Instagram is a very heavily used platform of social media across the globe and is getting increasingly popular. Although Instagram might be a bit of fun for some people, others take it a lot more seriously and go to extreme lengths to look like others they have seen on Instagram. There is also the question of, ‘is Instagram really an accurate interpretation of everyday life?’ or do people put on fronts and show the best parts of their life. It is very easy to fool your audience into thinking that you have the perfect life with just one click of the camera, however no one really knows what is going on behind the lens.
Studies have actually shown that Instagram has caused a lot of eating and mental disorders within people who frequently use Instagram, especially within teenage girls. Our feeds are full of perfectly made up girls with nice clothes, hair and makeup and the perfect angles and lighting to make them look flawless, however this is unrealistic as they do not look like this on an everyday basis. Not only have you got angles and good lighting to make your appearance different and more perfect as some might say, but nowadays there are so many different editing software’s such as Facetune and Photoshop where people edit out their imperfections.
Recently, i came across this account on Instagram which showed the real image of famous Instagram accounts and celebrities. It is fair enough to say that being a celebrity or an ‘Insta famous’ person comes with a lot of pressure so it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of these accounts are using editing software’s to perfect their photos. However, this is giving an unrealistic image to younger aspiring people, especially teenage girls who want to look like them. When i came across this account i found it very interesting to see how fooling software’s such a Photoshop can be and how realistic they can make their photos look, without it being detectable that they have been edited. I will insert below some screenshots from this Instagram page of before and afters of celebrities that have edited their photos.
As you can see by these comparison photos, Instagram really isn’t an accurate representation of real life and I think that celebrities especially, should put more effort into showing their true selves on Instagram and showing that it is okay to not be perfect. I know that some people on Instagram are starting to do this, but there are still a huge number of accounts that do not show their normal life. I am not saying that i am not guilty of a nice filter and showing myself when i’m looking my best, but I know that there are a huge number of people that look up to celebrities, so it is a lot more damaging for them to be editing their photos so much.
Katie's Fashion & Lifestyle Blog 