#instagramface

‘I tried ‘Instagram face’ for a week and here’s what happened…’ 

This article written by Alexandra Jones explores the rise of selfie make-up and social media user’s quest for hyper-perfection. You can read the full article on the BBC online. 

“Search the make-up hashtag on any social media site and you’ll come across it. The unique flaws that make us who we are, that make humans so attractive, have been replaced by one face. The Face.” 

“My brain is dopamine-drunk; the neurochemical is released whenever we have a positive social interaction, it makes us feel good and reinforces our desire to do whatever we just did again (the same physical response that causes addiction.)” 

“The face is a by-product of our selfie-obsession – it’s a make-up created for selfies, right down to re-shaping our noses so that they’re “daintier” – spawned specifically for social media above real life.”

References

Celebrity Culture, AR Filters and Unrealistic Beauty Standards 

I thought about the increasing impact of celebrity culture on social media after attending this week's lecture on Augmented Reality (AR) filters. AR filters enable users to create improved versions of themselves by adding virtual elements on real-world photos and videos (Azuma, 1997). These filters may appear innocent and amusing, yet they are now strongly associated with digital beauty standards and celebrity culture. 

The idea of the "Instagram Face" was one that caught my attention. According to Lavrence and Cambre (2020), filters have developed from obvious and lighthearted effects into subtle editing techniques that are now commonplace on social media sites. Online, celebrities, influencers, and content creators routinely display idealized versions of themselves. They frequently use beauty filters to modify facial features, smooth skin, enlarge eyes, and create a more polished image. Audiences may start to see these altered photos as realistic standards of beauty as a result of their frequent exposure to them. 

The Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954), which argues that people naturally compare themselves to others, can be connected to this concept. Users may feel unsatisfied with their appearance when they contrast filtered celebrity photos with their normal appearance. Additionally, the course materials emphasized how beauty technology might lead to negative upward comparison, self-objectification, and low self-esteem (Tiggemann & Zaccardo, 2015). These results show that AR filters are cultural mechanisms that influence the definition and value of beauty in addition to being technology tools. 

However, I believe it is critical to take into account both positive and negative viewpoints. On the one hand, filters may raise pressure to meet social norms and promote unattainable beauty standards. However, they can also offer chances for self-expression, creativity, and identity development. Some users challenge rather than reinforce traditional norms by using filters artistically rather than for aesthetic purposes.

All things considered, the connection between AR filters and celebrity culture shows how technology affects social behavior and self-perception. The widespread use of filtered photos poses major questions on identity, beauty, and authenticity in digital environments. As social media users, we ought to be more wary of the material we take in and acknowledge that a lot of the pictures we see online do not truly reflect the world. 

References 

Instagram. (2025). Instagram. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/

Azuma, R. T. (1997). A Survey of Augmented Reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 6(4), 355–385. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1997.6.4.355

Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140.

Lavrence, C., & Cambre, C. (2020). “Do I look like my selfie?” Filters and the digital-forensic gaze. Social Media + Society, 6(4), 1–13.