Social Media is the Death of Personal Style
Words by Sophie Freckingham
Eds. Mistral Zerbi
Social media has become a part of our daily lives, and it controls us more than we would like to think. It has infiltrated every part of our lives, from the places we would like to visit, the news we hear and the clothes we wear. Algorithms have been created that only show us videos similar to ones we have previously liked and interacted with. Due to this, it is extremely hard to escape the bubble we create for ourselves on social media.
Fashion has been no exception to the algorithms, in fact, fashion trends have been able to spread faster and wider than ever before. This has become known as “the globalisation of style” - meaning people from all over the world are trying to find the same pieces before they go out of style, ultimately creating a global fashion sense. One of the best examples of these items are the Adidas Sambas, everyone seems to own a version of these shoes.
The growth of fashion content on social media has caused the grouping of fashion items into specific categories which has led in turn to a tunnel vision effect on fashion. These groups have specific rules and boundaries that should not be crossed, which completely defeats self-expressions that could be created through fashion. The fashion groups have become known as “aesthetics”, such as Cool Girl Aesthetic, Clean Girl Aesthetic or Coquette Aesthetic. These broad terms have become so niche and specific, however, the idea of being “cool” should not have restrictions or requirements that have to be met.
Social media is not just telling us what to wear but providing guides to become more like our chosen aesthetic in every part of our lives. On TikTok, there is a guide for any style you want to have and hundreds of guides on how to wear specific items. Due to social media, having such control over our everyday lives, we have become unable to dress, as we try to cram ourselves into specific boxes with very little wiggle room to look different from the next person.