Why Modern People Prone to Appearance Anxiety

What Influences Our Perception of Beauty and How to Relieve Appearance Anxiety

Foreword

Looking at all the beautiful girls around me can’t help but make me think negatively about my appearance. Especially for those children born in Generation α will face the seemingly perfect life on the Internet as soon as they are born. If no one comes to teach them how to use these tools, it may cause more social tragedies. So I want to share my thoughts and experiences with those who needed. I hope we can find a way to transform our thoughts by understanding the causes of appearance anxiety and trying new solutions.

Factors affecting

• Social Media Boom

There are beautiful people from all over the world on the Internet, and popular appearances and characteristics are promoted everywhere. While the community is developing rapidly, more and more people want to follow the trend to make themselves “popular”. This aggravates the anxiety of those whose appearance does not conform to public aesthetics. It makes it easier for those with low self-esteem to question themselves. When most people seem to be “perfect”, those who are “special” are easily labeled as lazy and do not work hard. Besides, those “beautiful people” will also be affected. Because they have tasted the benefits of a good appearance, they want to maintain their beauty more than anyone else, so most of them are willing to invest more money and energy in appearance.

• Algorithm

Since the algorithm will recommend posts that we like to us. The things we care about more, the more likely they will be mentioned by the algorithm. In addition, the recommended works are often loved and respected by most people, so we will easily fall into the illusion that everyone is better than us.

• Compare Mentality

Most people think pessimistically. For those things that matter to us, we remember the advantage of others and feel lost because we are not good as them. The only thing we can do is to learn to stop over-comparison and build up our aesthetic concept. Properly urging ourselves is a good thing, but when it affects our psychology, letting go of thoughts that will hurt us is very important.

• Business Intervention Community Platform

Social media has become an important channel for us to make friends. Yet, many manufacturers also placed their advertisements on these platforms. Coupled with the rise of professional Internet celebrities, we tend to confuse real life with the ideal world in social media. Those people influenced do not hesitate to sacrifice everything, and hope that they can also achieve the “ideal state”, but unknowingly falls into the trap of business.

• The concept of aesthetics is not yet mature

Because of the new rise of Internet celebrities, we can see people of various styles fully develop their appearance characteristics on social media. The younger generation of children will want to try to imitate different styles before they have established a complete aesthetic concept, however, the effect is often not as good as those influencers. That often makes them frustrated. It is because too much style and information bombardment can easily confuse people and make them lose sight of their true inner thoughts.

How to change the mind

When you take in too much information and feel that your mood is affected, you can turn off the community and learn aesthetics from nature, art galleries, film productions, and city streets. At the same time, stopping judging others based on their appearance and directing our attention away from people’s appearance. This can give you more different experiences and feelings, and also stop you from relying on the ideas provided by the media to see the world.

In conclusion

In fact, in addition to appearance anxiety, social media may also cause anxiety about self-worth, interpersonal relationships, and social status. However, social media is just a tool to promote the flow of information. As users, we should learn how to use it properly to prevent the tool from controlling our thoughts. Make good use of our excellence traits, and turn sadness into motivation, so we can get along well with ourselves!

為什麼現代年輕人會容易有容貌焦慮

是什麼影響我們的審美觀念

前言

看著身邊那些漂亮女生，不禁讓我對自己的外貌產生負面想法。更何況是那些Z世代後出生的孩子，她們一出生就要面對網路上那些看似完美的生活。如果沒有人來教她們，可能會造成更多社會悲劇發生。於是我想和需要的人分享我的想法與經歷。希望大家能透過了解容貌焦慮的原因，以及我的建議來找到轉化想法的方法。

影響因素

• 社群媒體興盛

網路上有著來自世界各地的俊男美女，受歡迎的外貌及特質被推廣到全世界。社群發展快速，越來越多人追隨潮流把自己變成「受歡迎」的樣子，這同時也加劇那些外貌不符合大眾審美觀而且自卑的人感到焦慮，並容易質疑自己。當大部分的人都看起來「完美」，那些「特別」的人就容易被貼上懶散的、不努力的標籤。然而那些「漂亮的人」也會受到影響，因為嚐到了外貌所帶來的好處，他們比誰都希望能維持美貌，因此願意投資更多資金和精力再外表上。

• 演算法

由於演算法會將我們喜歡的類似作品推薦給我們，於是我們在意的事物會一直被演算法提起。再加上被推薦的作品往往都是受到多數人喜愛的且推崇的，於是我們會容易陷入大家都比自己好的錯覺之中。

• 比較心態

大部分的人們想法都是悲觀的。對於那些我們在意的事情，我們會記得別人優秀的部分，並且因為自己不像他們一樣而感到失落。我們唯一能做的是學習停止過度比較，並建立自我審美觀念。適當的督促自己是好事，然而影響到自我的心理時，放下會傷害自己的想法是焦慮的人一生中非常重要的課題。或許可以先從停止依據外貌來判定他人開始，引導自己將注意力從外貌中轉移。

• 商業介入社群平台

社群媒體成為我們交友的重要管道， 廠商大量置入廣告這平台中，再加上職業網紅興起，我們容易將現實生活與廣告中的理想世界混淆。不惜犧牲一切，也希望自己也能達成「理想的狀態」，卻不知不覺的落入商業的圈套。

• 自我審美觀念尚未成熟

因為網紅的新起，我們能看到各種不同風格的人將自己的外貌特色發展的淋漓盡致。年輕一代的孩子們在還沒建立完整的審美觀念之前，會想嘗試模仿不同的風格。然而，效果往往不及那些博主們。太多風格與資訊轟炸，容易讓人迷惘，看不見自己內心的真實想法。當你接受太多資訊、並感受到心情受影響時，你可以關掉社群，從大自然、美術館、電影作品和城市街道中學習審美。這能給你更多不一樣的體會與感受。

結論

其實社群媒體除了引起容貌焦慮外，還有可能引起自我價值、人際關係與社會地位的焦慮。然而社群媒體只是個促進資訊流通的工具，身為使用者的我們應該學習如何妥當運用它，才能預防工具反過來控制我們的思想。善用我們的精益求精的特質，把悲傷轉成動力，放下傷害自己的想法才能跟自己好好相處！