The standards for beauty have changed a lot over the years, with new technology, cosmetics, and “fads”. Unfortunately, many of these new standards are impossibly high, and can even be psychologically damaging. And in today’s world, looks are seemingly everything.

Ever since the start of the digital age, people have been able to follow celebrities much more closely than they ever could before. They are seeing these beautiful pictures of celebrities online all the time, as well as reading about them in magazines such as Vanity Fair. In these cases, Photoshop and other photo-editing software are usually used to make the person in question look vastly different: Thinner, blemish-free, not an “imperfection” in sight.”We all know them. We all envy them. Those girls who have the metabolism of a 14-year-old boy and can eat endless cheeseburgers while still maintaining a slim physique.” (The Daily Utah Chronicle) Many people see this unrealistic image, and idolize it. This, along with new cosmetics constantly being developed and produced, and advertising being the main culprit, has people seeing something that is very inaccurate. Studies even show that countries with less advertising have more self-confident women.

On the subject of women; today’s standards for them have been raised unrealistically high. It seems that in today’s society nobody can be too beautiful, and there is an unattainable “perfect body type”, that they try to get regardless of the fake images. According to Huffington Post, “Subliminal messages condition women to connect their worth to their appearance”. People, women in particular, are almost always concerned about their weight. Physical features are held above almost everything else in today’s society. " Such standards of beauty are almost completely unattainable for most women; a majority of the models displayed on television and in advertisements are well below what is considered healthy body weight.” (The Myriad)

Of course, with becoming beautiful, there are many new risks that people are willing to take. For instance, cosmetics can be very damaging, especially if one has sensitive skin, and recent studies show that colored contacts can be very damaging to someone’s eyes. People have also, of course, been looking to plastic surgery and botox injections, which can both have very dangerous side effects, and can even be deadly in some cases.
Of course, there are psychological effects of this as well. Bullying based on appearance has gotten worse over the years, and the stress and low confidence caused by this can lead to depression and unhealthy eating habits. “Anorexia and bulimia are mental disorders, often triggered by a traumatic experience, or a series of other mental disorders. Those with these disorders either do not eat at all, binge and purge, or follow a strict diet that usually is not able to sustain them.” (Napa Valley register). In severe cases, it can cause people to hurt themselves or even commit suicide.

In conclusion, while new technology today is helpful in many ways, beauty standards have damaged today’s society. People’s self images are tainted with these unrealistic images of supermodels whose bodies have been altered by photoshop and other photo-editing software. Hopefully we’ll start to focus more on what we can be inside, because that’s truly what counts. “Confidence is a quality of attractiveness that cannot be attained based on physical appearance alone” (True Activist).