As a born-and-raised Florida girl, I grew up used to aesthetically pleasing license plates marking each car’s back bumper. Our standard plate features a green silhouette of Florida’s border in the background and the iconic Florida oranges and orange blossom flowers in the center. Minty green lettering on either side and a statement proudly proclaiming us the “Sunshine State” complete the sleek, memorable look.
Even better, this standard license plate is far from the only one traversing the sunny Florida roads. For a small fee, Florida residents can choose from over a hundred specialty plates that raise money for a cause of their choice, like preserving the Everglades or supporting firefighters, while also adding a work of art to their back bumper. Whether the plate features a colorful sunrise with frolicking dolphins (as my dad’s does), a favorite Florida sports team or a sturdy shrub simply proclaiming that “trees are cool,” these special plates are an integral part of Florida’s driving culture, helping drivers share some of their personality with the public during every trip they take.
Coming to Stanford, I expected even better from California, the state known for its artistic spirit. I imagined license plates honoring the greatest (and weirdest!) Hollywood films, the beautiful redwood forests and San Francisco’s unique architecture. Imagine my disappointment, then, when I arrived and was greeted by dreadfully boring blue lettering on a white background. The only indication I was even in the Golden State was a red cursive “California” at the top. Instead of embracing the quirky and irreproducible culture of America’s most populous state, the California Department of Motor Vehicles pushes everyone into a standardized, dull “normal,” preferring polished perfection over whimsical weirdness.
Of course, the style of our car’s license plate doesn’t really affect our lives. However, this insistence on banal, perfected normalcy speaks to a greater trend of trying to suppress the whimsy, uniqueness and sometimes just plain weirdness that makes up the world.
Social media is particularly guilty of suppressing people’s uniqueness by pushing the perception that everyone’s life is perfect — and moreover, that we all should be perfect, lest we face judgement from our peers. When each new post is carefully crafted to portray the best parts of oneself, suppressing everything that doesn’t fit into that perfect image, it becomes difficult to separate the fantasy of social media from reality. Research on social media’s mental health effects is just beginning to reach the public eye, and the results are damming: scientists have found associations between increased social media use and depression. As the common saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy. There’s nothing like watching people’s so-called perfect lives on social media to make you rethink how you’re living your own.
Popular subreddit r/InstagramReality, which boasts over 1 million members, exposes some discrepancies between the illusory ideal of Instagram and imperfect reality. Unfortunately, the fear of missing out, not shaping up and generally being perceived as strange has contributed to an increased desire to appear perfect. Even worse, social media algorithms are actively suppressing personalities that diverge from the norm. TikTok, for example, admitted that their algorithms intentionally suppressed disabled and LGBT+ creators from reaching a wider audience, pushing these already marginalized groups even further into the fringes of what is deemed “acceptable.”
With most of the praise, attention and money channeled into a certain, standardized look, it’s no surprise that body dysmorphia and a decreased sense of self-worth run rampant among social media users who feel they need to recreate that idealized look — despite it not even existing outside of a highly-curated, online space. In an attempt to strive for perfection, we forget the things that make us people. So, what does all of this have to do with license plates? Well, Californian plates are simply too polished — and in turn, incredibly boring. Despite the gripes I sometimes have with my home state, I do appreciate Florida for embracing our inherent quirkiness in whatever form it takes, special license plates and all. Sure, the well-known “Florida man” meme — wherein a wild Floridian exploit (that may or may not involve an alligator) is reported on and distributed for the rest of the world to see — may have made us Floridians the laughing stock of the nation, but at least we own up to our weirdness. California is just as quirky, unique and imperfect as the rest of the states, and its license plates should reflect that. So embrace your individuality, foster your imagination and, of course, demand cooler license plates.