LIVING IN THE FEED: IMPACT OF ALGORITHM-DRIVEN BEAUTY IDEALS ON INDIAN FEMALE USERS AND THEIR PERCEPTION OF FACIAL DIVERSITY

In the rapidly expanding digital landscape of India, visually driven social media platforms utilize engagement-based algorithms that curate personalized content feeds, profoundly influencing user perception. This paper examines the influence of algorithm-driven beauty ideals on female users in India and their resulting perceptions of facial diversity. The study addresses a critical gap in existing literature by shifting focus from the impact of idealized images to the impact of algorithmic homogeneity—the repeated exposure to a singular, mathematically optimized “preferred face.” The research is grounded in key theoretical frameworks: Social Comparison Theory, which posits that users engage in “upward comparison” against unattainable algorithmic standards; Cultivation Theory, which suggests that heavy exposure to homogenous content distorts users’ perceptions of reality, normalizing artificial features as the “average”; and Post-Colonial Colorism. Drawing on Parameswaran and Cardoza (2009), this latter framework argues that modern algorithmic preferences function as a digital continuation of colonial hierarchies, commodifying “whiteness” and erasing the vast indigenous phenotypic diversity of the Indian population in favor of a singular “cyber-ethnicity.” Methodologically, the study employs a primary quantitative survey of female social media users in India (N=36) to gauge algorithmic awareness and self-perception. The findings reveal that a significant majority (69.4%) perceive faces in their feed as “similar,” with 83.3% attributing this to algorithmic prioritization of specific features. Contrary to the hypothesis of passive consumption, the results uncover a significant “backlash effect,” where nearly half of the respondents (44.4%) reported valuing natural faces more as a reaction to the saturation of artificial uniformity. The paper concludes that while algorithms function as agents of cultural erasure, Indian users are exhibiting a complex form of resistance, navigating the tension between the mathematical push for sameness and the human desire for authenticity.