MANILA, Philippines - The contemporary morning ritual goes like this: Wake up, big yawn, check messages, update Twitter, take a dump, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast.
In what has become as conventional as pouring milk into a bowl of cereal, the Internet has become an essential, indelible part of our mornings. And it says a lot. Before the human need to eat and excrete, we address the human need to Tweet and disseminate. The Internet has long taken over our lives, of course, but Twitter, Facebook, and other 24/7 you-need-to-be-updated-about-every-single-minute-of-my-life-like-my-breakfast-panini-mmm social networking sites have taken it to another level.
It’s no longer just a way to e-mail your coworkers, for example, or download the latest True Blood; it’s our lives. From the way we work to the way we dress, and now, to the way we update people about our excruciatingly delicious breakfast, it has seeped into every element of our existence. More than an extension of ourselves, it’s a part of us, like an always-in-the-know ear or an especially gossipy mouth.
And it’s in our avatars where we live our fantasy lives, where we become who we want to be. Through tightly-controlled situations — lighting just the right amount of flattering, angle just enough to hide that burgeoning beer belly — we become our ideal selves. Even if only on Lookbook, you can rock those sun dresses as adorably as Zooey Deschanel. Even if only in a heavily-shopped Facebook profile picture, you can look like a Twilight stud.
Welcome to the Internet generation’s version of putting-your-best-foot-forward. If a picture is capturing a moment and preserving it forever, our obsession and effort in honor of our avatars is capturing a moment — usually a very flattering moment — and transmitting it, promulgating a myth that we are that well put-together, that we are that attractive.
In its “Old Manila” campaign, local clothing brand Solo takes your best foot and puts it on a pedestal. In a bid for “you to discover you,” Solo is making us our own endorsers. Forget Marian, Dingong, Piolo, and the like. No one is better suited for you than yourself. No need to wish for fairy godagents. Take the power back. Discover you.
All you have to do is buy an Old Manila tee, snap a picture, and become your own Marian Rivera or Derek Ramsey. If you get enough votes, you’ll be plastered all over Solo walls nationwide.
Maybe it’s lying. That belly, from a profile vantage point, definitely isn’t as toned as that straight-on Facebook picture. Those hips certainly aren’t as narrow as that Lookbook shot with your new Topshop dress. It’s lying, but it might be our only way of coping, our way of fighting back against our media-saturated world.
After growing up in a world where we’re constantly exposed to a barrage of wafer-thin catwalk divas and rock-hard Adonises, it’s time to take the power back. It is no longer up to mad men advertising execs to tell you that your look isn’t salable. It’s no longer up to the Anna Wintours to tell you that you’ll never look like that girl in that Prada ad. Take the power back.
Be your own model. Be your own photographer. Be your own art director. It was only a matter of time before the beast grabbed the whip from the circus master.