It started slowly, my reliance on social media’s face filters. So slowly, in fact, that it took years before I realised I hated my face without them.
Face filters were used by more than one billion people in 2019 , according to Spark AR – the company that makes them - which is the same amount of people that have active Instagram accounts. In October, it was announced that Instagram was banning ‘plastic surgery’ filters – those that appear to alter your natural face features to mimic cosmetic procedures – out of fear for users' ‘well-being’.
And yet, since Instagram users can create their own filters they have continued. The most recent one sweeping the 'gram is 'Modern Ideal', a filter that smooths your skin and gives you massive lips. Many are using it ironically, hoping to inspire users NOT to adhere to this 'ideal', but frankly the impact remains the same: being bombarded with images of filtered faces.
When Instagram announced their ban on plastic surgery filters, it was clear they were in damage control. The social media platform didn't want to become the culprit for a new wave of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), as their main rival Snapchat was in 2018 before the apps quick drop in popularity. ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ rose to prominence after plastic surgeons warned that patients were coming into clinics with filtered pictures of themselves, asking to recreate that exact face in real life.
Of course, it wasn’t that terrifying impact on people's body image that led to Snapchat's decline. Instead, it's popularity waned when people such as Kylie Jenner declared that ‘Snapchat is dead’ and then moved on to Instagram – a platform that hosted the exact same features for years.
To be fair, Instagram has made strides in the last year to promote responsible social media use – including getting rid of the creepy ‘following’ activity tab in September last year. However, their latest move was a long time coming given that doctors had been warning people about the rise of BDD in relation to filters for over a year.
I remember when I first began using filters, in the glory days of Snapchat circa 2015/16. Like every other basic bitch, I was obsessed with the dog filter. It made my skin clear, thinned out my face and widened my eyes – plus, it covered my greatest insecurity at the time, my nose. Naturally, I used it on every picture.
Over the years, my favourite filters changed, but they all had the same basic effect: whenever I took a picture, I didn’t actually look like me. At the time, I found a way to justify it. ‘It’s just like using make-up’, ‘It’s cute!’, ‘It’s just a bit of fun!’, I would tell myself. And while that might be true for some, what I was actually thinking was, ‘I need this just to look half-way decent’.
Instead of spending an hour trying to find the perfect angle and lighting to make myself feel semi-presentable, I used filters. It was easy and efficient but it was also incredibly damaging.
Our natural instinct when taking a photograph of ourselves shouldn’t be to artificially alter our face. When we look at our front camera, we shouldn’t be disgusted until a flower crown appears above our head. I realised this last year, when I tried to post a picture without a filter and couldn’t. My eyes weren't big enough, my face looked too long, my lips were thin and my cheekbones weren't jutting out like they can appear to with the tap of a button.
I resolved there and then to stop using filters for good. I’ve succumbed once or twice since - because let’s be honest, battling insecurities is a lifelong endeavour – but in the main I’ve stuck to my guns. (Complete transparency: I do take a lot less selfies now.)
What scared me most about all of this, though, was that I thought I was a relatively secure woman. I had spent years actively working to battle insecurities, using positive affirmations like 'you have a nice (insert facial feature)'' to the point that my self-esteem might have seemed annoying high. And yet, throughout all of that I was still using filters to alter my face. How much work could I have possibly done on my self-esteem if I couldn't post a selfie without a filter?
I resolved there and then to stop using filters for good
And when I think about teenage girls, who are so much more vulnerable to self-esteem issues, it's even scarier. How can they navigate their self-worth in a world of filtered selfies and Facetune? If I, as a grown woman, could be so insidiously swept away by all of this, then how would a 16-year-old girl being bullied at school about her looks feel?
Many teens are already going through a painful coming-of-age process. To do that in a society where editing your face and body online is normal - a platform through which so many live out their entire lives - it must be nigh-on impossible to love yourself, and your looks, unconditionally. And then we wonder why non-surgical cosmetic procedures among teens are on the rise.
We need to stop using them, stop posting them, and stop pretending that they’re just a ‘bit of fun’. Just because it’s artificial doesn’t mean it’s not destructive.
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