Perfect: Feeling Judged on Social Media

Social media is replete with images of ’perfection’. But many are unrealistic, and contribute to a pervasive sense of never being good enough: not thin enough; not pretty enough; not cool enough. Try too hard and you risk being condemned for seeming desperate, don’t try hard enough and you’re slacking.

Rosalind Gill challenges polarised perspectives that see young women as either passive victims of social media or as savvy digital natives. She argues the real picture is far more ambivalent. Getting likes and followers and feeling connected to friends feels fantastic, but posting material and worrying about ’haters’ causes significant anxieties.

Gill uses young women’s own words to show how they feel watched all the time; worry about getting things wrong; and struggle to live up to an ideal of being ’perfect’.

It’s the wake-up call we all need.

Rosalind Gill is Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at City, University London.