Pout. Camera. Filter.

 #theRealME

These are the times when your face seeks validation from distorted photos of front camera. It’s hard to accept those dark heads or pimple scars; the darker tone cries for a whitewash and that extra fat under the chin needs chiseling. Life becomes seemingly easy. Thanks to two hundred filters, your camera successfully belies you. Some would say, photo hi toh hai, ispar bhi kya panchayat! To err is human and missing woods for the trees is one. It’s no wonder that as much as Fair & Lovely has faced criticism, just as much is our Gen Z welcoming plastic culture, fanning narrow beauty standards in form of perfect jawline, nail-sharp nose, Barbie skin and so on. Botox treatments, face surgeries are ugly realities rallied vehemently by over-worshipped celebrities whom you see undergoing treatments for wrinkles in their 20s itself. And what for…VALIDATION! Appreciation then becomes the actual currency. But you know what, some would again say, my life, my choice. Yeah right, you have every right to be fake, artificial and preach about body positivity, poison vulnerable teenagers while doing all shit to just validate yourself. What hypocrisy! Though bit off-track, but Social Media is the hidden elephant in the room which thrives on this validation business technique. When something is free, we are the Products. It’s a zoo and we are the donkeys, the compulsive donkeys!!

PS: We are in the age where toxic celebs are giving cosmetic couple goals, plastic influencers are providing skin care tips, where hyper consumerism is glorified, emotions are recorded not felt, fakeness is mistaken for originality, charity is made for camera and nothing but validation drives the actions. It's a jungle. And we are sophisticated animals, but animals indeed!