Listening to the assigned podcast today while being irritated for being in stuck in my house for a solid three days annoyed me even more. It annoyed me because the podcast basically just reflected what I’ve said numerous times in class and what I wrote my last blog post on: the fact that way too many of us are really obsessed with ourselves, and with each other. It made me sort of sad to listen to these girls talk about their (and all their friends’) needs to be constantly validated by all of their peers online. Rather than just being able to feel pretty on their own, they need twenty-five comments on every selfie they post of every girl in their grade telling them how incredibly gorgeous they are. And to them, this constant need for online attention and validation is nothing unique to them; it is the norm.
In addition, what really made me sad to hear was how some girls actually hold it against them that they think they’re pretty, and tell them awful things like, “You’re so pretty, I want to throw you in front of a train.” What kind of attitude is that? It saddens me that more girls view each other as competition, rather than as potential friends.
Yeah...that rhetoric of violence did make me kind of sad. I mean, they are joking, but there's something lurking underneath it.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I am getting irritated at the snow, too.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the violence in the posts that some of these girls receive is concerning. But addressing the fact that some of these girls need that online validation, I think it is okay. Some girls have really horrible self-image issues (I blame this on society’s “perfect woman” image that’s all over media nowadays) so if these comments help boost their self-esteem, I don’t see the problem. As long as it’s not harmful like the violent ones where they want to throw the girls off a bridge, then I don’t see why girls can’t get confidence boosts from this. Especially if they are really shy and don’t have many friends in the “real world”.
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