DON'T BE REAL, BE PERFECT

Even it’s acknowledged that social media doesn’t represent the real life, we can’t stop ourselves to judge others based on how wonderful they present in the photos, and compare to our own life, can we?

To present the ironic disconnect between digital and real world, we had an experiment on Instagram, “Don’t be Real, be Perfect”.

Our experimental Instagram account of building a flawless life

We played with “flaws” happened in the truth behind the fake #flawless lifestyle photos. How easy to build an ideal self in the digital world! A beautiful girl with perfect shape, just happened to live in a lovely and stylist home. She is surrounded by #BFF, love and friendship. You will find her enjoying spiritual reading under the roses or empowering herself with exercise in random #weekendselfie. It’s like a fairy tale world without boring housework, belly fat, bitch in your friend group and dark circle on your tired face after 8 hours work etc.

Reading is dreaming with open eyes, but "posting" life may be dreaming with closed eyes.

Why we all love social media probably is because its magic of turning our dream into real in a flash of time. Why would you bother to sweat in the gym after a long day work if you can get perfect figure shape by playing with photo editing apps while enjoying ice-cream and coke on your sofa? We used to be just normal people, but now we can pose as models and show off our lives as celebrities under the spotlight (which is made by ourselves). The digital magic allows us to skip all the difficulties and efforts which we have to go through for our dream lives and the annoying daily problems we have (Ziliani 2018). It is far too difficult to achieve in the reality. We have all these frustrations of being ordinary but not willing to put efforts to make any changes in our lives. On the other hand, we can just stay in our comfort zone where we can take fully control of our lives by enjoying with the false perception of our self-image.

If the parallel world will only give us hope and faith, we probably should stay in the beautiful world. However, people tend to get lost in the digital world they create. A research from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons in 2017 found that 55% of patients who wanted to look more like their selfies by facial plastic surgeons, compared to just 13% in 2013 (Eksouzian-Cavadas 2018). People’s mind is deeply invaded by the social media because they are both audiences and creators. When they normalize what they see in the flawless photos, they influence their peers and audiences by the new standard in online and offline world (Morosini 2017).

Who can stretch her leg at perfect 90 angle while doing her nail? Don't be stress if you can't make it

It’s time to lower the standard and accept all the flaws we can’t change in the reality. Australian comedienne Celeste Barber woke us up from the fake fantasy with her impressive recreation of celebrity selfies, #CelesteChallengeAccepted. Besides making us laugh with a hilarious twist, her selfies also reminded us the truth that we are made to be imperfect as every single person in the world. We can still be loved, be appreciated and be respected even we can't stretch our leg at perfect 90 angle like Victoria Beckham.

Reference: Eksouzian-Cavadas, A 2018, 'Women Are Now Turning To Plastic Surgery to Make Better Selfies', Harper Bazaar, blog post, 15 February, viewed 20 September 2018, <https://www.harpersbazaar.com.au/beauty/plastic-surgery-for-better-selfies-15773>. Morosini, D 2017, 'So Much Of Beauty Is Fake News So Why Are We Still Sucked In?', Refinery29, blog post, 14 August, viewed 20 September 2018, <https://www.refinery29.uk/2017/08/166416/the-rise-of-fake-beauty>.

Ziliani, G 2018, 'Social Medias Is For Idiots', Medium, blog post, 9 February, viewed 20 September 2018, <https://medium.com/writing-in-the-media/why-social-medias-are-for-idiots-9a19c7706e19>.