It's More Than Just "Instagram Face"

Surrendering our personalities to the sinkhole of social media

Image by Elena Pleskevich, via Flickr.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the rise of that same, social media-inspired look among young women known as “Instagram Face”. It’s that face made up of sculpted cheekbones, big lips, fox eyes and a deep tan; a chimera of sexy, supermodel features. It’s not a natural face. It’s cartoonish, assembled artificially through cosmetics, filters, editing apps and even surgeries, as if girls are endlessly chasing the beauty ideal of their childhoods: an IMVU avatar, or a Bratz doll. Something perfect, inanimate, soulless.  

But it’s more than just Instagram Face. I’ve also noticed the rise of a distinct Instagram Personality: girls with the same mannerisms, opinions, sense of humour. They wear the same clothes, use the same hair accessories, have the same home decor. They love the same films, the same music, the same celebrities. Even the language they use is alike: they all use the same therapy talk, like they had the same trauma, saw the same psychiatrist, are on the same healing journey. They even have the same tone, those same affectations, a cadence in their voice so characteristic of influencers that whenever I hear it I’m conditioned to think I’m about to be asked to subscribe and hit the notification bell!