Why do we see the faults in ourselves and others see the positives?

First topic message reminder :

I mean in photographs.
I believe social media has made many people very critical of themselves.
This woman is absolutely right. Many people look at pics of ourselves and see the negatives, others will look and not even notice them.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/style/womans-identical-bikini-photos-show-why-we-need-to-stop-focusing-on-our-faults/ar-AApi5i1?li=AA9SkIr&ocid=spartanntp

Original Quill wrote:

Syl wrote:

No, my point was that its only recently children have been asking for genital reconstruction because they think they are not as 'neat' as the women they are comparing themselves to (ie porn stars)
Its only recently that children have sadly been able to easily access porn in order to compare.

You blamed porn on religion, took us back to the English civil war, the dark ages...and I believe you even dipped as far back  to the first couple ever to inhabit the earth...allegedly.

This is a MODERN phenomenon....I don't think you can blame societies recent obsession  with bodily perfection on Adam and Eve.

You ask a question...you raise a point...who knows where the conversation will lead?  When you talk about phobias and shaming associated with body image, you have to talk about whence it came.  Well, you are inviting a discussion about way-back...religion, and where these imbecile attitudes came from.

You can't come around again and say, Oh, I don't like that answer because it's in a category of history...I don't like history.  Fact is fact, and it doesn't care if you like it.  

I like the way questions asked can lead to threads rambling...I just don't agree with your particular ramblings in this thread.

The recent obsession with bodily perfection has imo been fuelled by social media.

Young kids dieting and wanting intimate surgery is on the far end of this spectrum, but its become the norm now to want to be physically perfect...that's why so many people photoshop their pics.
Like the girl in the OP has pointed out....we are far more self obsessed and critical of our look than others are.

So, rather than blame religion, blame air brushing and the internet....I think dredging back to the dark ages to find answers is over thinking the problem greatly.

Syl wrote:I like the way questions asked can lead to threads rambling...I just don't agree with your particular ramblings in this thread.

That's great! So, refute my points. That's why we post, to air out differences and learn from one another.

Syl wrote:So, rather than blame religion, blame air brushing and the internet....I think dredging back to the dark ages to find answers is over thinking the problem greatly.

Those are just techniques.  Tactics, generally, have no motives. The real meaning is found within the attitudes.  Techniques are mere symptoms of underlying motives.

To get to the motives, you have to delve into psychology and--though you hate it--well, history.  For example, why do we try to show perfection in ourselves?  Well, the quest for personal 'good' goes a long way back...perhaps in the doctrine of predestination, and attempts to show that we are one of the chosen ones.

You don't look to fads for reasons. You look at them as symptoms to an underlying reality, usually within ourselves.

Original Quill wrote:

Syl wrote:I like the way questions asked can lead to threads rambling...I just don't agree with your particular ramblings in this thread.

That's great!  So, refute my points.  That's why we post, to air out differences and learn from one another.

Of course we can learn from one another Quill....we can also totally disagree with one another too, as we are doing here.

You are imo...blaming religion and history for todays obsession with porn and physical perfection...I am blaming the internet and the press for fuelling modern societies obsessions.
A decade ago most young girls would have no idea what a vagina...other than her own, would look like. She would have gotten her knowledge from drawings and diagrams not porn movies.

You are at odds with the opinions of gynaecologists and experts...who presumably have researched why so many young girls feel the need to try to attain intimate physical perfection today, instead you prefer to get your answers from history books.

Now you refute my points if you can instead of posting a new set of your own.

The Internet is just a mode of communication. It's what goes on the Internet that affects the way we think and what we believe.

Yes, the Internet can show a picture of what is attractive. But why does the young girl think that's attractive, and more importantly, why does she want to be like that? It goes back farther than the media of communication.

Original Quill wrote:The Internet is just a mode of communication.  It's what goes on the Internet that affects the way we think and what we believe.

Yes, the Internet can show a picture of what is attractive.  But why does the young girl think that's attractive, and more importantly, why does she want to be like that?  It goes back farther than the media of communication.

'social media' takes it a step further though
as the girl puts a picture of her self online and it 'told' if she attractive or not. whether she asks to be told or not.
even if she had no body issue before she will if she reads the comments

social media celebrities exist today totally based on posting 'hot' photos.
Social media is a new phenomena, taking what where issues for a few that choose to seek careers in modeling etc to being every/any body problems.

veya_victaous wrote:

Original Quill wrote:The Internet is just a mode of communication.  It's what goes on the Internet that affects the way we think and what we believe.

Yes, the Internet can show a picture of what is attractive.  But why does the young girl think that's attractive, and more importantly, why does she want to be like that?  It goes back farther than the media of communication.

'social media' takes it a step further though
as the girl puts a picture of her self online and it 'told' if she attractive or not. whether she asks to be told or not.
even if she had no body issue before she will if she reads the comments

social media celebrities exist today totally based on posting 'hot' photos.
Social media is a new phenomena, taking what where issues for a few that choose to seek careers in modeling etc to being every/any body problems.

Yeah...I thought about that later.  Syl is right...the mere spreading of the word--any word--that far is going to be a phenomenon of it's own.  In fact, that's what Marshall McLuhan said in The Medium is the Message, only today it would be the keyboard and the CRT: