at an age gap. It extends to everyone consuming it, and it extends to young people as well.
Apart from the obvious threat of getting harassed online, using your body to draw patrons in, is inherently damaging—it distances yourself from your body. When people—artists, movie stars—give themselves over to art, lend their bodies and their faces to portray someone’s creative dream, there is sacrifice in it. Most young people who capitalize on their bodies today are not aware of the extent of this sacrifice — of how brutal it can be. There’s a reason that there’s been a steady increase in bodily disorders in recent years, such as BDD and eating disorders.
At the end of the day, there are no winners here and neither are there culprits. It’s nobody’s fault. The only people profiting from commodifying ourselves are the huge conglomerates who own these apps. This isn’t to shame, really, I just think it’s important to know who the real antagonists are, and the annoying #cringe youngsters flaunting off their clothes in the newest reels, certainly aren’t one of them.