Don’t like your legs look in that group photo? If you swipe your fingers to the left you can cover up that spot of cellulite. Boobs too small? There’s an easy fix. Teeth looking a little yellow? We can whiten those babies up. Looking for a filter that makes you look twelve shades tanner than you actually are? There’s an app for that!
We live in an increasingly digital age, and with it comes many perks. We can order food at the click of a button and download virtually any song in existence in less than ten seconds. Unfortunately, we can also completely alter our bodies, distorting our images of both happiness and reality. You don’t even have to understand Photoshop to tweak your digital image. FaceTune is a user-friendly smartphone app that’s easy to use and is attracting younger generations. For a cost of just $3.99, you are given the capability to morph any “imperfect” feature in hopes to attain your desired body image.
But at what cost does the touch-up mobile app market come? Warped body image, unrealistic beauty standards, and perpetuation of a culture that tells us that we are of less worth when we are less than perfect are just a few of the issues that come with the ability to change ourselves with the touch of a button. Society’s rigid standards for what classifies beauty are increasingly exclusive as the popularity of these mobile apps increase. While no one is necessarily asking you to edit your selfies, unspoken peer pressure arises when you’re the only one who’s not morphing your image in a newsfeed of thigh gaps and flawless skin. Before we know it, beauty standards will have an even less natural and unattainable ideal.
When will it stop? Will we ever be content with ourselves, or will we keep “tuning” ourselves until we are fake enough to be inducted into the Kardashian cult? Maybe we should take a step back and remember why we’re trying to edit our lives anyway. Aren’t social media platforms for sharing spontaneous moments of your real life? Photo editing apps are great for when you love that picture of you and your squad but the nacho tots you spilled on your shirt are stealing the spotlight. However, it’s so easy to go overboard on the editing and start feeling pressured to use these apps to totally change your face when all you really wanted to do was cover up the welt-like mosquito bite on your forehead that popped up before your cousin Bertha’s wedding.
You are beautiful. As John Legend himself says, love all your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections. When you edit yourself to look like someone you are not, you not only set yourself up for disappointment but also perpetuate the unrealistic expectations for how people need to present themselves to the world.