The average person spends 53 minutes a day scrolling through Instagram. We often find ourselves subconsciously scrolling through highlight reels of our follower’s best moments and best angles and take this at face value. But how much of what we see on Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, etc. is the reality of our everyday life?
In the past, we flicked through magazines and were met with distorted, photoshopped images of society’s ideal image of beauty. Through the mainstream media, we were taught that the perfect image of a woman was one with naturally flawless, clear skin, plump lips, defined jawlines, and higher cheekbones. This is far from the reality for most women.
But what happens when photoshop meets social media through accessible, affordable apps like Facetune and Lightricks. These apps allow normal people to manipulate their body size, eyes, lips, and jawlines to create a digitally manufactured idea of perfection. They are the modern-day virtual equivalent to cosmetic surgery at the swipe of a finger. When social distancing began in the early half of 2020, Lightricks downloads increased by 20%.
Without having to download a specific app to distort the reality of our appearance, Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat allow us access to free filters. The popular “Paris” filter on Instagram allows us to achieve clear skin with zero pores with one swipe to the right. Various filters have been designed to give users winged eyeliner, full lashes, and lipstick without ever touching our make up bags. The introduction of features or apps like this perpetuates unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards. There have been well-established links between social media usage and mental health concerns.
Through the recently popular “Instagram v Reality” trend, many users with large followings have chosen to show how they achieve the ‘instagrammable’ pose and what they actually look like. Former Miss Universe Ireland, Rozanna Purcell has chosen to use her platform to show women around the world that the reality of Instagram isn’t the reality of real life. She posts the good, the bad, and the realistic on her profile.
The reality is that 80% of women have cellulite. These women are skinny, curvy, athletes, and mums, they are all of us. We are all conscious of stretch marks, bloating, saggy boobs, thick thighs, skinny thighs, thigh gaps, and no thigh gaps. But all women experience these things. Although, you won’t always see it on social media.
It is important for people to educate themselves and understand that what we see on social media isn’t always a true depiction of reality. Instagram can often leave us feeling not good enough like we should only eat plain fruit and vegetables and rush to the nearest gym to get those perfect bodies that we see on our feeds daily. Social media can be a toxic place for our physical and mental wellbeing. It is Important to unfollow the accounts that make you feel bad about yourself and begin to find accounts that build you up and make you feel like you are enough.
Women have much more to give to this world than their physical form. Confidence begins on the inside and it begins by accepting your body for what it does every day to keep you alive. My conclusion is that the perfect body is the one that enables you to go places, to experience life from joy to sorrow, and from hope to loss. Your self-worth can never be defined by the number you see at your feet on the scales. Women should be defined by much more than this augmented perception of the perfect body.