Wandering through the mountains of Siberia, you test fate running from the Siberian Ibex, but unbeknownst to you, a much scarier fate awaits at the next turn. An uncanny figure steps out behind the tall spruce trees and eyes you down. You analyze his face, and although this creature looks almost identical to you and your kind, they aren’t alike enough. You are a neanderthal, and this beast to you is in fact a Denisovan. Prehistorically speaking, humans having similar faces in nature proves beneficial for identification purposes. Previously, facial resemblance, even if subtle, signaled relativism, stimulating trust and cooperation, crucial for survival. However, in modern society, human nature signifies “fitting in” rather than sorting out different humans in order to stay alive. Nonetheless, social media has become the creation ground for templates of beauty. I’m sure you’ve noticed the similarities in most everything. The cognitive skill needed to recognize familiarity appears beneficial to human kind, but now we use this tool as a way to erase distinctiveness rather than unnatural looks. Whether the neighborhood you saw in downtown Campbell looks identical to one you saw in upstate Kansas, the world is bound to have repeats. However, social media acts as a home to thousands of faces that appear to look like duplicates. In this day and age, human societies have developed, leading to social complexity. Recognition between families grew to identify newfound alliances. Uncommon features allow humans to highlight the uniqueness in each individual, allowing us to identify comrades. On the contrary, it seems humanity is regressing, and curating similar faces once again, however, this time not for awareness in safety, but to fit the standards prompted by social media.
Adolescence serves as a time of development and the formation of identity. Additionally, social media showcases heavily filtered, edited and distorted beauty standards, pushing unrealistic ideals. Take it from me, as a pubescent girl, I used to apply my mascara like lip balm on my eyelids. Before high school started, I came to realize my classmates prefer me with cleaned up eyelashes, and now that I’ve fixed my makeup, I certainly profit from better treatment bestowed to me by my peers. Every time you open up a Tiktok, Instagram, or a Snapchat camera, the app provides you with hundreds upon hundreds of filters. You can choose between a giraffe or even a face equipped with very contrary features compared to the ones you possess, the choice is yours. Although your goal may have been to film a video looking like a cartoonified-cat, others abuse this technological power to redesign themselves entirely, creating an avatar with a strikingly different face, or even race. These filters change everything about you. Somehow, the person you pose as on your phone now has a narrower jaw, paler skin, and larger eyes. Consequently, actual people start to strive for the bar set by these editing tools, whether that be with layers of makeup, or with the most advanced software. Over time, this machinery fools people into believing in this fake ideal beauty criteria.
As a result of intense industry pressure to look flawless and youthful, celebrities undergo procedures to acquire the best of the best features, causing a chain of similarities in faces seen today. Exhibit A, Michael Jackson, a man who outwardly acknowledged his aesthetic medicine went too far, and later expressed regret for his attempt to acquire an idealized appearance. Frankly, we remain blind to our beauty, and listen to our subjective inside thoughts, rather than the reflection staring back at us.
Additionally, it has become clear that collectively, as a society, we seem to forget presenting as plain old average is fine. The increasing number of influencers as well as the accessibility to cosmetic procedures leads to a widespread “instagram face.” In this day and age, every Hollywood star looks flawless, and in most cases, casting nowadays requires a “face card” as opposed to a perfect performance.
These algorithms constantly promote the same type of similar-looking influencers because they prioritize whatever content gets the most engagement. Furthermore, we all know that whatever gets the most views receives traction, thus prompting people to copy it. Now your feed seems tainted with doppelgängers, and additionally, your algorithm doesn’t care about you individually, everything it stands for is strictly for the sake of entertainment.
Accidentally, we have woven ourselves into an unintentional process of homogenization. These day-to-day brands and influencers feed off of each other, allowing aesthetic trends to repeat and persist. Uniqueness has fallen, outnumbered by popular makeup, hair, and clothing styles broadcasted on the world wide web. Truthfully, online platforms live as hubs for the creation of insecurities. We tend to combat ourselves with the content we watch on our digitized pocket-sized screens. Next time you open up TikTok, check before you press record and see if that retouch filter is on, because in reality, we don’t all have to look the same.