Name: How digital culture is reshaping our faces and bodies
Uploaded: 2025-01-27T15:47:15Z
Duration: 5 min 20 s
Description: As "beauty filters" proliferate on social media platforms like TikTok, journalist Elise Hu says we've entered the era of the technological gaze, where the digital world shapes real-world beauty standards. She explains how to navigate this new reality in all its forms — and why you should reject the idea that your appearance dictates your worth.

Elise Hu: How digital culture is reshaping our faces and bodies

How digital culture is reshaping our faces and bodies

As "beauty filters" proliferate on social media platforms like TikTok, journalist Elise Hu says we've entered the era of the technological gaze, where the digital world shapes real-world beauty standards. She explains how to navigate this new reality in all its forms — and why you should reject the idea that your appearance dictates your worth.

Journalist, author, host of TED Talks Daily

Social media platforms now use AI-powered beauty filters that automatically reshape faces, setting new and often unrealistic standards for appearance. In places like South Korea, nearly half of women in their twenties have had cosmetic surgery, and this aesthetic pressure is spreading worldwide. The digital world’s 'technological gaze' teaches even young teens to edit their looks, making beauty an endless project. Narrow ideals make more people feel excluded while fueling a costly, exhausting race to keep up.