If there’s one thing I learned from my marketing classes it’s that any image can be modified to make someone look more attractive. From just a simple retouch that hides those dark circles under the eyes, to a full correction of breasts, butt, and waist, editing software and apps are so advanced that they can turn a Steve Buscemi into a Brad Pitt in only three clicks. Pictures always lie.
Instagram is a platform built on lies and illusions. Since users have the ability to play with angles, frames, and lightning, they manage to take pictures where they look “better” than they do in normal life. Posing with your face in 3/4 might hide a tiny imperfection on your face, or using a high angle shot can hide the hideous double chin we don’t want to show to our followers. Ever wondered why the famous duckface was so popular? Because it reduced the volume of the cheeks. Now, you know how to identify someone with chubby cheeks.
As weird as it may sound, this phenomenon reminds me of Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave”. According to this story, many men are chained to a cave since birth. Their posture only allows them to see a specific spot on the wall of the cave, where all sorts of shadows are reflected. Due to their own condition, these individuals take these images as real. One day, one of them manages to escape the cavern and gets to know the real world. He admires the shape of things. He discovers rivers, trees, animals, and finally understands he has lived a lie. The man returns to free his peers and tell them all the amazing things he saw, but they just laugh at him and tell him he was just blinded by the light of the sun.
The impossibility to know people in real life has turned the spectators into prisoners who only see the smoke and mirrors. They spend their days, months, and years, following the profiles of people who hide their identity behind a username, even though their face is on the screens of many. Those high standards of perfection have increased so much that the individual, already been trapped by the images, develops a platonic fixation for a stranger.
We might feel pleasure after looking at people who we consider attractive. However, this feeling comes form an artificial source. I wonder, whose fault is it? Is it the one who edits their photos or the naïve person who thinks they’re real? If Descartes once doubted the existence of God in the most religious time of history, why do we accept obvious illusions and distortions as actual depictions of reality?
We basically do this because we’re cowards or afraid of not finding someone who will love us for who we are. That’s why a pretty face always brings a beam of light into this solitary world ruled by shadows. The saddest part about it is that there are no chains restraining our movement. We voluntarily choose to chain ourselves to this unreal life. That’s why falling in love with a person just because we like what we see on their Instagram profile isn’t only absurd, but a paradox we’ve been repeating since Hellenic times.
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Perhaps, it’s time to put some distance with social media and open our eyes to what the real world has to offer. That’s the only way we can really find the right person, through real contact.
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Source:
Psicología y mente
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Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
