Friday, January 24, 2020

Facetune is Ruining Instagram



Instagram has created a false reality for women where the ideal body is only obtainable through photo manipulation.

Since 2015, photo-editing apps like Facetune and Lightricks have accumulated over 100 million downloads and active subscribers. These pocket-sized photoshops have risen in popularity due to Instagram’s visual culture of self-images and their association with digital identity. Their interfaces are optimized for selfie and portrait manipulation. Users can smooth, slim, brighten, and hide insecurities in an instant.




Smoothing your complexion and sliming your waste seem subtle enough that no one could notice. If no one notices, there is no harm done. However, according to Harry Frankfurt’s philosophy on truth lies, and bullshit, any attempt to mask the truth is detrimental to our perception of reality. In the case of subtle photo manipulation on Instagram, the harm is seen in adolescent girls’ self-esteem and mental health.

A recent study found girls ages 14-18 are unlikely to detect image manipulation on Instagram. In fact, they are more likely to rate retouched images more positively and find them more realistic. Part of this is due to the accessibility of photo-editing apps like Facetune and Lightricks because photo manipulation is no longer limited to celebrities and models. It is accessible to their peers.

The common practice of manipulated images by non-influential users has normalized an unrealistic body ideal that is impossible to achieve. As a result, teenage girls face negative body-image and high image consciousness which puts them at higher risk for eating disorders, depression, and other mental illnesses.

Photo manipulation by peers on Instagram illustrates the dangers created by an altered perception of reality described by Frankfurt. No matter the extent of the edit, it is not the truth. Instagram users must be conscious of the role they play in fabricating this false reality with an impossible body ideal or else they risk damaging the health of others.

2 comments:

  1. This post is a great example of the consequences users face offline based on their behavior online. I found it interesting that you put responsibility on instagram users for modifying photos and see it as a contribution to the increasingly impossible beauty standards we hold ourselves to. On the one hand, I agree that altering your visual image to appear more appeal does fit into Frankfurt's definition of bullshit. On the other hand, however, I'm not sure that the whole weight of responsibility falls to the individual user. I think beauty standards are a broader systemic problem that involves celebrity and media representations as well as the social media of an average user. When it comes to visual bullshit and beauty standards, where does the brunt of ethical responsibility truly fall?

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  2. The topic of your article is really interesting. You did a great job hooking in the reader and keeping their attention. I like that you included an outside study to relate to your topic. One thing that I think could be improved on is keeping the post centered around the readings, and using your topic as more of an example. Other than that great job!

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