Filtered Lives, Forgotten Talents: The Price We Pay for Vanity
Widespread inflation, rising costs of living, major wars, and climate change coincide with a population that is history’s most self-absorbed and vain. Self-obsession, often driven by social media delusions, diminishes our ability to critically engage with the world around us and with ourselves. The detrimental effect of vanity on our perception, happiness, and creative potential cannot be understated.
The Vanity Crisis
Vanity has evolved from a personal trait into a pervasive societal issue. The increasing presence of vanity-driven behaviors due to beauty standards, social media, and content creators is leading to a population that craves validation for nearly every aspect of their lives. People cannot go to brunch, on vacation, or even grab a coffee without posting about it on social media in an attempt to create their own "personal brand." I, too, am guilty at times of posting something just to further craft the image that is "me," and I would dare to say you probably are, too.
The mental toll of a perfectly curated life has led to body dysmorphia, unattainable beauty standards often dominated by AI-generated content, and "influencer envy." Vanity blinds us from seeing the world around us and engaging with issues like climate change, poverty, and inequality.
Vanity’s Impact on Our Ability to Perceive Our Surroundings
The leading cause of death for children is firearms, yet people are more concerned about how they will access Ozempic during a shortage. Vanity encourages an inward focus, leading people to become less attuned to the world around them. The curated lives we pretend to live online make it hard to engage with reality, further distorting our perception of what is happening around us every day off our screens. Then, the cycle of self-validation is affirmed through content engagement, likes, and comments, reinforcing a focus on superficiality rather than addressing deeper, systemic issues.
Cosmetic procedures highlight society's tendency to focus on surface-level concerns, often at the expense of deeper issues.For instance, if you have a nose that’s larger than average and your social media feed constantly bombards you with content promoting nose jobs, it subtly normalizes the idea of altering a feature that was passed down through your bloodline—a trait that was once unique and desirable. But because it doesn't align with society’s narrow beauty standards, you may feel pressured to change it, spending thousands on surgery to alter your appearance— even if you cannot take a deep breath for the rest of your life. The same pressure applies to other procedures like breast implants, tummy tucks, or Brazilian Butt Lifts.You can do whatever you want with your body; I’m not trying to demonize body modifications. But what if that same focus were redirected toward personal growth, creativity, or addressing more pressing societal concerns?
If you are worried about how you look in the mirror in front of you, the time you could be spending looking beyond the mirror is occupied. Seeking physical validation, after all, is the greatest form of flattery, and how our society constantly repopulates by accident.
Vanity’s Impact on Our Ability to Engage with What Truly Makes Us Happy
Your beauty rots inside you, in poems and paintings you don’t dare to express, and thoughts and ideas you could not bear to expose. You might have played violin in middle or high school, but now the untuned instrument sits as abandoned as your dedication to your higher self. After all, maybe it is easier to get attention by robbing yourself of the features your ancestors cultivated, skipping dinner, and fitting into a size zero. Instagram likes on your selfie are a more digestible metric than whether or not the pursuit of your hobby is worthwhile.
Being self-absorbed is much easier than looking beyond yourself and the true impact you could have on your surroundings. Pinch inches and pounds off your body, buff down your nasal bone, and cake on makeup. Forget that you won the lottery of life, and that those who could only dream of affording a fraction of what you frivolously pursue drew theirs.
Conclusion
Fine arts are finer, after all, when you do not engage in them. What if you threatened to disrupt their cohesive beauty? Why, if we had another Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Bob Dylan, or Madonna, it would threaten the social order. And if you decided to turn your screen off and look up—and I mean really look up—at the world around you, you might just have an original thought. And how terrible, horrible, disruptive, and horrendous would it be to not think about how you are going to lose another five pounds for just five minutes? Can you imagine the productivity?
Can you imagine the bounds of your potential, uninhibited by the vanity you seek to uphold?
