DO IT! GO GET IT. NOW!

In this competative fad, one has to look beautiful. Or, if you are still a teenager, your Instagram or Facebook DP should so appear  that you are an extremely attractive older girl/woman. And if  it starts so young, say, among unsuspecting school girls, it will definitely grow into a ‘psychological fad’ in the days to come — leading to serious distortions in character.

By Arunima Dwivedi

In the era of endless trends and mindless scrolling, nuanced and expressed aesthetics have taken a fall. These trends and scrolling have become so addictive that it has become an obsessive, subconscious pursuit for those immersed in the internet. The pressure to look and live a certain way, dictated by fleeting, often meaningless social media trends, has turned such online platforms, from spaces of virtual connection, into breeding grounds of insecurity, low-self esteem (or, fake high esteem), mental instability and illusions. 

Indeed, narcissism and shallow beauty with no inner life, lack of stability and character — these are traits so clearly transparent on everyday social media. This relentless pursuit of artificial perfection not only harms an individuals’ self-esteem, but also feeds the greed of multi-billion corporations, often situated in distant lands, that profit from exploiting these individual insecurities by introducing yet another product-trend, or fixation, to ‘fix’ imagined flaws in the human mind, especially targeting youngsters.

Today, social media doesn’t liberate or connect people as it once promised—clearly, this promise too was false and driven by profit-motive. Instead, it amplifies insecurities. 

Normal human features, such as pimples, wrinkles, or stretch marks, are portrayed as serious ‘problems’ to be fixed. One has to look beautiful at any cost. Normal aging, from one year onto another, from one phase of life to another, teen-life to youth, for instance, seems to have become a taboo. 

The message is clear: you must remain young at all costs. Or, if you are still a teenager, your Instagram or Facebook DP should so appear that you are an extremely attractive older girl/woman. Under the guise of trends, using calculated stereotypes, youngsters are funneled into over-consumption, leading to degradation of their inner self, enriching capitalistic giants who thrive on perpetuating these myths and insecurities.

Trends like ‘ballerina-core’ or the ‘it-girl aesthetic’ may seem harmless, but they have broader implications. The fact is, on an average, a trend on social media lasts just about a week—enough time for people to buy into it, get hooked into it, before moving on to the next frivolous trend. This can be self-destructive. 

And if it starts so young, say, among unsuspecting and innocent school girls, it will definitely grow into a ‘psychological fad’ in the days to come — leading to serious distortions in character, and, perhaps, long-term consequences. Chasing illusions of self-fulfilment, becoming kind of control-freaks, trying to believe that you are superior — are all signs of self-delusion. 

No long-lasting or true bonding can ever be made with such delusions. It will only alienate true friends and draw dubious ‘strangers’. Or else, the ties will be as transitory as a ‘like’ on your profile on Facebook.

This rapid cycle not only distorts self-image and self-esteem, but also promotes ‘fast fashion’, which directly contributes to social and mental harm overflowing landfills. Also, ecological consequences.

The pressure to keep up with trends leads to practices like, for instance, stocking refrigerators with unnecessary items, wanting to chase a ‘high life’, discarding barely-used products, and overindulging in fleeting aesthetics—all while millions face real, tangible, everyday scarcity.

Predictably, the production habits of companies have also adapted to this disposable culture. A shirt made in 2010 could last years, while a shirt bought last month may already be on the verge of becoming a ‘cleaning rag’. Besides, a faded shirt, like an old book, a gift, or a letter, can also be associated with emotions and memories. So, like emotions, an old shirt is quickly discarded into the garbage bin of history.

Quality has declined, even as prices have skyrocketed. This unsustainable cycle reflects a troubling paradox: while over-consumption thrives as a trend, sustainability itself is being commodified. Everything is up for sale.

What was once a ‘way of life’—living sustainably, simply, honestly, authentically—is now marketed as a ‘luxury’. So, the doctrine is, ‘Go get it! NOW!’

Not only that, organic food, sustainable clothing, and eco-friendly lifestyles now come with hefty price tags, accessible only to those who can afford them. The result? A hypocritical landscape where over-consumption is ‘normalized’, and sustainability is a mere performance for profit.

These trends, fleeting as they are, show no signs of slowing down. Social media’s obsession with the normalization of the ‘consumer society’ continue to feed a system that values profit over people and the planet. Until individuals and communities challenge this cycle, the damage—both to self-image and the environment—will continue to persist.

Surely, this is a recipe for psychological and social disaster.

Arunima Dwivedi is a Class 11 student of Dr BR Ambedkar School of Specialized Excellence (SOSE), Andrews Ganj, Delhi Board of Secondary Education (DBSE), Delhi.

Paintings by Vermeer: Girl with Pearls.