Influencer platform's controversial contest awarded prizes to three nonexistent people.

Influencer platform’s controversial contest awarded prizes to three nonexistent people.

  • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    73·
    4 months ago

    rewarding beauty is fine. rewarding beauty in such a way that it has an impact—not only measurable, but significant—against the mental health of the public is not fine.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.eeEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      Whether we reward it or not, as long as there is someone people can compare themselves to, it’s going to affect their mental health. Social media itself is a beauty competition, and the reward is attention. We tend to compare up, not down, so it doesn’t really matter how beautiful or rich someone is—there’s always someone doing even better who makes us feel insufficient.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        4·
        4 months ago

        nope, not at all. having someone to look up to is not the same as a barage of media and advertising soaked with the intent of amplifying and capitalizing off of body dissatisfaction and self hatred.

        • Thorny_Insight@lemm.eeEnglish
          21·
          4 months ago

          If Pixelfed were as popular as Instagram, it would have virtually the same effect on the mental health of young girls, especially. While an advertising-based business model does influence this, it’s not the driving factor. Social comparison is in our genes, but never before have we been able to do it at this scale. This is guaranteed to have a negative effect on mental health. The issue however is not that social media is inherently bad; it’s just incompatible with the way humans behave. It’s like drugs.

          • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
            12·
            4 months ago

            literally no lol. the advertising (more accurately, the profit-seeking) model is certainly the driving factor, supported by engagement-maximizing algorithms. and remember it’s not just social media i’m criticizing. it’s a much larger media structure including also the show this post is about, and the discussion is much older than instagram, reaching back decades. here, for example, is a study of media exposure and body dissatisfaction from 2003: 7 years before instagram.

    • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      rewarding intelligence is fine. rewarding intelligence in such a way that it has an impact—not only measurable, but significant—against the mental health of the public is not fine.

      Let’s stop this malicious practice of giving Nobel prizes!

      • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        21·
        4 months ago

        as soon as there is evidence that nobel prizes cause mental health problems i will be saying this lol

        • Aux@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          4 months ago

          There’s plenty of evidence that peer and family pressure during studying severely affects mental health of many and often leads to suicides.

          • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
            21·
            4 months ago

            ok excellent point i will now start calling for reform in academia. :) not sure if banning Nobel prizes is the most effective way but it’s an idea

            also you made some really hateful comments earlier and i forgot to block you oopsie, take care ❤️