From NocutNews:
‘Please rate my face’ Teens upload pictures of themselves on the net
It’s worrying that ‘adults’ obsession with appearances reflects onto children’
‘I know I’m ugly, but I just want an evaluation of my face…Can I live with my head up?’
Jung (16), who is currently in his third grade of middle school, uploaded 5 pictures of himself that he’d taken on an Internet friendship cafe [online community].
This is because he wanted to receive an ‘objective’ assessment of his outward appearance from other members from the community who are mostly teens.
‘I didn’t upload face pics of myself ’cause I have confidence or something like that. It’s just that I really wanna know the standard of my appearance, and for peeps to ruthlessly evaluate if I’m mingin’, and if so, where.’
Kim, who’s in 6th grade of elementary school, also uploaded a picture of her face ‘to get an objective evaluation and advice.’
This so-called ‘face-rating’ culture of uploading pictures of one’s face and then asking for an evaluation is popular among teenagers.
The list of posts from teens who ask for ‘face-rating’ is so long that the cafe has now even created a new menu feature entitled ‘Physical appearance woes – face-rating.’
Through the evaluations given by their peers, these children get confidence, or advice on what needs improving.
They are given one of 3 main ratings, ‘Orcish [ugly],’ ‘average,’ or ‘heart-warming [good-looking],’ and then given advice on what they are lacking or what needs working on.
Park (16), in his 3rd grade of middle school, uploads new pictures of himself and asks for advice and an evaluation everytime he changes his look.
Park said that ‘It’s great if I receive positive feedback, but if it’s negative, that’s okay, too ’cause I can make up for those bad points and my friends also get advice online and change their looks, too.’
The majority of responses to ‘face-rating’ posts consist of advice like ‘why not try such and such’ rather than those critical ones that say ‘you’re ugly.’
One student said ‘I’m 177cm in height and in my 3rd grade of middle school, but I’ve never heard nice things about my face from my friends’ and got as advice from the online members ‘if you put some wax in your hair, you can create some style’ and ‘if you lose a bit of weight and get rid of those glasses, you’d look cooler.’
A middle school 1st grader said ‘I have no confidence with my appearance and think I’m ugly,’ to which someone who said they were in 3rd grade said that ‘your nose is pretty, and your eyes are big, so overall, you are not ugly at all’ and ‘on a scale of 1 to 6, you’d fall under a 4, so please don’t worry.’
This raises concerns that part of this face-rating culture of teens is a reflection of the lookism culture of adults.
Prof. Kwak Geum-joo of Seoul National University‘s Psychology Department analyzed that ‘Since children are a mini version of adults, this shows that our society’s lookism and favor toward cosmetic surgery is even influencing our children’ and ‘the adolescent tendency to get recognition and an evaluation of one’s appearance is interlinked with the Internet, creating a culture of so-called ‘face-rating.’’
Prof. Kwak advised that ‘Since the main concern of adolescents is their appearances, if they receive bad feedback from face-rating, they would feel hurt and this can also have a negative effect to their personality’ and ‘it’s important for friends and family to try to compliment inconfident teenagers and help them find their other positive points.’
Comments from Naver:
aksq****:
That f**king program called “Ulzzang Generation” is leading this lookism fad.
lu_k****:
Sigh, I feel sorry for this country.
kbcb****
Talent is more important for men, kiddo ㅡㅡ Unless you wanna leech off women, study hard ke ke ke
jhkm****:
The lookism in this country is excessive..; Personality is very important. I haven’t seen good-looking people with crappy personality stay in relationship for long.. And if you learn that your friends like you just for your appearance, it would feel crappy.
kk57****:
Even behind that pixelated picture, that bastard’s still ugly – you gotta find your own unique charm.
hyob****:
Those guys who upload their pictures are either really ugly or delusional in thinking they are good-looking. If you really look good, you get recognized in real life so there is no reason to ask for an evaluation like that at all. Those kids who have no life and look in the mirror too much think they are good-looking and upload their pictures online. It is those mediocre ones who suck up to each other ke ke ke
kimd****:
You know what ke ke ke When I was studying abroad, those foreign kids had fun with funny herp-derp pictures and didn’t care much about bad pictures. But in Korea, they don’t tolerate weird pictures. Why do you care so much about how you will be seen by others?
9sf2****:
They ask for face evaluations, but I’ve never seen a kid take a frontal shot.
ohhe****:
It all will become your black history later on.
1107****:
At least when girls try to get a job, being pretty comes over getting full marks on the TOEIC exam. Appearance is also a spec.
dbfk****:
I hate receiving ratings… And I hate for my face appearing online… So why deliberately do it?
cokc****:
One day, a junior student who hated me uploaded my picture for face-rating and my friend found that out. Startled, I opened the website and read the comments on my picture. A few said I look pretty but many comments said I’m ugly or plain-looking. I was hurt and my parent reported the post. I taught a lesson to the junior student who apologized to me later but because of the trauma, when I walk on the street, I keep my head down and I can’t believe it even when someone compliments my looks.
cnd1****:
Ugly ones tend to be more picky about others’ appearances ke
maxi****:
The society has become too tough. If you look good, that’s good but that really isn’t everything.
over****:
When you take a self-shot photo, please don’t stick a [virtual] mustache, it’s really not cute.
rkdt****:
Teens these days seem love-starved… While their parents make them study to death for exams, they feel proud if they have many friends and they can’t stay away from KakaoTalk [instant messenger] for a moment. Now they even ask for face-rating… That’s pitiable.
yeed****:
Pretty doesn’t mean attractive. Even if you look average, you become a very attractive person if you look confident and smile a lot. Develop your own charm rather than physical appearance.
hun1****:
I’m a first grade middle schooler. I don’t do that shit ’cause I know I’m ugly.
free****:
8 or 9 out of 10 are bad comments.
rlatdchv57:
Good-looking peeps don’t ask for evaluations and they are not outspoken about their looks. It’s always those oogly peeps who do that.
