But first, let me take a filter
Let me share the meaning of filter, defined in three different ways:
1. a porous device for removing impurities or solid particles from a liquid or gas passed through it.
2. pass (a liquid, gas, light, or sound) through a device to remove unwanted material. “the patient is hooked up to a dialysis machine twice a week to filter out the cholesterol in the blood”
3. any of various analogous devices, as for removing dust from air or impurities from tobacco smoke, or for eliminating certain kinds of light rays.
Impurities, unwanted, eliminating — filtering.
And that’s what we use to take pics and selfies of ourselves before sharing it with our people. Filters.
There’s a difference between taking a pic with great lighting vs. filtering the photo to the point one is unrecognizable.
Where does this come from? We weren’t born with that need to portray an entirely different version of ourselves. So why such a hype on photoshopped, airbrushed, edited, re-edited photos and videos.
It’s been drilled into our heads, that we aren’t perfect enough just as we are.
Concealers (to conceal), flawless skin (to hide its flaws), highlighters, brighteners, contours (to outline or map) — while these words mean well and beauty brands promote using these products as a way to enhance appearances — the way it is marketed, gives an underlying message, that our face has a problem, and here’s a way to ‘fix’ it.
Beauty standards set by the beauty industry and its messaging needs to be revolutionized now and how.
The least one can do is add in a disclaimer on heavily edited or filtered photos. A simple message by influencers, photographers and companies along the lines of, “these images have been edited/highly filtered” can go a long way in protecting the sanity, even lives of especially our teenage crowd.