#filtersvsreality

I feel as though this week's topic of Instagram and Snapchat filters is definitely one of the mor relatable topics that we can apply to our own everyday lives.  the use of filters has astronomically increased and has become more widespread ever since Snapchat introduced their 'lenses' and filters in 2015.  

This weeks required reading by Jessica Barker "Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of snapchat" explores the problematic and detrimental effects of social media filters and lenses on apps such as Snapchat and Instagram. "By thinning out the face, slimming and shortening the nose, enlarging the eyes, plumping the lips and smoothing out the skin, Snapchat seizes a user’s features and morphs them into compliance with a stereotypical form of beauty" (Barker, 2020, p. 209). Creating these "exclusionary ideal; people of colour find theircomplexions unnaturally and undesirably lightened by Snapchat’s filters" (Barker, 2020, p. 209). 

I definitely did find myself relating to some of the negative impacts of filters. Those being not knowing what you truly look like and feeling as though my natural face is not considered to be 'pretty' or 'beautiful' as it doesn’t fit into society's standards and stereotypes.  

I also found a point from one of the additional resources quite interesting. It was from Rettbergs "Filtered Reality", where he talks about the concept of adapting our selfies to machine vision. 

Where "filters show us images that look different than the world we are used to seeing"  and that filters "fascinates us is that it gives the image that strangeness that defamiliarises our lives. The filter makes it clear that the image is not entirely ours." (Rettberg, 2014, p. 25-26) 

Whereby people take social media filters one step further and go under the knife and get surgery in order to look as similar to their 'filtered selves' as possible. If I'm honest I'm not too sure how to feel about this concept. Obviously in an ideal world everyone is happy and confident within themselves, however sometimes surgery allows for people to feel confident within themselves.  

As there was a "transition from authenticity to algorithmic beauty" (Barker, 2020, p. 211) social media users were more so than ever focused on fulfilling these standards through either filters or cosmetic and plastic surgery.  

In more recent times, an amazing trend has emerged as a result of filters and their negative impacts. The trend is called filter vs reality, a filter which shows half of your face in its natural unenhanced state and the other half with a filter. In participating in this trend it allows viewers and creators to realise that filters heavily later everyone's faces and that no one looks like how they do on social media.  

I'm still unsure on how I feel about this week's topic as I feel as though it has definitely impacted me and the way in which I view myself in comparison to models and social media influencers. These filters and presence of surgery to fulfil certain beauty standards is still very much engrained into our society too. But I'll leave it at that for today.   

References for this week  

Barker, Jessica. (2020). 'Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat'. Download 'Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat'.Fashion, Style & Popular Culture. 7. 207-221.  

Fortson, D. (2022) The Truth About Social Media's cosmetic surgery boom, The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines. The Sunday Times. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cosmetic-surgery-social-media-dangers-chqnj8r06 (Accessed: April 24, 2023).  

Miller, L 2023, Slides Filters.pdf, MDA20009 Digital Communities, Learning materials via Canvas, Swinburne University of Technology, 24 April, viewed 24th April 2023.    

Mustafa, T. (2021) An 'Instagram vs reality' filter is showing how toxic photo editing can be, Metro. Metro.co.uk. Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/30/an-instagram-vs-reality-tool-is-showing-how-toxic-filters-can-be-14498265/ (Accessed: April 24, 2023).  

Pitcher, L. (2020) Instagram filters are changing the way we think about makeup, Teen Vogue. Available at: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/instagram-filters-makeup  (Accessed: April 24, 2023).  

Rettberg J.W. (2014) 'Filtered Reality'. Download 'Filtered Reality'.In: Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Palgrave Macmillan, London.  

Rettberg J.W. (2017) 'Biometric Citizens: Adapting Our Selfies to Machine Vision'. I Download 'Biometric Citizens: Adapting Our Selfies to Machine Vision'. In: Kuntsman A. (eds) Selfie Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.