"Trick Mirror"

I recently read the book "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" by Jia Tolentino. It made me come to many realizations and awakenings on how our modern society acts and how social media has affected our everyday lives. The book is a series of essays, with each chapter focusing on a different topic that somehow relates to the modern experience of life. Each chapter is separate, but they are all meant to bring up criticisms or theories on modern society and how most of us, even if we don't want to be, still become wrapped up in our self-image. The first chapter starts the book off in the right direction by going right in about how social media and the internet have made our modern society fake and unrealistic. It discusses all the criticisms regarding social media and the role of our identity on the internet. The author brings up the point that the internet has made us all narcissists and that we are so obsessed with social media that we aren't being our authentic selves and just putting on an image of something we are not. The next chapter brings up the theory that reality tv was the start of the social media influencer era. The author shares her experience being on a reality tv show and what she thinks about it from her personal experiences. She believes that it takes a special kind of person who is unafraid of that kind of attention and can fully indulge in a fabricated show like most reality tv. The third chapter was the most interesting for me and was very eye-opening on how I might be subconsciously wrapped up in self-image and feeding into big companies' traps on how to get me to act and think a certain way. This chapter brings up the idea that although many people believe that our society is moving towards being more accepting of natural beauty and getting rid of beauty standards, in reality, it is more toxic than ever. Because our society is now promoting this idea of natural beauty and being your true self, it sounds great, but in reality, it just means you are supposed to meet beauty standards while still looking effortless at the same time.

An example of this is many athleisure brands are seen as great clothes that are comfy and athletic. Still, in reality, it promotes a hectic lifestyle that says, "I'm so active I don't even have time to change in my everyday life." Overall, chapter three was the most interesting one for me and made me think about how I need to change the way I view certain brands, ideas, and social media as a whole. The other chapters bring up great theories regarding big tech companies, ideas behind the social construct of weddings, and many more criticisms of our modern society. The key takeaway from "Trick Mirror" is that there are many dangerous and corrupt aspects of our modern society designed to make it easy on ourselves in the short term to ignore them and therefore not do much about them. It's also challenging to opt-out of these harmful aspects of our society because it revolves around the internet and technology and is almost inescapable. Whether people admit it or not, everyone cares a little about how others perceive them. The author is trying to say that although it is difficult to see and do anything about the harmful things happening in our society, it's essential to be aware and be careful not to fall into some of the traps our modern society has made. I thought that this book was truthfully one of the best books I have read and taught me a lot about how I view myself and others, primarily through social media. I think anyone would benefit from reading this book because it's an eye-opening experience to think about how we live and act in our society and how subconsciously we are being tricked into acting and feeling a certain way. Overall, this book was excellent, and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to look in-depth at the way our society is becoming and how the internet and social media have changed our perception of everything.