SCHLOTT: Everyone is getting in on sick ‘Instagram face’ craze

Rikki Schlott is a journalist and student activist based in New York City

“Magic mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest of them all?”

It’s a story as old as time: women and girls struggle with self-image and compare themselves to their peers.

After all, social comparison is a fundamental human instinct. But in a disturbing departure from the past, today’s social media technology has boosted our natural obsession with beauty, and the results are terrifying.

I would know.

As an older Gen Zer, my generation was the first to grow up fully connected to social media, and as the platforms transformed, my peers followed suit.

I created my Instagram account when I was 11 years old and watched social media evolve from a digital forum for innocently shared photos of beautiful sunsets and fancy meals to an arena for a full-fledged social struggle.

Apparently everyone felt the need to keep up with the digital Joneses by posting provocative and revealing photos of themselves during the most expensive and glamorous activities possible.

Gen Z developed a double sense of self: the real and the digital. And as we absorbed these unrealistic versions of each other, we grew increasingly unhappy with the real person looking back from our mirrors.

Who is actually the most beautiful of all? Really me or Instagram me?

Social media hadn’t turned into the beast it is now when I first joined, but I’m concerned about girls just a few years younger than me whose feeds have been infused with changed for as long as they can remember. Pictures.

I was lucky enough to have a few extra years of wisdom and life experience in my pocket as the influencers flourished and rampant Photoshop took over the social media platforms.

Even still, I can remember moments in my gap years when I felt less than, my evolving frame clinging to beauty standards that were not only unrealistic, but often literally unreal, thanks to digital tweaks.

The situation has only gotten worse since then and the latest culprit that is making today’s young girls feel worse and worse about themselves are filters.

Do you have a big pimple? No problem, delete it in your message.

Do you think your face looks too big? Don’t worry, trim it digitally.

Do you want whiter teeth, stronger cheekbones? Easy peasy, filters have you covered.

Literal.

These instant photo editing lenses can be applied in real time to photos and videos on most major social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, virtually changing users’ faces.

To illustrate how profoundly they can change a user’s appearance, I applied three of the most popular Instagram filters to my own face and compared them to the raw version of myself.

It’s me, but it’s not. It’s a distorted version.

The images are crowdsourced amalgamations of traits considered ideal: feline eyes, a smaller nose, a narrower chin, contoured cheeks, plump lips, and a pore-free complexion.

The final product is something called “Instagram face.” A Frankenstein mash-up, and like the monster, this power has taken on a life of its own.

Of course, changing photos is nothing new. Back in the day, airbrushed models graced advertisements and magazine covers.

What’s different is the ability to change your own look, which only came into vogue in the mid-2010s with a photo editing app called Facetune.

It all started innocently enough, when Snapchat unveiled the technology in 2015, and users could turn their faces into a cute dog or make it look like rainbows were pouring out of their mouths.

Since then, there has been a downward turn.

For example, virtually every Kardashian has been caught up in a photoshop scandal.

Like Kim, who was recently exposed to bizarre photoshopping her trapezius muscle to make her neck look longer. Or Khloe, who was often criticized for filtering her four-year-old daughter’s face.

And the phenomenon is cross-generational, as exemplified by 82-year-old Jocelyn Wildenstein, often referred to as “Catwoman,” who recently made headlines for a heavily filtered photo from New York Fashion Week.

Instagram accounts like @celebface and @beauty.false expose celebrities and influencers who alter their photos. They each have over a million followers.

According to Dove’s Self-Esteem Project, which surveyed 1,551 girls ages 10 to 17 and 2,528 mothers between February and April 2022, the use of social media filters is common among young girls.

The survey found that more than half of girls used filters on a daily basis, with four in five admitting to digitally altering their appearance before the age of 13.

This should be cause for concern.

More and more people, especially young girls, are struggling with their appearance and are developing a phenomenon that researchers call “Snapchat dysmorphia.” Dysmorphia is an obsession with one’s perceived flaws.

Instagram owner Meta has internal research showing that “teenagers blame Instagram for the rise in anxiety and depression” and the platform is making “body image worse for one in three girls.”

In fact, 42 percent of young people today believe that social media is harmful to their mental health.

Studies from around the world have consistently pointed to a link between social media use and poor self-esteem, especially among young girls.

Indian researchers analyzed hundreds of subjects and found that groups who used filtered and modified selfies experienced decreased self-confidence and feelings of physical attractiveness, while also experiencing increased feelings of social anxiety and a greater desire to undergo cosmetic surgery – a trend particularly among prevents women.

In 2018, 55 percent of plastic surgeons said patients had told them looking better in selfies was a motivation to go under a knife.

New York City plastic surgeon Lara Devgan told CNN that about half of people who come to consultations arrive with digitally edited photos of themselves that they would like to mimic in real life.

There are even reports of plastic surgeons using Snapchat in the operating room.

I don’t think Big Tech moguls are conspiring in a backroom to destroy the mental health of teenage girls, but it’s obvious they’re doing very little to stop these trends.

After all, their technology has successfully hijacked the brains of an entire generation, and now their business model relies on keeping young people glued to their screens.

Social media isn’t going away anytime soon, and it’s unrealistic to ask Gen Z to completely disconnect from the digital world, as online connectivity is critical to making and maintaining friendships in our modern age.

But parents of young girls, who struggle to develop self-confidence, should be especially aware of how social media can affect their children’s mental health.

In the end, it’s not about the beauty of the digital avatar. We all need to look in the mirror and love the real person we see in return.