“The Internet is a Lie”

In the rising age of technology, many people obtain a plethora of information regarding their lives from the internet, such as Google. One huge thing that the internet executes is to provide a “safe” and “private” platform to ask questions and find answers. Many schools at this time do not go into enough detail with sex ed and some schools, such as private schools, even skip it and just say “don’t have sex” which can be very confusing and misleading to a young adult. With children getting phones with internet access at a younger age, kids are more prone to letting their curiosity get the best of them when it comes to what they search. This includes googling pornographic images or information to seemingly lead them in a better direction than school sex ed or their parents ever did. Even though the information they read may seem correct, chances are it is skewed. Humans made the internet and can make mistakes portraying incorrect information to any reader; especially when it comes to pornographic imagery.

Women are grossly over-sexualized and exploited on the internet, such as Instagram, on a daily basis, regardless if it is on a pornographic website or not. Yet, on a highly popular pornographic website, such as www.pornhub.com (click at your own discretion), it is very easy for anyone to access a plethora of videos and images of any sexual situation you can think of. This oversexualized imagery distorts the mind of younger boys and girls in many ways. For example, it makes young women think that they have to live up to a certain expectation and also makes young men believe that all women behave or hold themselves to the standards of popular internet pornography. Thinking about the internet’s power over the imagery of everyone worries me on a daily basis. It creates a beauty standard for both men and women in many ways. For example, every year they have an award for “The Sexiest Man Alive.” Beauty is subjective, but the internet’s idea of a beautiful women, sexually and mentally, is not what I fit into at all. This idea can really hurt my, and many other women’s, self-esteem.

All these standards really do for the people is leave them to conform or change through surgery etc., hate themselves, or to just accept that they are at the end of the day. This grossly skewed idea of how women or men should act according to the internet is the main reason why the internet is one big lie. Any website is going to put forth the best face of someone, even if it is highly edited or even fake. For example, you would never voluntarily post a photo of you vomiting on your public Facebook, but you might post the nice photo of you from earlier that night having cocktails with your friends! This idea of putting the best face forward makes life seem like it’s all that and a bag of chips, but it’s not. The internet is a lie!