FXCK FACETUNE — How Instagram ruined us
Social media. We all love it. Those aged 16 to 24, spend an average of 34.3 hours a week on platforms like Instagram. But what does that constant flood of information do to our self-perception? Many of us use Instagram for “inspiration,” but what exactly do we really get inspired by?
Look, it’s common knowledge we all show ourselves from our best sides online, whether it be with the best outfits, the best angles, the best lighting, and you guessed it, the best edits.
Most of us are aware about the process behind post production: styling, posing, taking hundreds of photos, choosing one we like, spending forever editing the shot, adding a nice filter, and then posting it with the caption “I didn’t even realize (friend name) took this photo of me! LOL #candid #natural”
So, if we know what’s going on behind the scenes, why do we keep comparing our unedited selves with what we see on Instagram?
“I wish my skin was as smooth as hers.”
“I need fuller lips like her.”
“What’s her secret?”
“Why don’t I look as good as she does?”
“Her life is #goals!”
This behavior is toxic.
As a model in LA, I am invited to many influencer events. Whenever an Instagram model with 1M+ followers shows up, people immediately start talking about how she looks so much better on Instagram and that it’s “fake advertising”… Well, no kidding, Sherlock!
We spend hours of our day trapped in this alternative reality not realizing how these posts have little-to-nothing to do with the real world.
Let me ask you this: How often do you see selfies with unclear skin on Instagram? Because I never see it and I know that’s absolutely ridiculous because no one has perfect skin all year long.
Facetune culture is getting rid of insecurities by editing them away, but what people don’t realize is that they don’t actually get rid of them, they only pass these insecurities on to the people seeing their posts.
There are already countless perfect images of models on billboards and in magazines, so why do we choose to have that sort of toxicity surrounding us even when we aren’t forced to look at it?
What was once only normal for fashion and beauty campaigns has become the standard for every image we share. Retouching has reached a whole new level. And it’s more dangerous than we think.
Comparison has become one of the biggest traps of today’s age. We define our happiness by how many likes we get and if we are pretty enough and worthy enough to get comments.
We spend so much time refreshing our Insta feed, worrying about what other people think of us, that we forget one important thing:
We don’t need other people to think we are beautiful in order to be beautiful. We don’t need people to clap for us to be happy about our achievements. Just like the sun. It rises every day not giving a single fxck if we watch it rise or not. Will it be any less beautiful if we don’t pay attention? No, the sun will keep on being beautiful, even if no one bothers to look at it.
All this fakeness is tearing us down. If we keep on ruining ourselves and our followers like it’s no big deal, nothing is ever going to change. That’s why I started my hashtag #TruthBehindThisShot back in 2017. I wanted to bring more realness to Instagram and show that it’s okay to admit that that one shot took 70 attempts and that we spent an hour editing our face to feel comfortable enough to share it online. It’s important to be honest, especially to ourselves. What are we teaching the younger generations by sharing our cultivated and beautified lives on social media? Where does it stop?
Editing has gone too far. Apps like Facetune make it terrifyingly easy to change the way we look. Smaller nose? No problem. Tanner skin? One click. Brighter teeth? Done. And then when the picture doesn’t even look like us anymore, we press “post” and wait for our followers to comment, “I wish I looked like you!”
Well, the joke’s on us because we don’t even look like the person in the picture.
I got tired of seeing perfect faces all over my feed. This is why I decided to be the change I want to see. I posted a picture of me without any edits or makeup and styling:
It makes me sad knowing there are girls out there who cry themselves to sleep because they don’t think they are as pretty as that one Instagram model they’ve been following. I might not be one of those “#goals” models on social media, but I do understand that even the smallest change can have an impact in the bigger picture.
Instagram is not reality and we have to stop treating it like it is!
Be true to yourself. You don’t need to cover up that spot on your cheek, you don’t have to edit your nose smaller to be beautiful. You are beautiful. You are enough. Stop surrounding yourself with negativity by following those flawless IG pages. They. are. not. real. Join the movement and #FXCKFACETUNE (Oh, and stop refreshing your feed to see if you got more likes!)
Xoxo, a girl who once cared too much
