BENGALURU: As Gregor Sams a awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” – Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis. Anyone familiar with literature is bound to have come across the famed opening lines of Kafka’s existentialist novella. Pronounced as the greatest novel of the 20th century by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrative is all about the transformation of the protagonist into an insect and the subsequent isolation and changes that it brings about. Transformations, radical changes have always fascinated human beings. They have always been part of our folk tales, ballads, epics, movies and television content."
Right from a demon transforming into a demure lady or a bird to trick the good heroine or the hero in our folklore, we have been charmed by the Avengers changing into armourclad superheroes within a few seconds. So when people could take an active part of media globalisation through various platforms that were also highly visual in nature, they were bound to bring this element into their content. A friend of mine whom I have known for decades was always on the heavier side when it came to looks. He never really bothered about it until he became a borderline diabetic. Warned by his doctor, he decided to go on a weight-loss mission. For a whole year, he slogged at his gym and recorded his regimen meticulously. Once he reached the target, he promptly posted a video. While his earlier posts earned just a handful of likes and comments, this before/after video garnered more than a thousand likes and hundreds of comments.
Social media posts on various kinds of transformation have been a rage for a while now. You can see men and women in ordinary clothes suddenly turning into fashion icons, flaunting luxury brands or a woman with frizzy hair and crumpled clothing looking ten years younger after consulting a celebrity stylist. From yoga-loving, adventuresporting, travel-oriented people to DIY celebrities to commercial firms like Good Housekeeping pushing people to change the look of their homes, transformation can be easily identified as the buzzword for the attention- craving Gen-Z today.
This drift covers almost everything. A recent challenge to showcase people before and after puberty hit them is still trending, while there is another trend wherein kids reveal ‘hotter’ pictures of their parents in their twenties contrasted with their present versions. There are parents who put together videos of their children or pets emerging into adulthood as attractive beings. While transformation has been espoused as a means of earning collective approval, it is also a way of paying tribute.
There are people who like to imitate their icons by dressing up or dancing like them. Of all these, there is also a growing preference for posts showcasing social transformations. These are stories of regular people or incidents wherein major obstacles such as exclusion, gender bias or class divide were overcome. While satisfying people’s craving for a little bit of drama and fun, the transformation trend reflects the current mind-set and is here to stay.