Social media influencers, the vast majority falling between the ages of 21 and 31, are obsessed with physical aesthetics, they make a lucrative income hawking beauty treatments, diet pills, and any product that will make their followers look eternally prepubescent.
Although TikTok does not explicitly exclude older users, its youth-driven platform can feel surreal and disorienting for senior citizens. We feel like fish out of water, adrift in a toxic, artificial environment. Thanks, but I will stick with Facebook, even if it is nearly as obsolete as MySpace.
Fortunately, I am tired of unrealistic beauty standards, and I gave up trying to look younger than my chronological age decades ago. I embrace my bald pate, my beer belly, and my wrinkled visage. I am not in the market for Wegovy or Botox, and I feel emancipated. I will never look at my mirror and see Mickey Rourke staring back at me.
Age-defying products and procedures are costly illusions. We cannot defy, cheat, or postpone death; we are all inexorably moving toward our appointment with the Grim Reaper.
