The plague of perfectionism is one that has grown greatly in recent years. A study by the American Psychological Association posits that perfectionism among youth increased by an average of 33 percent in the past 27 years, and social media could be a contributing factor to that increase (Curran, 2017). We’ve likely all heard the adage, “comparison is the thief of joy.” This holds unequivocally true in a recent study published in the psychology journal Personality and Individual Differences. The study, which tested “whether perfectionism is a vulnerability factor for distress among female adolescents in the context of appearance-focused social comparison and use of social media” (Etherson et al, 2022, 1), found staggering results that, yes, social media greatly contributed to perfectionism. Not only is perfectionism prevalent in general, but the study found that both rigid and self-critical perfectionism played a role. Rigid perfectionism is defined as an insistence that an individual’s own performance must be perfect and only feel worthwhile only if and when perfect, whereas self-critical perfection is the tendency to be self-critical due to perceived failures to live up to high standards and excessive concern of the evaluation of others. So where is the danger in this? In order to fully understand that, we must first consider James Carey’s Ritual Model of Communication.
When it comes to communication, there are two main models that explain how we send and receive information: the transmission model and the ritual model. The transmission model is typically what we think of when communicating. It includes an encoder, a message, and a decoder. The encoder sends a message, which gets received and then decoded by the decoder. Simple, right?
The ritual model is more unconventional and advanced. When more advanced technology and sources of mass communication came into play, James Carey, a cultural studies theorist, developed the ritual model. The theory holds that “communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed” (Sen, 2016). Carey compares consuming media under this theory to attending Catholic Mass; he believes that by reading the newspaper, scrolling a social media platform, or watching a TV series, we are not simply encoding and decoding information but participating in a ritual that shares our way of thinking, thus actively creating the society that we live in.
In simple terms, the ritual model is a way of constructing our reality and building our identity. For many people, Instagram, Facebook. Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and other forms of social media provide the perfect foundation for this construction and building of reality and identity, even when what we portray as “reality” is not even close to real. These platforms allow users to crop, filter, photoshop, and facetune away whatever imperfections or blemishes may be apparent. Users are able to share their best moments, leading to an obsession in regards public appearance and perception.. Ultimately, perfectionism is a discrepancy between idealized and actual appearances; it's the ritual model in real time, building and creating the society we live in, sinking us deeper and deeper into a false and unattainable vision of reality and leaving many feeling inadequate, unworthy, unloved, anxious, and increasingly self-conscious.
Resources:
Curran, T. (2017). Perfectionism is increasing over time - apa.org. apa.org. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000138.pdf
Etherson, M. E., Curran, T., Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., & Hill, A. P. (2022, February). Perfectionism as a vulnerability following appearance-focussed social comparison: A multi-wave study with female adolescents. sciencedirect.com. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www-sciencedirect-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S1541461221001075
Sen, B. (2016, January 29). Information as Ritual: James Carey in the Digital Age. journals.sagepub.com. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1532708615625687