A–Read Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram.” This essay is LONG. If you have time to read all of it great; if not, I’d like you to focus on reading the following sections: Pivot to Image, Inception, Dysmorphia, Mimetic Desire, Inside and Outside.
B–Writing Response (due Sunday 5p): 2 parts
1.) Identify and write about a connection between something in Tortorici’s text and what you wrote about today in class. Recall that our prompt dealt with the Unit 1 theme—the idea that appearances can be deceiving—and can be viewed in the Course Notes doc). In your response, include one quotation from Tortorici’s text and an explanation of why you chose this quotation.
2.) Tortorici’s essay is one that describes many facets of her relationship to a piece of media: Instagram. Next class, I would like for each of us to do a bit of writing about a piece of media of our own choosing—an image, video, song, video game, app, etc. To prepare, please include a piece of media (or a link to it) at the bottom of your post as well as 1-2 sentences explaining what it is and why you chose it.
I enjoyed reading Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram”. I Find it funny how this generation including my self is so dependent on technology. We feel the need to seek validation and some sort of acceptance from our peers, family and strangers. I find myself a victim to this to even if its subconscious. In the beginning of the essay she makes it so relatable as she describes she would even ask her friends to change the password yet she finds herself still wanting more, like an addict. I started thinking about the “appearance can be deceiving” from the introduction of the essay. Who would assume what I can imagine to be a regular “normal” person can be so addicted to social media. An unhealthy addiction. Unhealthy in the sense of her dreaming about her favorite influencer to follow their lives from her children being born to knowing when their dogs died. Even she was embarrassed about the dream. However, me being the curious being I am looked at the @ names she listed because I wanted to relate more to what the author was writing and then I found myself down a rabbit hole of their lives too ha! Another part I figured where appearances can be deceiving was when Tortorici discussed the Instagram fitness world she stumbled into. “Some accounts informed their followers that bikini competitors
and fitness models do not maintain six-packs all year: they cut for competitions,
do photoshoots, and stockpile pictures to post in the offseason when they need to
eat again.” These fitness Instagram models seem to be in shape all year round yet they don’t actually live like this. They put on this fake persona and façade to the outside world.
This is the media I decided to choose. “Bambi Too” by Jidenna featuring Quavo, Sarkodie and Maleek Berry. I just really like the song. The person I love calls me Bambi so when the song came out, the words I just related to them. I’m also listening to the song now so I decided to use it.
Thanks for this Brittny. I’m fond of much of this–especially where you point to the “deceptive appearances theme” to be seen in the part of Tortorici’s essay that deals with the online-versus-offline lifestyles of models. A couple points I’d recommend for revision:
–Go back over this post and see if you can find moments where a bit more background information would be helpful for a reader not familiar with Tortorici’s essay. For instance, have a look at this sentence:
“In the beginning of the essay she makes it so relatable as she describes she would even ask her friends to change the password yet she finds herself still wanting more, like an addict.”
I don’t yet have the background information I need to know from this sentence what the “password” is for. In a sentence or two before this one, you could add background information about what it was that Tortorici did to set up a password on her phone.
–When quoting, see if you can use signal phrases & verbs that denote the author’s act of writing the quotation, e.g.: Toward the beginning/middle/end of her essay, Tortorici writes/observes/notes/claims, “__quote___.”
–Discuss 1-3 social issues evoked by your media object. (We’ll do some work on this in Wednesday’s class.)
Many thanks,
M
Reading Dayna Tortorici’s essay “My Instagram.” was a real satisfaction. I mean, this is probably the longest essay that I have ever read and could relate to it in almost every single line. When I read her text and see how she is suffering from social media makes me feel like I am not alone. In her writing, she wrote, ”Late at night in bed I get an ad for a meditation app meant to aid with sleep. It’s midnight and I’m browsing stories.” I can relate to this because I am supposed to do my English homework. Instead, I am watching my favorite athlete working out in the middle of the night. In my English class, I wrote that Mirene Arsanios’s Text “APRIL-MAY-JUNE” was not a ”thesis” -based/argumentative essay because in her writing she was not arguing over a certain topic she was sharing her experience and same thing in Dayna Tortorici’s essay “My Instagram.”. She was also sharing her experience with using social media. In Totorici’s writing, she wrote that all the models who had great bodies were mostly photoshopped; this is a perfect example of the idea that appearances can be deceiving. She wrote, “Leaving Twitter for Instagram was like moving to Los Angeles, only cheaper.” I choose this line because that was exactly how I felt when I also started using Instagram.
This is picture of my favorite cricketer. I also follow him in Instagram.
http://WWW.ViratKohli.com
Appreciate your post, Redoanul. I really like that you’ve tried to link your reading of Tortorici’s work with your experience of Arsanios’s text. You’re right that they are both more or less (experimental) narrative essays rather than thetic.
A couple suggestions for revision:
–Go back over this post and see if you can find moments where you might provide more background information when introducing a quotation from Tortocici’s essay. When quoting, you can use **present-tense** signal phrases & verbs (with “s”) that denote the author’s act of writing the quotation, e.g.: Toward the beginning/middle/end of her essay, Tortorici writes/observes/notes/claims, “__quote___.”
–Add a bit more elaboration to your discussion of quotations from the essay. How does the first quote show us Tortorici “suffering”? Explain! In the second quote, why does Tortorici liken her move from Twitter to Instagram like moving (from where?) to LA? How (and why) is this like what you felt when starting to use Instagram? More please!
–Discuss 1-3 social issues evoked by your media object. (We’ll do some work on this in Wednesday’s class.)
Many thanks!
M
Reading Dayna Tortorici’s essay “My Instagram.” was a real satisfaction. I mean, this is probably the longest essay that I have ever read and could relate to it in almost every single line. When I read her text and see how she is suffering from social media makes me feel like I am not alone. She wrote,” I told my friend, an art critic, that I was self-banishing to Instagram, the only social media platform that did not haunt me, get under my skin, and cause me to feel shortness of breath and numbness in my fingers”. This shows that she used to hate the social media that she was using before using Instagram. It is also a bit hilarious the way she think Instagram will make feel different. In her writing, she wrote, ”Late at night in bed I get an ad for a meditation app meant to aid with sleep. It’s midnight and I’m browsing stories.” I can relate to this because I am supposed to do my English homework. Instead, I am watching my favorite athlete working out in the middle of the night. In my English class, I wrote that Mirene Arsanios’s Text “APRIL-MAY-JUNE” was not a ”thesis” -based/argumentative essay because in her writing she was not arguing over a certain topic she was sharing her experience and same thing in Dayna Tortorici’s essay “My Instagram.”. She was also sharing her experience with using social media. In Totorici’s writing, she wrote that all the models who had great bodies were mostly photoshopped; this is a perfect example of the idea that appearances can be deceiving. She wrote, “Leaving Twitter for Instagram was like moving to Los Angeles, only cheaper.” I choose this line because that was exactly how I felt when I also started using Instagram.
Appearances can in fact be deceiving. Today’s generation is all about appearances due to the heavy amount of social media influence. Social media has made everything about appearance in today’s world. In the article “My Instagram” by Dayna Tortorici she explains how social media impacts everyone’s brains and leads to a common addictions shared amongst all the different groups of people on social media.
In the chapter “Pivot to Image”, Tortorici talks about her addiction to twitter. Twitter is known for its political, racial, relationship, celebrity, etc debates. Etc meaning whatever there is to debate about is going to be debated in a long ongoing thread between millions of strangers.
The addiction to twitter came from wanting to be apart of these online debates and constantly wanting to voice your opinion. I know the feeling of seeing a post that makes me think “no because…’’ or “yes because…” Not helping it I would state my opinion and not long after a random would come comment on their opinion. Based off of everyone’s different opinions you can see who is who and how they would like to appear to others. Everyone wants to appear authentic based on their opinions but in reality those same people are the first to appear mediocre.
Instagram has made the world turn mediocre. The celebrity impact has taken over instagram and instagram has taken over the world. In the chapter “Mimetic Desire,” Tortorici expresses that the apps gives people mainly women the desire to mimic each other so much to the point where plastic surgery has created their own community of women and even men. The OG’s, original gangsters, of this platform are in fact the Kardashians. I’ve never met a human being who didn’t know them or know them for the countless numbers of surgeries that they have gotten. “I cannot imagine Instagram without the ass fetish, or the ass fetish without the Kardashians, or the Kardashians without Instagram.” The Kardashians are talked about in music, tv shows, radio, and more platforms beyond instagram. Their influence has become so wide that women have lined up to get their asses done. Instagram has created jobs for women with the best medically sculpted bodies. Instagram models…every woman wants to be one. I mean who wouldn’t want a job that pays to be sexy. Free clothes get sent to you and you’re paid to take a picture in the product and post it. This has become the goal of a lot of women. The desire to become doctors, nurses, lawyers, and teachers has faded due to the ass fetish created by instagram. These women appear as better and more beautiful but in reality they all look exactly the same, coming from the same exact doctors. There’s no difference and that’s the deceiving part.
-I struggled a lot with this homework and analyzing this article .If you feel as if it doesn’t exactly answer the question that is why.
Tessaya,
Thank you for your post–and your candor about struggling with this essay. I’m curious as to how/why you struggled and so would be interested in you writing a bit more about the specifics of that struggled. That said, I did rather appreciate how you’ve attempted to link the discussion of Twitter and Instagram in Tortorici’s essay to the theme of “deceptive appearances” that we’ve been following in our texts so far. Also, thank you for explaining the term OG to me as I would have been lost without your note between the commas 😉
Some suggestions for revision:
–Go back over this post and see if you can find moments where a bit more background information would be helpful for a reader not familiar with Tortorici’s essay. For instance, have a look at this sentence:
“The addiction to twitter came from wanting to be apart of these online debates and constantly wanting to voice your opinion.”
I don’t yet have the background information I need to know from this sentence who’s addiction you’re referring to. I believe it’s Tortorici’s addiction, but you could say that explicitly. This would also change the pronoun at the end of the sentence “your opinion” to “her opinion.”
–When quoting, see if you can use signal phrases & verbs that denote the author’s act of writing the quotation, e.g.: Toward the beginning/middle/end of her essay, Tortorici writes/observes/notes/claims, “__quote___.”
–What media object have you chosen to share and discuss? Please add one by Wednesday’s class!
Thank you,
M
Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram” is such an exhausting essay to read but there was a relatable factor that kept me captivated. I think that almost everyone if not some, has gone through a time in their life where they feel intoxicated by the media. This article, in a way, vividly expresses what most people relate to in our generation. I find it strange that it has only been about 15 years since the first release of smartphones. And yet in such a short time period, we depend on them so much on our day to day life. Everything we ever need is at our fingertips. Everything from a range of studies to entertainment. If we were to go back in time and try to live without our technological advances, I think we could both agree that we couldn’t go a day without feeling out of place.
I tried to tie this essay to the prompt we did in class- “appearances can be deceiving”. I noticed that there were many examples to pinpoint, and I chose the one about models on Instagram because, at one point, we’ve all at least seen one in our Instagram feed.
-“I cannot imagine Instagram without the ass fetish, or the ass
fetish without the Kardashians, or the Kardashians without Instagram
…. thick, arched, and completely filled in.
Ludicrous, yet everybody wanted it.”
-“Some accounts informed their followers that bikini competitors
and fitness models do not maintain six-packs all year: they cut for competitions,
do photoshoots, and stockpile pictures to post in the offseason when they need to
eat again.”
I think that in today’s generation, we all glorify beauty gurus because they show us their majestic life and they set standards to who we want to be. We follow them because we want to be just like them; our rode models. but the truth is that appearances can be deceiving when we look at these individuals behind the scene. In reality, the Kardashians and the fitness models are just regular people like the rest of us. The only thing that sets them apart is them have a team taking care of them to make sure they present themself the best they to their ability.
This is the media I choose because I really like this song. Its one of those songs that I try not to listen too often because it’s super good but it puts me in a good mood:
Jeicot, thank you.
You get a sense from the length of this essay—which, I agree, is probably too long—why I’m trying to emphasize the importance of including only the most pertinent, intentional, and effective details in your essays!
Some thoughts for your revision of this:
–I’d like to see more discussion of and engagement with your quotations. They are interesting and deserve more attention. What language in these quotes draws you to them? How does the language in these quotes connect with the theme of “deceptive appearance”? I really want you to talk about the words inside the quotation marks more–before and/or after you quote.
–When quoting, see if you can use signal phrases & verbs that denote the author’s act of writing the quotation, e.g.: Toward the beginning/middle/end of her essay, Tortorici writes/observes/notes/claims, “__quote___.”
–Introduce your media object using its title and the name of its creator. Discuss 1-3 social issues evoked by your media object. (We’ll do some work on this in Wednesday’s class.)
Thanks,
M
Revision:
Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram” is such an exhausting essay to read but there was a relatable factor that kept me captivated. I think that almost everyone if not some, has gone through a time in their life where they feel intoxicated by the media. This article, in a way, vividly expresses what most people relate to in our generation. I find it strange that it has only been about 15 years since the first release of smartphones. And yet in such a short time period, we depend on them so much on our day to day life. Everything we ever need is at our fingertips. Everything from a range of studies to entertainment. If we were to go back in time and try to live without our technological advances, I think we could both agree that we couldn’t go a day without feeling out of place.
I tried to tie this essay to the prompt we did in class- “appearances can be deceiving”. I noticed that there were many examples to pinpoint, and I chose the one about models on Instagram because, at one point, we’ve all at least seen one in our Instagram feed.
-“I cannot imagine Instagram without the ass fetish, or the ass
fetish without the Kardashians, or the Kardashians without Instagram
…. thick, arched, and completely filled in.
Ludicrous, yet everybody wanted it.”
-“Some accounts informed their followers that bikini competitors
and fitness models do not maintain six-packs all year: they cut for competitions,
do photoshoots, and stockpile pictures to post in the offseason when they need to
eat again.”
The beginning of the quote draws me in, especially because it’s talking about all these fetishizing models on Instagram. In reality, we don’t know these people; or have met them in real life and yet we wish to be like them one day. I think it’s really funny because if everyone wants to be like them, they are limiting themselves potential from being their true self, somebody different.
I think that in today’s generation, we all glorify beauty gurus because they show us their majestic life and they set standards to who we want to be. We follow them because we want to be just like them; our rode models. but the truth is that appearances can be deceiving when we look at these individuals behind the scene. In reality, the Kardashians and the fitness models are just regular people like the rest of us. The only thing that sets them apart is them have a team taking care of them to make sure they present themself the best they to their ability.
The media I chose is a song called Homage by High Mild Club/
1 social issue evoked by the media would be that in recent years there has been a rise in popularity in the indie/alternative genre.
After reading Tortorici’s essay “My Instagram” I actually felt like this was an essay that wouldn’t make me want to skip through it. I found the topic interesting because it’s something that everyone can relate to or knows someone who can relate to it. Although I did not read the whole essay, a lot of what Tortorici was saying stuck to me. During our last class I wrote about how social media has a big impact on us (my generation and younger). We watch people post about going on tons of vacations to tourist attractions and post about it all the time on social media, sometimes making it look like it’s more popular or fun than it is which can sometimes be deceiving. I connected with Tortorici when she said “…begging for a gate so tourist would stop taking photos in front of them.” Because although I, myself want to travel and know what it feels like to be a tourist, i also know what it feels like to be around annoying tourists being that I live in Coney Island in the summer it’s always flooded with tourist that I wish would go away. People post about going to Coney Island and how it’s so beautiful but that’s deceiving because once you leave the beach it’s far from beautiful. Just being able to connect with Tortorici’s essay was cool to me because I know a lot of people can also connect with it.
This is one of many videos by Grandpas Kitchen that I wanted to share. I choose this video because at times like now (4:50pm) I often end up on the weird side of YouTube and watch videos like this instead of getting my homework done one time. Grandpas Kitchen is a channel about a foreign man who cooks huge means for orphan children every week so I always find it entertaining to be arch his videos and share it with others.
Hi Alia,
Glad to read your post–and thanks for linking us to the “weird side of YouTube”; I will be excited to watch this once we’ve had a chance to do more writing about it in class on Wed. Also, you could develop your distaste for tourists on Coney Island into an essay (for this class or otherwise)–I’d be interested in reading more of your take on that.
Some thoughts for revising this response:
–I’m interested in which parts of the essay you chose not to read and why–this is helpful data to have as we think about what makes an essay compelling (to you; to each of us individually) and what does not.
—-I’d like to see more discussion of and engagement with your quotations. They are interesting and deserve more attention. What language in these quotes draws you to them? How does the language in these quotes connect with the theme of “deceptive appearance”? I really want you to talk about the words inside the quotation marks more–before and/or after you quote.
–We need a bit more background information about Tortorici’s essay in order to understand your quotation. Where in the essay does this quote appear? What has Tortorici been discussing in the paragraph(s) leading up to the quotation? (We need to know this in order to understand what the “gate” is that Tortorici is referring to here, for instance.) I’d also like to see you discuss (before and/or after the quote what makes the specific language (word choice, syntax) used in this quotation interesting or noteworthy.
–You’re quoting fairly well, but remember to use PRESENT-TENSE signal phrases & verbs that denote the author’s act of writing the quotation, e.g.: Toward the beginning/middle/end of her essay, Tortorici writes/observes/notes/claims, “__quote___.”
–Discuss 1-3 social issues evoked by your media object. (We’ll do some work on this in Wednesday’s class.)
All best,
M
“This is how dysmorphia works, I thought; the algorithm only
encourages it, nudging you toward extremity.”
This quote probably spoke to me the most because Social Media (at least in that sub culture of instagram) you feel the need to have that type of body. For the author it seemed to have motivated her, but for me at least it discourages me because it seems impossible to achieve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU3qPtsgjkk I picked this song because it relates to this topic about the bad side of social media and conforming to it’s standards. Although I’m not in the public eye like her, those things still affect the average user.
While reading Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram”, her personal account of her experiences and feelings regarding her usage of social media makes it so relatable to readers in that the majority of us share the same experiences at times. For instance, in the beginning, she talks about her constant struggle of her desire to quit using the social media app, Twitter, but she constantly has this urge and this obsession to keep engaging in the different types of media content that that app displays on a daily basis. With this week’s theme being centered around the concept that “appearances can be deceiving”, what originally caught my attention during her excerpt was how she would talk how she and others thought that “Social media is terrible,” with social media apps included such as Facebook and Twitter; however, she had this certainty that Instagram would be unlike any of the others in that it would be this sort of safe haven where she would just be able to view different aesthetics of artist’s works.
While I originally did not plan to read the whole essay due to the fact that we were previously warned it was going to be longer than any of the other ones we have previously read, I found myself engrossed in each section that Tortorici was discussing due to the fact I, personally, have seen the transitions that Instagram has went through from when it first came out to it being one, if not the most, leading social media outlet running today. For example, when she discussed how she would be up every night just scrolling through Instagram, I could personally relate due to that I can recall the countless amount of times I’ve been sleep deprived throughout the day because I was up scrolling through different of my followers’ posts throughout the night.
One particular quote that I had found interesting that Tortorici had incorporated in her essay was Elaine Scarry’s take on how self-esteem is evaluated with Instagram users. She says that “beauty is sometimes disparaged on the ground that it causes a contagion of imitation, as when a legion of people begin to style themselves after a particular movie starlet, but this is just an imperfect version of a deeply beneficent momentum toward replication.” The way how Instagram is set up today, a lot of people often seem to be in a competitive mindset to seek evaluation from users and followers who they may and/or may not know, causing them to compare their physical beauty standards to others who may have more likes/comments/followers that the average IG account. As a result, self-esteem becomes severely decreased in that one may not feel as confident in their own skin if they do not see the results they may aspire to gain by their own followers. Tortorici’s shift in how she originally depicts Instagram proves the theory of “appearances can be deceiving” in that everything is not what it is originally posed to be.
This video is the type of media that I decided to choose. I was first introduced to this by one of my mentors from a couple of years ago, and to this day, when I come across it, it motivates me to keep going and strive to accomplish whatever goals I have set for myself.
Jayvon, many thanks–
I especially appreciate the innovative connection to our theme of “deceptive appearances” in Tortorici’s essay that you’ve made by way of noting how her attraction to Instagram itself seems deceiving; does she really leave behind her the feeling of anxiety induced by Twitter behind in switching platforms? It’s not clear…
I also really like how you’ve contextualized and introduced the “quote-within-a-quote” you’ve focused on: Elaine Scarry’s thoughts on why “beauty is sometimes disparaged.”
In your revisions, can I get you to stay with this quotation a bit longer in your discussion? In particular I’d like to see you unpack what you think Scarry means when she says that “beauty is sometimes disparaged…” as well as why she claims this to be the case. You could then connect this a bit more thoroughly to the them of “appearances can be deceiving.” I think the results will be rewarding. 🙂
In your revisions, might you also consider:
–introducing your media object using its title and the name of its creatora
and
–discussing 1-3 social issues evoked by your media object. (We’ll do some work on this in Wednesday’s class.)
?
Thanks again, nice reading you, and see you tomorrow–
M
With Elaine Scarry’s following quote, “Beauty is sometimes disparaged on the ground that it causes a contagion of imitation, as when a legion of people begin to style themselves after a particular movie starlet, but this is just an imperfect version of a deeply beneficent momentum toward replication,” she tackles on the concept of how the ideology regarding beauty standards often causes a reproduction of what may be seemed as ideal to the human eye. Dayna Tortorici includes that Scarry says, “When the eye sees someone beautiful, the whole body wants to reproduce the system.” This whole quote is made relevant through platforms, such as Instagram, where numerous users who follow a celebrity or model figure can, often times, measure their physical features to those of that “higher stature” in order to satisfy their perception of what the world may establish as being beautiful. Instead of truly appreciating their features in which they were born and blessed with, they tend to have feelings of dissatisfaction as well as a lack of confidence in displaying their essential features. This can correlate to the theme of “appearances can be deceiving” due to the fact that these same celebrities and model figures that are being emulated by their followers can also attest to the measures they take to ensure that they maintain the level of beauty that they display, whether it be that they do plastic surgery to maintain an “hour-glass figure”, add accessories to their faces such as makeup, false eyelashes, and etc., or photoshop their pictures to portray an appeasing image. For instance, Tortorici illustrates this right after the quote with the Dr. Phil episode of where an individual unfortunately died after getting a Brazilian butt lift. With this replication of beauty that seems to be a great demand of individuals who use Instagram, Tortorici begins to see the different impact it can have in contrast to how she saw the platform at the initial launch of the application where she had praised it for being simply aesthetically pleasing and non-toxic like her time with Twitter before.
After reading Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram.” essay. I found her writing really interesting and relatable to the reader’s eye because of the different scenes she included, mentioning her relationship with social media. I believe this essay included good points explaining how social media shapes how we identify ourselves or what we put out on our social media that create that image of ourselves. Some points and quotes that stood out to me were when she had a dream of her favorite social influence, pam, and her owner, it made me think how invested we are in some people’s lives like YouTubers and could easily forget to put the work in our own life. a quote that stood out to me was when she stated: “I was in my late twenties and had rediscovered a passion for exercise.”Even though this quote seems so vague, it made me think of how we mold ourselves to always have a phase in a way, for example, the writer started to see gym video, exercise and then her whole Instagram was all that. overall this passage made me think of an episode from the twilight zone where the gil wanted to be beautiful and didnt belong to society because of that, because she was different but in reality, she was pretty and a regular girl and the society was of weird-looking monsters ,hence they wanted to prove that we usually follow the majority of what people think .
i really like this song because it brings back memories and its really relaxing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18QTp8M8LFc
Going through Dayna Tortorici’s “My Instagram.” was a little confusing first, but I understood what she was going through. Twitter is my safe haven, but also could be perceived as a personal hell. World news is constantly updating, and peers often feel the need to express every opinion on their mind. It’s addicting and almost toxic that feeling of being so open to share your thoughts so readily in 140 characters. “But as I said this I realized I’d made a horrible mistake. @napkinapocalypse did
not actually know my parents, certainly not well enough for me to be in her
house.” Reading this segment of the writing led me to clarity of the theme: the deception of appearances. As viewers, onlookers on Instagram, we’re given a glimpse into the life of everyone on the Internet. It could your best friend, your cousins, your next door neighbor, your ninth grade teacher, or the childhood pop artist you used to idolized. You are able to view their life the way they want to expose it for the world to see, completely and utterly public. Without realizing it, sometimes we feel entitled to the details and significant parts of these, essentially, strangers’ lives because we feel like we already know so much about them. We’re their friends, their family, their #SQUAD. It’s overwhelming how much information I have about my favorite Youtube family and still not know my grandfather’s middle name. I often think it’s the influencer’s themselves are to blame when their privacy is invaded when they’re the one exposing so much personal information to the world, but I have to self reflect and think: Just because they give me permission to live vicariously through them doesn’t mean I have a right to know everything they’re going through.
The first media I thought about was Marina’s song – Teen Idle. I chose this song because it fits into the theme of appearances aren’t reality. The singer is longing to be a Teen Idle and wishing to be in the popular crowd during her youth despite it being all fake and non-genuine. https://genius.com/Marina-teen-idle-lyrics
“In the powerlifter’s video about Facetune, she said she felt hypocritical for editing
her photos while championing body acceptance and strength-building for
women. If she couldn’t walk the walk, at least she would talk about it.”
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In Tortorici’s text, she speaks about the deception of looks, referring to the instance when instagram fitness enthusiasts admitted to altering their bodies digitally to present a better image to the public. As an advocate for body acceptance, her appearance should have been honestly conveyed to those she preached to, and proudly presented as who she was. Unfortunately, her desire to “look good” trumped her will to be honest.
In response to the free writing prompt, I wrote about the honesty of appearances. I understand that looks can be deceiving because looks speak. With this knowledge, I try to be conscious enough to control what my looks say about me, so that when it speaks, it will speak the truth. My intention is for my personality and nature to be conveyed up front to people who see me, based on my dressing, based on how I carry myself, based on my approach to people, etc.
My media selection … https://www.instagram.com/p/B819aAQAHlZ/
I chose this piece of media only because I think it looks cool. I’m not quite sure if it will be good enough to write extensively about, but I’ll have to just wait and see.