This week saw the nomakeupselfie nominations become a viral phenomenon, and nearly GBP 2m was raised for breast cancer charities. If you’ve missed the whole saga, woman were nominated by their friends to take a selfie without any make up on, and then upload it onto their Facebook accounts in a bid to raise both money and awareness.

So far so good, but the Facebook community couldn’t resist the temptation to wade in and earnestly draw attention to the bigger issue of women wearing make up in the first place. ‘I mean breast cancer is a bummer and all, and I’m sure it’s all for a good cause, but I think the real issue at hand here is the fact in the twenty first century there are still people out there who are using something to project a false image of themselves.’

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Forums Hijack Campaign Agenda

I think it was Tuesday morning when my Facebook feed had been transformed into a sociology forum. The content varied quite dramatically, yet what connected them all was yet another thinly veiled attempt by users to project an image of themselves as sensitive, liberal, and forward thinking.

With this in mind then I’d like to start my own nomination phenomenon.

For twenty-four hours Facebook takes off its make up, and we bring the veil down so that all Facebook posts are purely function over form. Think about how liberating it would be to simply write ‘my life is one you should all aspire to’ instead of having to go through the daily rigmarole of having to explain how well your week is going in a bid to coerce your contemporaries into thinking that you’re better than them.

Instead of putting up a profile picture where you’re wearing stiff new clothes, and you’re in a night club for the first time in three years, you could simply write ‘I miss you so much. I’m not coping very well with the break up. I even miss the way that you used to always wear my socks so I’d end up wearing your stupid stripy little ankle socks and avoid crossing my legs all day even though I love crossing my legs as it makes me feel sophisticated, but I wanted you to think I’m doing just fine without you. He’ll never love you the way I did. I told everyone I was going to the bar to get another drink and ended up walking home on my own. I found one of your old razors and shaved my left leg and pretended you were sleeping next to me. That is all.’

At the time of writing, cock-in-a-sock selfies have begun to appear in a bid to raise money and awareness for testicular cancer. I wonder how long it will be before the social media community slips into the common sock.

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