#algorithmaesthetics

#The death of imperfection

Remember when filters were just dog ears and sparkles? Cute, harmless, dumb fun. Now? Filters are digital plastic surgery. One tap, and you’ve got AI-snatched cheekbones, glass skin, and a jawline that could cut glass. But filters didn’t just upgrade faces. They erased people.

1. The Vanishing Act: Where Did the ‘Ugly’ Friend Go?

_No more "Quirky Aesthetic"

Once upon a time, the ‘ugly’ friend was a pop culture staple. Think Janis Ian, the nerdy bestie in ‘80s rom-coms, or the quirky sidekick in early 2000s teen dramas. They weren’t conventionally attractive, but they had something else—charm, wit, and visibility. 

Fast forward to 2025, and something strange has happened: the ‘ugly’ friend has disappeared.

Where is she? The one whose smile was a little too wide, whose skin didn’t glow like an AI-rendered goddess?

She’s gone.

...

Not from real life, obviously.

The ugly friend isn’t just missing from group pics—she’s missing from digital existence. And social media is to blame.

2. Lookism.exe: Error 404—Your Face Didn’t Load

_Algorithm saids NO! You’re out!

Boohoo, looks like you just got facetuned to death! Instagram filters aren’t just about enhancing beauty anymore. They’re about rewriting it, setting the standard so high that real faces start looking… unnatural.

A decade ago, people spent millions on surgery to fit beauty standards. Now? It’s FaceTune, auto-adjusting, and algorithmic perfection in real time.

Your nose? Shrunk. Your jawline? Sharpened. Your skin? Smooth as a marble countertop. Your individuality? Erased.

_Scan to Exit: Your Face Doesn’t Make the Cut

Filters aren’t just tweaking faces—they’re making them machine-readable. Instagram’s not neutral; it doesn’t care if you’re cute in real life - it cares if your face can be processed like a QR code. 

Jill Walker Rettberg (2017) even spells it out for us: “Machine vision is about data, not about the visual or optical.” Scholar Carolyn L. Kane (2014), as cited by Rettberg, calls this the post-optical age—where vision isn’t about seeing anymore; it’s about sorting, ranking, and controlling.

Ever notice how the ‘Explore’ page rarely features unfiltered, barefaced selfies? That’s not a coincidence—that’s software literacy 101. 

Your face? Just a collection of pixels and data points. 

And if you don’t fit the algorithm’s mold?

Oops, you’re ugly. That’s why social media unfollowed you.

3. Pretty Privilege: No Filter? No Future

#Too Ugly To Go Viral

Lie to yourself all you want, but pretty privilege is real. Instagram’s algorithm isn’t fair, darling—it’s rigged. It favors engagement, which favors attractiveness, which favors a very specific, AI-approved aesthetic.

(Apparently, real faces are now a shocking novelty on social media.)

And guess what? It’s not enough to compete with Instagram’s hottest influencers—now, you’re in a deathmatch with your own face. The filtered, algorithm-approved version of you? That’s the new gold standard.

Reality doesn’t stand a chance.

The only way to reach today’s impossible beauty ideals is to edit yourself into existence. (Coy-Dibley 2016)

These filters don’t just smooth skin. They rebuild your faces.

They auto-correct “imperfections.” They whiten skin and enlarge eyes (a.k.a. Eurocentric beauty standards coded into your front camera). They erase “flaws” before you even see them.

And what happens when people don’t feel pretty enough to keep up?

📌 They filter themselves into perfection. 📌 Or they don’t post at all.

Unfiltered faces are disappearing from our feeds, and with them, the reality of what people actually look like.

4. I'd Rather Die Than Be Mid—Cropped & Forgotten

_Filtered & Friendless: If You’re Not Pretty, You Can’t Sit With Us! Now go AI generate yourself again

Back in the day, you could be the “awkward” best friend and still be visible. Now? You either fit the aesthetic, or you don’t get posted.

👀 Think about it:

When was the last time you saw an unfiltered group pic where not everyone looked “Instagram-ready”? When was the last time an “ugly” friend made it into the shot?

Mean Girls had Regina George at the center, but Gretchen and Karen were still in the frame. Today? Regina would be face-tuned to hell, and the rest of the squad would either match her energy or get cropped out.

Janis Ian? She wouldn’t even be tagged.

Ugly selfies are on the endangered species list. 

“Gone were the days of using Snapchat to send ugly selfies.” _said Peres Martins (2017), as cited in Barker (2020) 

Natural faces are getting cropped faster than an ex in a post-breakup photo dump.

This isn’t just paranoia—it’s a real shift in social dynamics. Friend groups are filtering themselves into perfection, and that means:

📌 Friend groups now match aesthetics. 📌 If you don’t fit, you don’t get tagged. 📌 If you don’t look the part, you don’t make the cut—literally.

It’s not just what we look like that’s changing—it’s who we associate with.

From Filter to Filler: FaceTune… IRL?!

_If the IT Girls Need Filters, We’re Doomed (Spoiler Alert: Yeah we’re doomed)

Bella Hadid got a nose job at 14 just to fit Western beauty standards—a choice she now regrets. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian literally deepfakes her own face on Instagram.

If even the beauty standards don’t think their real faces are good enough… what hope is there for the rest of us?

Next time you swipe on a filter, ask yourself: Is this me, or just the algorithm’s version of me?

You don’t need a filter—you need a revolution. Are you ready to be seen?

💀 THE END. Or is it?

References:

Barker, J 2020, ‘Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of snapchat’, Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 207–221, viewed .

Coy-Dibley, I 2016, ‘“Digitized Dysmorphia” of the female body: the re/disfigurement of the image’, Palgrave Communications, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–9, viewed .