Every year, it feels like girls keep starting full skin care routines younger and younger, using retinol creams that suppress wrinkles when they don’t have any yet. Influencers and companies keep pushing extreme skin care routines onto young women, so much effort and money down the drain with all the expensive products they promise will make you more beautiful and will give you skin looking like glass from following a Korean skin care routine. None of this is realistic, it’s just convincing women to buy expensive skin care they do not need.
Merriam-Websters dictionary defines the term ‘ageism’ as “prejudice or discrimination against a particular age-group and especially the elderly.” The desire to not grow old has remained prevalent throughout history, a primary reason is that a life will be nearing its end, as well as various health complications that lower quality of life, but in the modern day there are more cures and medications that expand the lifespan of humans. Looking beyond health, many people don’t like aging because of the change in appearance, these changes can include wrinkles on the face and body, age spots, receding hairlines, hair begins to gray and become thinner.
Aging and the fear that comes along with it has always been prevalent in society, in this current day and age it is much more complex, not just about approaching death but also worrying about their appearance changing. Changing appearance is more of a trivial thing but for many people it can heavily impact their mental health. According to Our World in Data “Across the world, people are living longer. In 1900, the global average life expectancy was 32 years. By 2023, this had more than doubled to 73 years.” In the past people weren’t as worried about changing appearance because they often didn’t live long enough to see the changes, they were mostly worried about when they were going to pass away.
The biggest way this anti-aging rhetoric is spreading is through the world of social media and social media influencers. Influencers often promote these products that supposedly slow the aging process or will completely get rid of your acne and skin blemishes. Social media has had a profound impact on the mental health of kids and teenagers.
The first platform that is widely considered the first traditional social media site was SixDegrees.com which was launched in 1997, you could create a profile for yourself, add people to your connections list and chat with them. Since then, social media platforms have been popping up left and right, but the true start of insecurity coming from social media is when Myspace was launched in 2003 which served as a precursor to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr. This triggered the start of the vlogging craze, in which people would make lengthy posts or videos discussing and detailing their day-to-day lives and posting selfies of themselves for their followers to see. However, with the rise in social media also came a rise in insecurities and declining self-esteem, this often stems from a desire to look like and or be like someone else, many people aren’t completely transparent about who they really are online and that is something everyone should keep in mind while mindlessly scrolling TikTok or Instagram, that the images and posts people make online are heavily curated and took ages to perfect an image for themselves.

It is extremely disheartening to see the negative effects social media can have, especially on the youth of America, I myself am no exception to this, seeing people do so many things that I can’t and constantly comparing my appearance and worth to those I see online. Learning the value of oneself can make a big difference, there are a couple ways this can be achieved.
Remember to take breaks from social media and the internet and take time to focus on yourself. Write a list of things about yourself that you like or some of your achievements. Practice self-kindness, treat yourself with the same grace you would give those around you. Everyone is flawed we’re all human so treat yourself as one, have fun, let yourself age and most importantly love yourself.