1: An Interview
2:Chatting Room
3：Create a Nature Filter
WHAT-WHY-HOW-WHAT IF PROPOSAL
The area that I intend to research is social appearance anxiety and I want to explore why do people have such emotions and who causes this social phenomenon?
In my research, I decided to look at the problem from a higher social class. I want to explore that who sets the standard of beauty and whether people with higher power are driving this social phenomenon. And my specific question is how to alleviate social appearance anxiety by change beauty standards set by the social media industry.
The reason that I choose this area is that sometimes I suffer from social appearance anxiety, which makes me suspicious of a lot of things and less confident. I think this research can help me understand my feelings better and like myself more. For this world, I hope to explore whether the establishment of beauty standards will make many people feel anxious about their appearance through this research. Then, I hope that by letting people know this fact, they can take the initiative to control their beauty standard and not be troubled by social appearance anxiety.
My methodology will focus on three main directions.
1:Literature Review
I will read two major categories of literature. The first category is to understand why people have social appearance anxiety? The second category is how has the growth of social networks changed people’s standards of beauty, such as Jean Baudrillard’s book The Consumer Society.
In my research, I found that a form of society arising from material enrichment and systematization. In this social form, people regard consumption as the center of life. The abundance of goods not only promotes the rapid development of social networks but also makes aesthetics an effective marketing tool.
2: Collecting Information
–Interview
My interview will focus on two groups.
1: Ordinary people with social appearance anxiety。
2：Web Celebrity（Key Opinion leaders）
There is a very active group called “Key Opinion leader” on social media. These people often have a large number of followers on the Internet who follow their activities and opinions. In other words, these KOLS may guide the general public’s perception and standards of beauty. Therefore, I want to explore the relationship between the two.
–Information from an expert
I would look for an expert who works in the social media industry and ask some pertinent questions.
3:Activity
I plan to cooperate with these key opinion leaders to launch an activity on social networks. I hope that from the confessions of these KOLs, ordinary people can understand how the information on social media kidnaps our aesthetic standards.
I hope this research can help me understand deeply about this course and develop the ability of critical thinking and independent research through the whole process. I feel like I’m constantly stepping out of my box while researching this topic. Also, I can remind myself not to blindly accept the standard settings under the social environments, but from the true feelings of the self.
Reference:
Cheri A. Levinson.(2013) Social appearance anxiety, perfectionism, and fear of negative evaluation: Distinct or shared risk factors for social anxiety and eating disorders?
J. Basic. (2014) Self-esteem and Social Appearance Anxiety: An Investigation of Secondary School Students.
Jean Baudrillard (1970) The Consumer Society.
Jerald C. Moneva,(2020) Physical Appearance Anxiety and Social Relations