Well, tonight was unplanned.

I’m not someone who joins live videos on TikTok. I happened to accidentally click onto someone I watch regularly. I ended up staying there participating in a quiz for 3 hours. I started multi tasking after the first hour because I had ironing to do so that I could get rid of the mass of clean clothes I built up on the drying rack. I’m new to TikTok as a viewer and a contributor. I refused to do video calls all through the zoom fever of the pandemic. I’m not used to being on camera. I don’t like the way I look on video. I also don’t feel they using filters is right because you’re not living in the real world then. I hate the fake snapshot of life that social media portrays. I didn’t join Instagram until 2019 (much later than most people in my generation). Photoshopping photos make others feel worse about the flaws on their own bodies. There’s a point when photoshopped beauty standards create a toxic environment of encouraging eating disorders etc. I enjoyed tonight and don’t know why I avoided the TikTok environment for most of the year we were in lockdown. I have an extremely swollen ankle tonight as I think standing up ironing may have put a lot of pressure on my injury. I just realised how burnt I got today from just walking only an hour (I did it in stages to not put too much pressure on ankle). I have red arms. I did need the sun though as I was quite on the pale side. We don’t see the sun in the uk that often so we may as well enjoy it when it is here.

One response to “Well, tonight was unplanned.”

  1. I have to take vitamin D supplements because I don’t like outside. But then again neither does my skin: in that regard I’m the classic “redneck”, and I believe it’s where the term originates, i.e. northern European people who immediately burn in the hot sun. I think it’s with particular regard to people of Scots descent, as I am. Itchy childhood memories of completely peeling in those hot ’70s summers. Ouchie.

    Oh yeah, and filters etc. What’s really bad nowadays is that they’re so insidious; a few years back it was at least fairly obvious if a photo’ was Photoshopped because amateurs in particular lacked any real subtlety; but nowadays, stuff that’s applied automatically and subtle enough that it’s hard to tell (in practical terms it’s impossible unless it’s obvious like the cat/dog ears Snapshat thing) gives a really fake impression of how people look. How other people look: of course when it’s me I see myself in the worst possible light (I mean literally: the morning sunlight coming in through the bathroom window is unforgiving) and think, “yeah, that’s the real me and totally fair to compare that with everyone else’s best photos of a selection that have been digitally manipulated.” Sigh.

    Like

%d bloggers like this: