| While digital technology has brought convenience to people’s lives,it has also caused a shift in people’s aesthetic values from being "text-oriented" to being "image-oriented" in the new internet environment.The value of external beauty is constantly magnified and even regarded as a symbol of success,excellence,and attractiveness.This value system not only unconsciously changes the aesthetic standards of the public,but also profoundly affects people’s ideas and behaviors.The social trend of "looks first" has caused many people to feel pressure and anxiety,especially for those individuals who do not conform to the aesthetic standards of the public.They are more likely to feel dissatisfied or inferior about their appearance,consciously or unconsciously,due to comparison,which in turn causes appearance anxiety.As "digital native" of the Generation Z,young people have a unique community culture and emotional circle.They are looking to establish intimate relationships in the virtual private domain and seek social recognition in the public domain.They have a strong interest in shaping their body image and beautifying their bodies,based on the social aesthetic rules derived from gender,thus becoming victims of consumerism infiltration and unconsciously falling into the vortex of appearance anxiety,generating erroneous self-awareness in constant self-monitoring and deviation feedback,and being wrapped and objectified by social appearance dogma.To investigate the basic characteristics and presentation methods of appearance anxiety among the Generation Z,I conducted extensive research on self-media platforms such as Douban,Douyin,and Zhihu,and recruited 30 interviewees.After organizing and analyzing tens of thousands of words of interview records,the author found that:(1)In the era of increasingly developed online media,appearance anxiety is not only an individual psychological problem,but also an evolving collective phenomenon,gradually showing characteristics such as mass popularization,gender differentiation,low age,symbol labeling,and commercial entertainment;(2)The shaping of body image by the Generation Z involves a complex combination of subjectivity and objectivity,initiative and passivity.Individuals manage and transform their body image to conform to social aesthetic standards through methods such as cosmetic surgery,makeup,clothing,and fitness.Among them,men tend to use low-cost internal driving methods such as fitness shaping,while women tend to use high-cost and high-efficiency external channels such as cosmetic surgery,makeup,and clothing.The formation of a single social aesthetic culture and the deepening of the "beauty is good" effect further reflect the spread of appearance anxiety.Based on the above analysis,this article further explores the deep mechanisms behind the generation of appearance anxiety in Generation Z from the perspective of social training.The study found that:(1)The power of gaze has been transferred to the hands of the general public,and the previous one-to-many sensory surveillance has transformed into a many-to-one visual surveillance.The Generation Z group is trapped in the abyss of self-gaze and others’ gaze.Both men and women are facing the oppression of sexual objectification,and their body image has become an object for others to enjoy and use;(2)Technological progress has made "beauty" a duty that everyone should bear.The changes in media forms have shifted the spatial position of online voyeurism,accelerated the upward comparison of social platforms,restricted personal aesthetics,and hijacked group values.The continuous development of plastic surgery technology provides the most direct,effective,and fastest way to transform the body,attracting a large number of beauty lovers to pay for beauty;(3)Consumerism has turned appearance into a best-selling product in the market,continuously invading the strategic choices of Generation Z’s body consumption behavior.It continues to set and disseminate seemingly perfect but false aesthetic standards through the production process of constructing,destroying,and reconstructing,shaping and transforming the formation of Generation Z’s cultural circles,and accelerating the pace of individual body consumption purchases.With the help of new media platforms,consumers unconsciously follow trends and become digital laborers of capital in various visual and grass-economy industries.With the awakening of self-consciousness and the reshaping of group consciousness,the Z generation has started to actively choose personalized and gender-neutral consumption practices to achieve another external presentation of the body.They strive to improve their own qualities,start to come into contact with and accept the "anti-beauty culture",advocate for a minimalist lifestyle,and reconstruct the issue of bodily existence on new media platforms by publishing videos,establishing "anti-appearance anxiety groups",and carrying out "reconciliation with natural faces" activities.They express their independent and subjective demands,free from social gender norms,and break away from the "commodification" and "objectification" of bodies and appearances imposed by social norms,sounding the horn for the contemporary youth body liberation movement.Goethe once said,"Physical beauty can only please for a moment,but inner beauty lasts a lifetime." We cannot stop the passage of time,but we can choose to age gracefully.As the main force in building the future,the behaviors and beliefs of the Generation Z influence the direction and efficiency of social development.To improve their phenomenon of appearance anxiety,it is necessary for individuals,families,media,and society to work together and create a healthy and orderly aesthetic environment for the Generation Z,optimize the overall spiritual outlook,and enable them to shift their focus from others to themselves when constructing their personal image and style.They should learn to appreciate themselves,form a correct self-awareness,achieve unity of personality and appearance,and realize self-development. |
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