I ran across some old photos yesterday from my high school years. The ones I kept were my favorite people and memories of those years. What stood out to me was that nobody looked as good as I remembered. In my mind’s eye, my friends and I were youthful and beautiful. We were a happy, exuberant group of normal looking, average, working class kids.
There were some standouts back in high school, of course. I had heart my broken by a few and was ignored by most. There were a few pitiful ones too, who were cursed twitch abnormally bad/weird features.
But, all in all, we just an average group of teenagers.
Today, in the old photos, we don’t look average. We look homely. Beady eyes, pasty skin, acne, washed out colors, disheveled outfits, half smiles, poor lighting.
What happened? Is my memory that bad?
Nope.
My mind has been reset by the Internet. I’ve seen so many photoshopped photos, been exposed to too many professionally good looking people, viewed too many people through filters and seen so many people who have had makeup/lighting/plastic surgery that my set point for “ordinary looking” is skewed.
And I’m someone who doesn’t pay much attention to looks. I kind of don’t care about that stuff at all and never really did.
It’s no wonder so many people today feel bad about themselves. They aren’t comparing themselves to a handful of average people in their neighborhood, school or office. They are comparing themselves to the entire world. What’s even worse is that they are comparing themselves to unattainable standards obtained via photo and video editing.
Well that sucks.
Which is one reason why I don’t use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter or TikTok. And I probably won’t use the next generation of social media either.
I’m OK with being average. I’m even OK with being ugly. But I’m not OK with making myself feel worse because I don’t look like Brad Pitt.