Girls, Can We Talk Filters?
In a world of social media, men and women face further pressure to look perfect. The photos we post on Instagram need to have the perfect angles, the perfect tags and the perfect filters. If they don’t, we face the choice of whether we want the judgement from people about our faces, our lives and our way of thinking. Social media is a platform to showcase your life and no one ever showcases the bad stuff, for fear of being told they’re complaining too much. So we airbrush and preen and perfect our lives – even when it makes us fake.
People are not perfect, but with a platform like social media people are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and perfection is what the audience cries out for. We spend money we don’t have and invest in the best kohls coupon we can find to buy clothes, accessories and products we don’t need. This is all to impress people we don’t know and most of the time, we don’t even like! The pressure for perfection is a on and when it comes down to it you have to ask yourself: why do you use a filter?
Celebrities who have mass followings splash their lives all over the internet for us to look up to and emulate. Magazines, billboards and adverts are mostly photoshopped, so it stands to reason that what you see on Instagram isn’t ‘real’ either. A filter is used to cover up and blur out any imperfections and hide anything that isn’t perceived as perfect. Celebrities have to live up to something that isn’t realistic as that’s what keeps them ‘above’ the rest of us.
Men and women…this isn’t you! That Clarendon filter you use over the top of your selfies changes your complexion to hide the imperfections and blemishes. The Reyes filter you put over your living room photos make those crumbs on the floor disappear. The Moon filter you put over your food allows you to hide the fact there’s no actual vegetables on your plate. You may be someone who prides themselves on being real; on being natural. But every single filter you use on your photos? They cover you up. They make you unintentionally fake. They make you look perfect – and no one is perfect! Making yourself look prettier with a filter won’t make you feel better about your face. Your face is you and you are beautiful so why cover it with a sheen? Why go monochrome when you have the bluest eyes or golden hair? Why wouldn’t you want to show off your natural beauty?
Embrace the imperfections. Bump your own self-esteem up enough to know that even with the monthly spots, the crumbs that the babies spilled on the floor and the potato waffles instead of carrots on the plate you are perfect as you are. Your life doesn’t require a filter to be excellent. You make your life excellent all on your own.
