admin
Kids on TikTok have turned human dignity into a scorecard, using shaky filters and viral trends to rank people on a one-to-ten attractiveness scale. What started as a silly app effect has metastasized into an online rubric where millions of young people let an algorithm — or a meme — decide their worth.
The digital template for this nonsense goes back to composite images and “attractive face” morphs compiled from old Hot or Not rankings, a sleazy little exercise in mass objectification dressed up as tech. Teenagers now compare themselves to blurry celebrity composites and call the result a verdict on their looks and value.
Worse still, darker corners of the internet have weaponized the idea into rigid hierarchies like the so‑called PSL scale, with labels that dehumanize whole people — from “subhuman” to mythical “Tera Chads.” This isn’t just bad taste; it’s the kind of online culture that normalizes contempt and hostility toward anyone who doesn’t meet a narrow, sold‑to‑us ideal.
The consequences are predictable: young men and women chasing impossible standards, pursuing “looksmaxxing” through grooming fads, risky DIY procedures, or expensive surgery sold by influencers. Academics and investigators warn these movements act as a grooming ground for resentment and extremism, not self‑esteem or healthy relationships.
Big Tech makes the tools and Gen Z markets the obsession, with TikTok filters and viral effects giving this cruelty mass reach and normalizing the scoreboard mentality. If we care about the next generation, we should stop pretending these are harmless trends — they’re a profit engine for platforms and a moral hazard for our kids.
Americans who actually work, raise families, and build real communities should reject the idea that a phone app can assign your worth. Teach your children to value character, fidelity, and work over clicks and cosmetic perfection; demand platform accountability, restore parental control, and call out the vanity industry for what it is. The choice is simple: either we let tech infantilize our children, or we teach them to be better than a number on someone’s phone.
