Where we’d once enjoy a concert with our own
eyes, we now film every moment to share online,
and where we’d once gossip about the news, we
now have access to 24/7 content at the touch of
a button, with live commentary from the people
who matter. This week, we delve deeper into our
ever-changing world, exploring the downsides,
as well as new possibilities...THE SELFIE GENERATION
Perhaps the most obvious indicator of today’s
ever-changing times is social media and the
selfie generation. Millennials and Gen Z have
built careers off of the back of Instagram and
YouTube, sharing their every moment with
their fans, generating an income through
adverts, sponsorship deals and merchandising.
Huda Kattan, for example, has amassed a
following of almost 40 million by posting
makeup tutorials on her Instagram page and
has built a $1 billion dollar beauty empire in
just a couple of years. And whilst influencers
have transformed the way we think about
fame, beauty, and entertainment, it’s also
created large sections of society who hide
their personal photos behind filters, artificial
improvements, and special effects. You only
have to conduct a quick search on the App
Store for selfie or photo editing to find tens
of thousands of options, and that’s without
mentioning software such as Photoshop and
Instagram’s in-built filters. Whilst we all want
to look good, consumers are increasingly
altering their reality to increase the number
of likes they attract on their posts.
Indeed, society has encouraged us to assess
our personal value through numbers on Twitter2019 IN^ REVIEW