It's Absolutely Your World Now, Population One

Over the last few months I’ve realised that we are actually all living in our own worlds now. I mean, not physically of course… well, not yet anyway, but digitally we absolutely are.

I’ve spoken about this quite a lot recently with friends and clients, but honestly it’s starting to freak me out a bit.

Think back, way back, to pre social media. What a time to be alive. Remember all the stuff we used to watch on TV? Well that was for everyone, wasn’t it? We all watched the same shows, the same adverts, read the same magazines and saw the same news stories. If you didn’t like something, you switched channels, but realistically there weren’t endless options. We were all consuming broadly the same information at the same time and then taking from it what we wanted.

Now though? Everything is personalised and honestly, I don’t think we fully appreciate how weird that actually is.

We are all basically living inside our own little echo chambers which are completely tailored to us. Everything you see online has been fed to you based on what you stop scrolling for, what you click on, what you engage with and what keeps your attention the longest.

It is literally your own world… population: one.

The things you believe, buy, fear and obsess over are constantly being reinforced by what your algorithm chooses to show you. And the weirdest part is that nobody else is seeing exactly the same version.

Have you ever scrolled through someone else’s Instagram or YouTube? It’s genuinely jarring, especially if you’re not interested in the same things as them. You can actually find out a lot about someone just by looking at their search page!

Anyway, bringing this back to skin, I hear clients say all the time in clinic:

“Have you heard about this new product? It’s everywhere.” or “Everyone is getting this treatment done now.”

Are they though?

Because on my feed all I seem to get shown are AI cats acting like humans and someone desperately trying to sell me workout gear I absolutely do not need.

YOU DO NOT NEED ANY MORE WORKOUT GEAR EM!

Sorry, quick note to self there.

But this is exactly the point. Something isn’t necessarily “everywhere”. It’s everywhere in your algorithm, not mine.

And because people keep seeing the same thing over and over again, it starts becoming reinforced as fact. Suddenly you have endless “proof” that this treatment or ingredient is something you absolutely need because everyone online seems obsessed with it.

Meanwhile someone else’s feed is showing them the complete opposite.

One person’s algorithm is anti SPF, anti seed oils and terrified of “chemicals” despite the fact that literally everything is made of chemicals, including water.

Another person’s feed is all pro SPF, Botox, peels, injectables and tweakments.

And both people are completely convinced they are right. That’s the scary bit.

Nobody really sees the other side anymore because the algorithm quickly learns what you agree with and keeps feeding you more of it. So instead of balanced information, we end up with constant reinforcement.

And honestly, from a wider world perspective, I think it’s quite frightening. It genuinely feels like we’re all ending up in these little digital tribes where everyone becomes an extremist, convinced their version of reality is the correct one. I don’t really talk politics on here because this is a skincare blog, but politically too? I think we’re pretty fucked if I’m being honest. As a woman who is half immigrant, I am actually terrified of what is to come or is that just the algorithm I'm seeing?

From a skincare point of view though, I see the impact of this constantly.

People become frightened of ingredients, terrified of products and obsessed with trends because their favourite influencer has told them they need something. Then their skin starts freaking out because they’re using products that don’t suit their skin at all, but they’re too afraid to stop because social media convinced them it was the answer.

I get clients coming into clinic convinced they need retinoids, vitamin C, niacinamide, salmon sperm facials… you name it… because the internet told them so.

Meanwhile I’m sat there thinking:

“No hun, your barrier is hanging on by a thread. You do not need to add three more active ingredients into the mix right now.”

And that's the thing, this isn’t really about skincare at all.

It’s about anxiety, comparison and the fact that we are no longer casually consuming information anymore. We are being emotionally charged all day long by personalised content constantly reinforcing the same fears, insecurities and beliefs over and over again.

So how do we get past this?

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure we can.

But maybe we can at least become more aware of it.

Maybe we can stop for a second before panic-buying the latest trending product and ask ourselves:

“Do I actually need this… or have I simply seen it 500 times?”

You do not need every active ingredient or every trending treatment. Also not everything you see online is relevant to your skin just because the algorithm decided you should see it.

If you feel overwhelmed by all the noise, you can always book an online consultation with me here or fill out my free skin check-in form. We can talk through what actually suits your skin, rather than what your algorithm is currently screaming at you to buy.

I hope this gave you a bit of food for thought because honestly, I do think this is affecting all of us far more than we realise. I am feeling it more than ever right now and that's not a great place to be.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put my phone down for a while and go back to looking at puppy videos and cake.

Hope you’re doing ok out there,

Emmaline