We’ve always been told that just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s true, but recently that has been extended to not believing every picture you see. It is no secret that there are plenty of people who have no shame in tweaking a few things in photos that they share on Instagram. Sometimes, they don’t even look close to how they do online. Unfortunately, this has caused quite a ripple in the current beauty standards. This has caused an issue in how young girls see themselves.
I have had an Instagram for quite a bit now and at first people would photoshop their photos to add crazy or weird things into their photos, or they would use it to edit things out. For example, a light pole or a fire hydrant. it wasn’t until the age of influencers where I noticed more and more photos were being photoshopped in different ways. People have started to photoshop their body shapes, faces, hair and even eyebrows. At first I thought it was funny to look at before and afters and laugh, because let’s be real they can be really bad. It started to get concerning when I started to see how it was affecting the minds of young girls.
Before we get into how everything has changed, I want to point out an Instagram account that has been trying to spread the message that a lot of the photos posted by influencers are photoshopped. This account is @beauty.false. I came across this account a couple of years ago and instantly followed. They put photos of before and after photoshop and share it to show that everything is not always what it seems. Here are a few examples of what they post.
As someone who is pretty confident in herself, I have been victim to seeing photoshopped pictures and wondering why I don’t look like that. I think that accounts like this are very important. It shows that you don’t need to wish you looked like these influencers because most the time the influencers don’t even look like that.
When preparing for this blog, I decided to read up on some articles that touched on the topic and a blog post from a blog called Grazia really stood out to me. The title is called “‘I Was Obsessed With Facetune’: 71% Of People Won’t Post A Picture Online Without Photoshopping It — That Needs To Change”. The author, Georgia, states a saddening fact that only 29% of people would post a photo of them on Instagram without having done any Facetune editing or Photoshopping to it. So why do we care so much? We are constantly comparing ourselves to others, even if we don’t know we are doing it. People are pressured to put out only the best photos of themselves, but at what cost? There have been studies that show that feeling the need to photoshop has a root of insecurity and lack of self esteem. Sadly, continuing to do this can make these problems even worse.
Has it affected beauty standards? Tremendously. Naturally, beauty standards will change over time. If you take a look over the years you will see how they have changed. An article from scienceofpeople.com dives into this. The problem that Photoshop and Facetune has caused is that the now expected beauty standards are usually unrealistic. The “ideal” body type is someone with a big chest, big butt, small waist, flat stomach, long hair, perfect teeth, etc. I think some people forget that there are organs in women’s stomachs that make it hard to have a perfectly flat stomach. Like I said, unrealistic.
Many people have even gone to the extent of doing social media cleanses where they delete their media apps for a bit to see how they feel. I have yet to read a negative response. I have done this myself and it felt amazing. There are tons of blog posts about people’s experiences. I found one that I thought was great. A girl named Aphinya said she found herself doing things for herself and her 6 month old daughter then she was before she deleted Facebook and Instagram. This is similar to other’s experiences.
Overall, I do think Instagram is a app that went from fun and carefree posting to worrying about if the photo is ‘Instagrammable’. It is sad to see the harsh effects on the self-confidence and esteem of others. As well as the continuation of harmful and unrealistic beauty standards. If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed and feeling down, try taking a break. Who knows what you’ll learn about yourself!
