Social Media Beauty Filters Make Us Feel Ugly on the Inside
People once had to find a still body of water and stare into it to see themselves. Now, we’re all overwhelmed by our own images. With video calls, friends sharing unapproved photos, and the ever-present need to present yourself on social media, even Narcissus would beg for mercy.
But these shared self-reflections don’t always accurately reflect what people truly look like. Beauty filters are a click away on most social media apps. And just as we’ve absorbed that still images are filled with filters and Photoshop, and so shouldn’t set the standard for assessing our attractiveness, TikTok has come along with beauty filters in motion that have made us start doubting our eyes, ourselves, and our looks all over again.
StyleSeat sought to understand(Opens in a new window) how these filters change our views by asking 700 people to try TikTok’s popular Bold Glamour filter and then answer questions about how they felt afterward.
Bold Glamour is a more insidious filter than some, in that it doesn’t glitch, like others that give themselves away. AR developer Luke Hurd explained in two TikToks how Bold Glamour uses machine learning to improve its output and its believability.
Dr. Monica Kieu, a facial plastic surgeon, analyzed the app on TikTok while using the filter herself. Dr. Kieu said that it makes skin look smoother and glowier, thickens and darkens brows, makes lashes look longer and thicker, uses a neutral brown shadow and liner to enhance eyes and make them look bigger, whitens the whites of the eyes, slims and refines the nose, contours the face, and makes lips plumper.
This notion of beauty endorsed by Bold Glamour and most other beauty filters is a white European "ideal," and their enhancements are not made with
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