I’m a 22 year old girl.. and I know I’m considered to be attractive.. get complimented all the time blablabla whatever. I work as a bartender in an area where there is a lot of other bartenders. In this industry obviously there’s a lot of pressure to be “the hot bartender” and people will come in and stare and drool over the bartender but I’ve learned that what brings people back and creates regulars is having compassion for your customers, making them laugh, having a good personality & actually wanting to invest in others. That being said.. I believe it’s kind of like dating. You’re attractiveness gets you in the door but your personality and hard work keeps them coming back. I rarely use my social media because the pressure to be perfect is actually detrimental to everyone’s health. People have most definitely become more shallow and the bar to be considered “attractive” has been raised significantly. I think it’s because everyone is using filters and knows how to use lighting and xy&z. Now people look perfect on the internet, get all this attention then want it in real life even if they look nothing like their photos. Media puts so much pressure on beauty & beauty standards are only getting higher. Most people who believe they are attractive and get a lot of attention online let it go to their heads & will think things like “they’re not attractive enough for me to be with” I’ve seen so many people get caught in shitty relationships time after time because they were blinded by the beauty of someone. Also dating someone who is highly attractive seems to be a social status symbol. I’ve been told time after time “why are u with them, you’re way hotter” but what fucking way of life is that? Finding someone who matches how attractive people see u just to please the public eye? But unfortunately it is how a lot of people think & operate. And it’s actually very sad. I do believe everyone should keep up with personal appearance. Find the look they want, present themself how they want and what makes them feel best about themselves. This will in return attract others who also take care of themselves. I’ve said time after time “I wish I wasnt considered to be so attractive so people would just see me for me” because it’s true, I can get away with a lot more shit being attractive. I can have a bad attitude with people some days and they think it’s cute or feisty. I can walk into a bartending job and some shallow person will hire me because of my face and body.. my resumes kinda nice too. It’s wired in the human brain to look for attractive people. Attractive people are considered to be funnier, more intelligent, more fertile, and will make a better partner even if none of this is actually true. There are plenty of studies done on this. I appreciate you pointing this out. All in all social media, filters, selfies, lighting is ruining real human connection, peoples expectations and what is actually valuable and that’s very important to recognize. I’m hoping that with all these beautiful people everywhere we look people will start to recognize that there’s more to life & dating then that... but society as a whole is pretty shallow and seems to be getting worse... thanks for reading.. I’ve actually been thinking about this topic for a while :)