SARAH VINE: It’s glaringly obvious, but all rather strange. As I look at Rylan, Bobby Norris – even Clavicular – I am struck by this unsayable link…

The digital age has literally changed the way we view ourselves.

When I was growing up, no one took photos or videos except for Christmas or special occasions. This was a temporary effort: the equipment was expensive and complex, and the results were far from guaranteed.

Moreover, there were very few really good looking people. The rest of us… well, who wants endless reminders of the truth? People were much more accepting of their natural appearance. At least because there isn’t much you can do about it.

Plastic surgery was prohibitively expensive; There was no Botox, fillers, lasers or red light therapy; even hair tools were primitive. These were Pond’s Cold Cream and Elnett; There wasn’t much else.

Then came smartphones and Instagram culture and everything changed. The world has become obsessed with selfies. The more we looked at ourselves, the more we realized we didn’t like it.

But that was good, because now there was a solution; While it’s not a fancy digital filter, it’s a real-life filter. A tweak here, a tweak there, hair extensions, maybe some thread, the odd chemical peel.

And not just for ‘anti-aging’ purposes either. Now you can transform your entire look Kardashian style. A perfectly average looking person could transform himself into someone else if he had the time, money and stomach.

It was similar to Fay Weldon’s The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil. This was fiction. But Kylie Jenner has built an entire cosmetics empire on a pout she wasn’t born with. Likewise Kim’s butt. All fake, all manufactured.

Meanwhile, TOWIE star Bobby Norris has had a face and neck lift and shared before and after photos (pic from before)

Livestream Clavicular, aka Braden Peters, reportedly smashed his own facial bones with a hammer

So is it really surprising that more people now view cosmetic treatments, surgical or otherwise, as completely normal?

Twenty years ago, this was an innovation reserved for a select few celebrities. As anyone who has ever boarded a plane to Bodrum can see, this is now an ordinary situation.

What is quite new, however, is the number of men joining the club.

And just livestreamer Clavicular (aka Braden Peters), who is said to have shattered his own facial bones with a hammer, and orthodontist Dr. Clavicular, who advocates lower jaw exercises for a squarer jaw. Not the usual ‘makxer’ looking berserkers like Mike Mew.

This week, TV presenter and DJ Rylan Clark proudly showed off the results of his latest facial procedure on Instagram Stories, which he admitted was ‘traumatic and invasive’.

Meanwhile, Bobby Norris, star of The Only Way Is Essex, shared photos of his post-upper and lower blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) and face and neck lift surgery. Ah.

Most of the time it’s not even a matter of whether he has it or not; This is dazzlingly obvious. People show off their surgeries as if they were showing off a new car or expensive jewelry. This is a matter of status as well as aesthetics.

Cosmetic surgery was once something so secretive that you couldn’t easily admit it, but now it has become something that arouses desire. Just as women openly alter their faces and physiques to imitate their idols, so do men.

Women usually have Angelina Jolie’s lips, Anya Taylor-Joy’s heart-shaped face, Megan Fox’s eyes. For men, chin implants or liposuction are done to achieve a sharper look like that of Cillian Murphy or Henry Cavill. The results are not universally successful. For example, in February, Jim Carrey attended an event in Paris wearing a truly strange look.

For a man whose entire career has been based on his extraordinarily expressive face (if you’ve never seen his brilliant portrayals of stars like Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson, they’re definitely worth a detour), he seems stuck with his late-stage Mickey Rooney impression.

Is this the next part of human evolution? From Homo erectus to Homo botulinus. So what happens when two surgically altered people have a baby that looks nothing like their pimp version of themselves? So will that child have to go through the same process to be matched with their parents?

It’s all pretty weird. Especially men. I’ve always felt that most men look better as they get older, especially if they grow beards like most do.

Beard is a line of nature, an excellent weapon in the fight against sagging jowls. Who cares if you’re not at the top too much; You can always wear a hat. But one of the biggest signs of aging is the turkey neck and soft jawline. Grow a beard and voila! Gone.

Either way, I hope Clark and Norris are feeling better after their ordeal. I can’t comment on the outcome as I don’t know what they both looked like before surgery. Be careful, gentlemen, do not go too far and turn into Wildenstein’s Grooms.

I am happy that the King and Queen will go to America, despite the British public’s criticism of Donald Trump for the Iran war. Soft diplomacy is exactly what the monarchy is all about.

Maybe they could try another diplomatic mission: visiting the King’s two grandchildren in Montecito. I’m sure the Queen is dying to experience Meghan’s famous hospitality; not to mention his trademark jam.

Meghan’s trademark jam costs $9 (£6.80) per jar, $14 (£10.60) with ‘souvenir wrapping’

The machines are here. They are already in London. Last week I approached the lights and noticed a strange vehicle next to me; It’s big, full of cameras and antennas.

Waymo’s self-driving car – the so-called future of driving. Do we really need these products imported from California on our roads? It’s bad enough that London’s iconic black taxis, with their equally iconic drivers, have been overtaken by Uber and now face robot destruction. And what is it all for? So can a coach buy his girlfriend another pair of tits?

Black taxis are part of London’s heritage.

We should value them, not put them out of business with creepy foreign imports.

True colors of greens

If the Green Party passes the ‘Zionism is racism’ motion (delayed due to chaos at last week’s conference) we will have definitive confirmation that it is anti-Semitic.

It is not right to criticize Israel’s actions. But excluding Jews as the only group without the right to self-determination is racism itself. Don’t be fooled by the ‘Hope Not Hate’ rhetoric: as leaked WhatsApp messages from Greens for Palestine activists show (“an abomination to this planet” etc.), it is clear that, for some at least, anti-Zionism equates to anti-Semitism.

That a political party could even consider allowing such sentiment within its ranks is disturbing and shows that ideologically it is not very different from the far-right movements that swept Europe in the 1930s.

Yesterday was Transgender Day of Visibility. It is not entirely clear why this was deemed necessary; The trans cause has become so visible in the last few years that even my cat has her own pronouns: Meow/Meow.

Are we seeing the rise of a new breed of ‘influencer’ politician? I ask this because Hannah Spencer’s Instagram (the new MP for Gorton and Denton) keeps popping up in my feed. It’s mostly grinning, childish selfies, but her latest post sees her shopping for clothes at a store called Thunder Egg in Manchester, including stylish striped trousers, a new, multi-coloured bag and, of course, the obligatory trans rights T-shirt. All together now: Commercialize the intifada!

Exciting return to Sydney

Euphoria returns on April 12 after a four-year hiatus. Sydney Sweeney portrays Cassie Howard

The popular series Euphoria returns to our screens on April 12 after a four-year break.

During this time, young stars became Hollywood sensations. Sydney Sweeney (left) made her mark on films like The Housemaid (she also caused controversy with her staunch Republican views and jeans ad); Zendaya has established herself as a global icon; and Jacob Elordi has officially become the new Brad Pitt.

But the show also had its share of tragedy.

Angus Cloud, who played drug dealer Fezco, died of an overdose in 2023 when he was only 25; and Eric Dane, who played closeted bisexual father Cal Jacobs, died of motor neurone disease at age 53 earlier this year. It will be a bittersweet meeting.