Say Cheese

The dog filter , the good day filter , the crown filter and the list goes on. The unvarying need to look  good in your camera sprouted when these screens took over our pictures. The never- quenching need to look your best in every damn picture is one of the constant pressure that we, millennials face along with the drowning student debts. The need to filter out or cover up our “flaws aka imperfections” has become second nature to us. Over the years, it has become a habit to put on a filter in every photo to look “cute/cool”. But these filters only convey a set of conventional looks and beauty standards that  define a person in a certain way. Apps like Snapchat, B612 etc. are all bringing in a thousand different filters to look appealing and glamorous.

  While drugs are seen as addiction, people fail to notice the mental stress and the obligation to look a certain way that is chipping away a person’s sanity. Millennials have forgotten what it is like to have a normal smiling ,goofy picture. Damn, people are putting filters on food. The difficulty to bridge the gap between this Utopian bubble and the crashing truth makes it a thousand times harder to live the way one wants to live.

If we notice, this is a vicious cycle. You take 3000 pictures of yourselves and choose 2 out of them, put the necessary filters and shape your body the way you want and post them on social media and impatiently wait for likes and comments. When things go the way you want boom, there you  are taking another set of pictures to do the same. This unhealthy rush of dopamine is preventing us from seeing the harsh reality

As we dig in deeper, comparison is the root cause of this mindless obsession. We compare ourselves to unrealistic expectations and expect to do it all by some filters and body shaping apps. Everyone is born with a different body and face and we actually look like how we look in those filters ,we would look like clones.

By the end of day, we have to live with the body we have. So why not love it? Loving ourselves is not an overnight process. Take tiny steps everyday to love yourself. Because if you won’t, then who will?

PS: I am no way a pro or someone who loves herself completely and goes about her day like a happy puppy. I am in this as much as you are.