#social media vs reality

[girltalkcollectives]

The Barbie Aesthetic Is A Dangerous Illusion

The “Barbie aesthetic” everyone’s chasing on social media isn’t real. It never was. And it’s time we stop pretending it is.

Every time I open Tiktok or Instagram, I’m bombarded with another tutorial promising to help achieve that “perfect Barbie look.” Pink this, blonde that, unrealistic proportions everywhere. But let’s get one thing straight — we’re literally trying to emulate a plastic doll. A PLASTIC DOLL.

Do you know what it would take for a real human to have Barbie’s proportions? With her original measurements, she wouldn’t even be able to lift her head to walk upright. Her neck would be too thin to support her head, her waist too narrow to fit a single organ, and her feet so tiny and arched she’d have to crawl everywhere. But sure, let’s make that the beauty standard of 2024.

The math doesn’t lie: if Barbie were human-sized, her measurements would be physically impossible. We're talking about proportions that would literally kill a person. Yet here we are, with millions of young people filtering their photos, cinching their waists, and literally reshaping their faces to look more “Barbie-like.”

And don’t even get me started on how this aesthetic has been commercialized. Every brand jumping on the Barbie bandwagon isn’t celebrating femininity — they’re selling an impossible dream. They’re marketing perfection that doesn’t exist, convincing multiple generations that they need to look like something that was literally molded in a factory.

The real kicker? This isn’t about looking like Barbie anymore. It’s evolved into this toxic mix of impossible body standards, artificially enhanced features, and a very specific type of “pretty” that excludes literally 99.9% of human beings. The “Barbie aesthetic” has become code for thin but curvy, tall but delicate, perfect but natural, flawless but effortless. Make it make sense!

What kills me is watching people defend this as “just a trend” or “harmless fun.” There’s nothing harmless about promoting beauty standards that are literally unachievable without extensive editing, filtering, or surgical intervention. Nothing cute about making young people feel inadequate because they don’t look like a mass-produced toy.

Let’s be crystal clear: no amount of dieting, exercise, makeup, or filters will make anyone look like Barbie because BARBIE ISN’T REAL. She was never meant to be real. She’s a toy. A plastic doll manufactured in a factory. The end.

The “Barbie aesthetic” isn’t aspirational — it’s dangerous. It’s not a beauty standard — it’s a beauty LIE. And it’s time we stop pretending otherwise. We need to call this what it is: a harmful, unrealistic, and frankly ridiculous standard that needs to be dismantled.

To everyone creating content around achieving the “Barbie aesthetic”: you’re not helping. You’re not inspiring. You’re perpetuating a cycle of impossible standards that’s damaging real people with real bodies and real lives.

Instead of chasing an aesthetic based on a literal toy, how about we start celebrating the incredible diversity of human beauty? How about we acknowledge that looking like a plastic doll isn’t actually the compliment we’ve been conditioned to think it is?

The next time someone tells you to embrace your “inner Barbie,” remember this: you’re not meant to look like Barbie. No one is. And that’s not a flaw — that’s being human. That’s being real. That’s being alive.

Unfollow the accounts that make you feel less than. Step away from the filters that try to mold you into this plastic perfection. It’s time to realize that the most beautiful thing you can be is unapologetically, authentically yourself.

Because at the end of the day, the Barbie aesthetic isn’t just unattainable — it’s a distraction from the real beauty that exists in our differences, our “flaws,” and our humanity.

And that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact.

[thirdtimed]

unfortunately if i ever developed the lifeseries orv au in my head in earnest i would in no capacity whatsoever manage to be normal about it at all and like. i mean it

[aceoffangirls]

One thing about Tumblr compared to any other social media I use is that I will not let anyone in my real life know my user name or follow and find me on Tumblr. I can just be my silly little goofy self with my only fear of judgment from people I do not know.

[universitypenguin]

I just read a fantastic article about how Tiffany Haddish handled cyber bullying. This is the line that really jumped out at me in the piece:

[Haddish] hired a digital forensics analyst when death threats started coming her way. The analyst’s research showed that 75% of these threats were “created by robots in Malaysia and Iran.”

This is something that I need to keep in mind more when I’m on social media. Because how much of what we’re seeing is really people’s opinions? How much is rage bait for profit? What amount stems from political manipulation and foreign influence?

[angpagsulatnihoney]

“The red flags are usually there, you just have to keep your eyes open wider than your heart.” April Mae Monterrosa

[coralsgrimes]

Kevin and Benny Boy looking flawless gorgeous daddy as he always does

[manojnaironline]

If you could un-invent something, what would it be?

The one technology I would love to un-invent is social media apps. These platforms have woven themselves so deeply into our lives that it feels almost impossible to escape their grasp. From the moment we wake up, we’re bombarded with endless good morning messages, notifications, and a never-ending stream of updates. Instead of savoring the quiet moments or engaging in face-to-face conversations,…

[nitsaholidays]

Social Media: Polished perfection, Reality: Beautifully imperfect 💫 #BehindTheScenes

[its-all-down-hill]

IDC who you are, this is funny because it’s true. Social media be distorting reality and calling it facts. Just remember folks…for ever picture you see there were most likely 20 deleted and 10 filters tried.

[vindrawins]

Vin joins Threads

Link to my Threads Profile: https://www.threads.net/@vindrawins

[anemoiashifts]

why you should get off social media if you want to shift.

before you scroll away, i want to challenge all of you to read all of this. this is one of my longest blog posts ive ever made with over 1,000 words. if you can or can’t make it through the whole post, please let me know how far you’ve gotten in the comments below. you’ll get a surprise at the end 🥳 !

social media isn’t an inherently bad thing. however, outside & inside of the shifting community social media (specially tiktok) has been shown to effect our attention span. this shows in my comment sections on my longer tumblr posts that i also share on tiktok, such as this one, when people say things like “im not reading all of that” or “can someone summarize” also “what method should i use” and “why am i not shifting”.

let’s start with the basics of shifting. shifting attempts need some kind of focus; an affirmation, a visualization, some sort of task like counting. if you’re someone who struggles to focus, you will struggle to learn how to meditate or any hobby or task you’re tying to accomplish. all shifting methods are is a meditation. while no, you don’t need a method, I would make the argument learning how to meditate & focus your attention to what you are trying to manifest is an important part of shifting. if social media creates an instant dopamine reward without little effort, the appeal of shifting seems less. this is why i think a lot of people actually like thinking about shifting & creating content for it rather then doing it — because trying to shift requires some level of work without instant reward even if it’s as simple as laying down & setting intention.

if you try to shift & you wake up in your cr still, that isn’t as exciting when comparing it to the idea of shifting. rather, if you post an edit or a video about your dr you will receive a dopamine hit through video interaction (comments, likes, how social media platforms are set up in general). even maladaptive daydreaming can fall into this category to some. the interest in attempting to shift dies because we feel like we aren’t gaining anything from it when that’s not true. when laying down & attempting to shift, we are meditating & training the brain to focus on what we desire most: we’re correcting our attention span.

social media destroys the ability to focus & what we focus on & give our attention to allows room for that desire to grow, to become reality. if we’re always so overwhelmed with information & have so much to stress about, it’s important to recognize what we consume & how it effects our mood & mental health & how it can sometimes delay our manifestations. im not saying you have to be positive all the time, but we’re exposed to so much that it’s important to check in with yourself every once in a while. this can be where shifting content comes into play vs non shifting content. think demotivation, you don’t look for it, it just appears. & how many times have you opened tiktok to look something up to only be distracted by a completely unrelated video that automatically started playing ?

what i mean is people are telling you what shifting is, what works for them (which you could register subconsciously & believe that’s a step by step guide), rather then self discovery. people are telling you what shifting is, how to do it, what to think, what to script, what method you need to do, even if they say “this may not apply to everyone” because of how it’s being presented & spoken about. the said popularity of a method or definition may also come into play & feeling like something has to be right or work because other people align with it. its like math class, the teacher shows you one way to solve a problem then says “your allowed to use your own methods” & shows you one example of it then goes back to using the original method in class that you don’t understand.

another reason is opinions. when being shown so many people speaking on shifting & their thoughts it can be overwhelming. it’s a great thing so many people are willing to talk about their experiences in their desired reality or want to share their personal breakthroughs & opinions on what shifting is, it can be confusing. while everything i just listed is well intended, leaning about shifting through places like tiktok & not venturing out & doing your own research — or just searching methods online & trying it yourself while going in blind — it takes away self discovery.

so, how do we learn about shifting ?

when i say get off of social media, i don’t exactly mean all social media. yes, all of these things happen across the internet but the difference with tiktok is that the fyp isn’t so prominent. this of course also applies to other feeds that are generated, but a lot of the shifting community is ok tiktok so im using the most known example. it’s important to search & decide what information you consume & seek out rather then being told something without stopping to think for yourself. you want the chance to be able to create your own thoughts. your own unique thoughts you have about things make them personal & your own beliefs become stronger when you realize things on your own. it’s more satisfying that way.

places like reddit & searching for questions you specifically have so you don’t have ten more questions shoved in your that you didn’t have before that cause you added worry or unnecessary fear is helpful to keep in mind.

there is room for grey area. not everything needs to be black & white. there should be no consciousness vs multiverse theories because two things can both be true at once. Ike thing doesn’t have to be against something, you don’t have time pick a side. it’s all theory & hypothetical. it’s okay that we 100% don’t know (& will probably never know) what shifting truly is. not everything needs to be discovered to preform it “correctly”. you don’t need to be a master at painting to paint, you don’t need to know how paint brushes are crafted or how canvas is stretched to preform, anyone can sit & learn as they create their first & second & tenth piece. even people who have painted & sold their artwork for millions, don’t know the great’s techniques. they know pieces of them & take what works & discards what doesn’t serve them.

this post isnt to negate any of the good social media has done or sound like my mom & preaching about how social media destroys your brain…but i think we should be mindful of what we consume & how it makes us feel & if we’re speaking for ourselves or parroting others words. there are so many great people & advice out there & im not trying to take away from that. i just think taking a moment to stop & digest what we’re seeing is healthy. this blog post has been a long time coming but i know a lot of people wouldn’t want to hear it. i can promise you, you are more addicted then you think — myself included. i just don’t wake you guys to look back in 10 years & have spent more then half of that looking at a screen when there’s so much life to be lived. i don’t want social media to take away from what we are all here for which when we come down to it is living. shifting is literally wanting to experience life & i can’t help but find it ironic that this is the opposite of everything we wish to accomplish through this practice.

please take care of yourselves. much love.

surprise :) congrats you made it ! here’s your digital slice of cake ! 🍰

[baratrongirl]

Hang on a minute. Are you saying that so-called fans are harassing the actors because of the lines they say in the TV show? Lines that were written for them by the script writers?

Every time I think adults should be capable of telling the difference between fiction and reality, someone pops up to tell me about social media madness, and I shake my head all over again.

I'm the bridgerton anon. The costume drama is part of it. I do agree with the "it's not what they are going for so shut up" not everything as to be historically accurate.

I actually came to report on newer drama. While i recognize this is not just a problem in Bridgerton it's really stood out to me here. Maybe because it's so hip right now.

But people have almost a pathological need to pick sides. If you are for one character, it must mean you are against another. People take these fictional disagreements way too personally. The harm is fictional guys, no one is getting hurt.

People bullied an actress off twitter last season because played part of a love triangle in season two. It's not even a love triangle, because it was never going to be a choice. He was always going to pick Kate over Edwina. That was the point! It's not like she went on twitter and said some rude shit. All she did was share a poster. A poster the show made.

And it's happening again. Two characters are in a fight this season because character A (the main female lead this season) wont tell her love interest (main male character this season) a really big secret and character B (who knows the secret and is the male love interest sister) is essentially pressuring character A into telling him. AND PEOPLE ARE PICKING UP THEIR PITCHFORKS, for no fucking reason. Regardless of how you feel about this situation, getting this worked up about it to the point of posting rants about is just such an overreaction. Block and move on.

--

[detailstodiefor]

social media vs reality: my desk

[pawberri]

The key problem with "proship vs anti" discourse is that the most extreme versions of each side, the ones who actually bother to identify with these labels, accepted each others worst takes as arguments they had to debate. "Fiction =/= reality" is, in practice, an absurdly reductionist, anti-intellectual, thought-terminating-cliche that dictates we can learn nothing about a person via art and that their fiction reflects no political or moral messaging worthy of critique. In response to this, the "puriteens" who are too young to possibly hope to articulate their discomfort, to untangle their position from what is often real trauma experienced online, simply argue "yes, fiction influences and reflects reality in a 1 to 1 capacity." They, and people who want to use the groundwork they laid to make bad-faith callouts, make bad arguments about how the action of engaging in problematic fiction is on equal ground to real life abuse, or is a clear indicator of interest in real life abuse. Both of these arguments are terrible, but each side seems to radicalize the other further and further into their own brands of anti-intellectual reactionary belief. "Proshippers" become libertarian absolutists about free speech and view all transgression as righteous and alternative and therefore leftist. They gain a reactionary nostalgia for the past, desiring a time when people didn't seem to care about the implications of art. "Antis" become authoritarian and hypervigilant for signs of moral decay, at their worst, willing to align themselves with government bodies that offer carceral solutions to the debate. They are willing to use harassment as a tool of punishment, which then leads to false accusations and a fear of openness that puts people at risk of being triggered via obfuscation. (That said, proshippers also take part in plenty of harassment.)

I will say that I believe both of these movements are equally sensitive to co-opting by right-wing forces. We see the authoritarian tendencies of anti culture in harassment campaigns and even the way Republican law makers co-opt "grooming." The proship/fic crowd has such extreme nostalgia for the past that I often see people align themselves with the cultures of 4chan or other happily right-wing websites. They so heavily reject the idea that a drawn sexual depiction of a child could reflect any desire that they are disinterested in analyzing what the motivation behind the depiction is. i.e If we track the history of lolicon in Japan we do find that is, yes, countercultural, but that counter culture is right wing, very misogynistic, and defensive of patriarchial Japanese culture as it is and was including its culture around rape and abuse. Plenty of fictional content works as radicalization material, and radicalization material needs to be ambiguous. There is a valid reason to be hesitant to trust people who consume this content, even if I do not believe most of them will ever be dangerous towards children. The mere presence of sexuality is not enough to make a movement left wing. This kind of thing can again be seen in right-wing libertarian movements in the US. (And even leftist movements can be bigoted and even "pro-pedophilia" or otherwise disinterested in social reform around abuse.)

Is all content with elements of age-play this way? No. But to me, that is why kink media deserves to be treated as art and analyzed, critiqued, treated seriously. It doesn't have to do anything to anyone to be worthy of a moral critique. Said moral critique just doesn't warrant harassment and cruelty and reactionary exaggerations of the person consuming said content.

Anyway, what's my point in saying all this? I don't know. I'm just begging you to tag your God damn content with specific tags instead of random and nebulous shit like "dead dove" or "dark content", and also begging you to stop harassing people who do tag their content so I don't have to guess what "dead dove" and "dark content" mean. No one will erase incest kink fics or people who feel sickened by the idea of them off this earth because we aren't god, but we could at least all be responsible about tagging, flagging, and age-gating our stuff.

[floatyflowers]

Social Media As boyfriends:

Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram: Toxic, has over Paranoia, discards your opposing views, will accuse you of cheating, spies on you 24/7, knows everything about you because he used to stalk you, doesn't care about your feelings and would spit out harsh comments.

Telegram: Allows you to do whatever you want, but he is very suspicious, maybe, because he is a criminal in disguise, yet you don't care because he is the sweetest boyfriend in the world, and treats you like a queen.

Character AI: Was really caring at first, however, over time, he began to become lazy and stopped improving himself, and also he hates violence and is an asexual.

Janitor AI: Slut.

Wattpad: You hate and love him at the same time, but in reality, you are only with him for fame.

Ao3: He loves you despite not always being by your side, and he accepts you for you even if you were weird and creepy, he doesn't mind at all.

Twitter/X: You asked him to change, but he changed to the worst.

Youtube VS Tiktok: Both fight for your attention, they will take desperate measures to make you theirs and love them only.

Tumblr: the best out of them ' I' m not saying that under the threat of gun'