I don't blame Facebook (or Twitter, or any particular company) for this.
We can only blame scale. Some things are much more scalable than others, and "beauty" scales. And the "occurrence of beauty" does, too.
Before the advent of scale on almost every aspect of our lives, a local musician or theatre group found easy income.
Now, since after the invention of gramophones, more people can listen to less and less musicians, i.e. numerically.
One movie is seen across the world and then millions of times on streaming services, while your local theatre group starves.
Just like that, before, some people were considered more beautiful than others as it is done now. But one beautiful girl could only make, say, 20 girls jealous and anxious.
Now, with the advent of Instagram, and internet-driven scale in general, one beautiful girl makes 20,000 girls jealous. So the anxiety and jealousy is numeracally widespread. This is where beauty scales.
Also, before, one average looking girl felt threatened by the beauty of one beautiful girl in her area. Now, there is the "feed", where she sees hundred girls more beautiful than her. This would not have been statistically possible in earlier times. This is where "occurrence of beauty" scales. Where, hundred years ago, a girl would see maybe 3-4 girls better looking than her, now she sees 300.
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- I don't believe in a set standard of beauty. I don't believe that beauty is objective either. In this comment, I use "beauty", "beautiful", etc. as a short and logistically convenient way to represent "perceived beauty", "seemingly beautiful", etc. I hope this won't be an issue.
- I am also aware of other sources of anxiety, one simply being money- money buys new clothes more frequently, and people in new clothes and/or makeup look more pretty. Cosmetic surgery is in similar line. Here what scales is display of wealth.
- Filters, editing, etc. also might play a big part. People know this. Hence the popularity of the "Instagram vs. Real Life" meme format.
We can only blame scale. Some things are much more scalable than others, and "beauty" scales. And the "occurrence of beauty" does, too.
Before the advent of scale on almost every aspect of our lives, a local musician or theatre group found easy income.
Now, since after the invention of gramophones, more people can listen to less and less musicians, i.e. numerically.
One movie is seen across the world and then millions of times on streaming services, while your local theatre group starves.
Just like that, before, some people were considered more beautiful than others as it is done now. But one beautiful girl could only make, say, 20 girls jealous and anxious.
Now, with the advent of Instagram, and internet-driven scale in general, one beautiful girl makes 20,000 girls jealous. So the anxiety and jealousy is numeracally widespread. This is where beauty scales.
Also, before, one average looking girl felt threatened by the beauty of one beautiful girl in her area. Now, there is the "feed", where she sees hundred girls more beautiful than her. This would not have been statistically possible in earlier times. This is where "occurrence of beauty" scales. Where, hundred years ago, a girl would see maybe 3-4 girls better looking than her, now she sees 300.
____
- I don't believe in a set standard of beauty. I don't believe that beauty is objective either. In this comment, I use "beauty", "beautiful", etc. as a short and logistically convenient way to represent "perceived beauty", "seemingly beautiful", etc. I hope this won't be an issue.
- I am also aware of other sources of anxiety, one simply being money- money buys new clothes more frequently, and people in new clothes and/or makeup look more pretty. Cosmetic surgery is in similar line. Here what scales is display of wealth.
- Filters, editing, etc. also might play a big part. People know this. Hence the popularity of the "Instagram vs. Real Life" meme format.