Perfect cover art

Perfect

Feeling Judged on Social Media

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Perfect

By: Rosalind Gill
Narrated by: Elisabeth Sastre
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About this listen

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 being ‘attention-seeking’, don't try hard enough and you're slacking.

Rosalind Gill challenges polarized 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' yet at the same time ‘real’. It's the wake-up call we all need.

©2023 Rosalind Gill (P)2023 Recorded Books
Social Sciences

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Good data, no insights

The author has collated some good data about young women’s experiences with social media up to about 2021. But that’s it - don’t come in expecting any deep analysis of the causes of their behaviour, the incentives facing social media companies or any policy prescriptions worth mentioning. In part I think this is because the author appears blinkered by her background and beliefs (progressive academic), and so struggles to get beyond identity analysis - and then in the final sentence, a longing for a future that was probably lifted straight from Marx.

Overall: not great, but if you sift through the academic bingo there is some good data in there.

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