Am I pretty?

A video done by Grade 11 students as a project for school.

I'm not sure it really addresses this YouTube phenomenon specifically.

It's interesting - as an adult who started doing social media well into adulthood, there a difference in culture between the way we as adults interact on social media, and the way teens and tweens do. 

Because I've seen this "Am I pretty" phenomenon among adults on social media as well, but it is done a bit differently, not quite so direct, not quite so obviously, but it's still very prominent.  Adults, to varying degrees, are also posting pictures of themselves constantly on their social media accounts, and the expected response from their friends is admiring comments about how they look so great, love that new hairdo, etc.  It can be a real ego boost if you have real friends who post affirming things, and most adults have the self-confidence to only invite friendly people to interact with them on social media and to block anyone who acts like a creep.

The thing about tweens and teens, though, is that they have every kid in their entire school on their friends list, and that includes the nasty kids who say mean things about them.  And at that age, even kids who are friends can become non-friends so quickly.

I don't think people ever grow out of asking their friends, "Am I pretty?"  Adults just do it differently.

Isn't this how Facebook got started - and in fact gave it its name?

Catchfire wrote:

The thing that does bother me is the general tone of unbridled misogyny on the internet which opens young women and girls to a new brand of hatred and aggression (not that they didn't have this before in other forms, just that it has a new character).

Yeah it is disturbing - it is bullying. By posting the photo, one shows others one is willing to be vulnerable and voila, a human is there to squeeze that vulnerability and be aggressive. It's like a feeding frenzy for psychopathy - kind of a twisted dynamic.

Quote:

Part of me thinks that the stories about this "disturbing YouTube trend" is just the latest issue of "How hopelessly lost is the next generation?" that have been published since time immemorial.

Part of me wants to resort to that cliche. After all I am "old" now and don't really understand kids these days.

But that would be an easy and cheap answer. Despite the fact that my high school days (I graduated from High School in 2003 ... ahh 10 year reunion soon, WTF!) were before Facebook, Google Plus and You Tube, there were embryonic and somewhat popular forms of social media back then (things like ICQ, MSN, Friendster and Asian Avenue were popular at my high school). Whenever someone posted something on them, it would reverberate in the real world and people would notice for better or worse (often worse). This is probably a universal reaction that can't really be stopped since kids (and usually in a less obvious way adults too) are mean, always have been and always will be.

Personally, I never felt the need to debase myself on social media as a teenager. I don't really do that very much now - in fact all my Facebook pictures (other than my profile pics), for better or worse and it is often worse, are uploads from other people. But, I don't know, I'm probably just weird in that respect. That type of self-aggrandizing on social media just doesn't interest me and frankly it wasn't as if I was (or even am right now) a particularly confident person who just doesn't need validation. I just don't seek online validation because it seems unseemly, weird, tacky and way too time consuming.

So I guess what I'm saying in a round about way is that it probably isn't a generational issue, so much as a judgement issue. People seeking attention, and lacking better judgement, have always existed and always will. I know this sounds kind of callous, but I don't really think there's a whole lot that can be done about a bunch of anonymous idiots posting mean comments on a You Tube video other than giving the uploaders real life validation and explaining to them why they probably shouldn't upload their personal information. That and the recent moves toward anti-bullying legislation (in certain situations). Ultimately though, people ought to consider whether or not they want to open themselves up to ridicule and is it actually worth it. You Tube in particular is notorious for asinine comments.