How Does Snapshots Affect Society

We regard ourself as some virtual characters on social media, we post photos of ourself, the food we eat or maybe just some random photos we take, all of these photos become a part of ourselves. However, people always want to show the good side of themselves, so photography and internet become a perfect tool to ‘ get rid of ’ all the bad defects. In other words, everyone is building a new “ self ” through the internet. One perfect example would be the software Photoshop, photoshop was “originally innovated to show grayscale images on a monochrome display, and later on, developed into a full-fledged editing program”(wiki-photoshop), but it is now more considered as a tool for “skin whitening” or “ face lifting”.No wonder Photoshop is named to be an “unnatural” tool, it is hard to distinguish the truth behind a photo, in which can cause people to recognize themselves in a wrong way. From the article to what extent does photoshop affect society written by Nikol, it says, “Daily, we are bombarded by the appearance of “flawless” celebrities in television, advertisements, and commercials. This wrong perception of a perfect body has led to the creation of numerous campaigns that are fighting the use of Photoshop.’ It gradually becomes a habit and people get addicted to doing it.

Beauty is America’s outlet of perfection for the average ego, an industry solely based on the prevailing taste of the age, packaging “beauty” as a product for its admirers. This magical bottle can be found on just about any shelf, from daily nutritious food items down the aisle, to the magazines that catch the eye on the way to check out. Digital photo editing has a lot to do with the reason why our society thinks this way. It has its upsides to it like increased product evaluation and therapeutic values, but it also has shown byproducts (that have either directly or indirectly led to things) such as false adverting, lower self-esteem, anorexia and even obesity.

Mass media falsely claims to be an advocate for self-acceptance and the idea that every woman is naturally beautiful, while it simultaneously uses Photoshop to erase all trace of that natural beauty—imagine how much they would Photoshop women if they did not extol real, non-enhanced, beauty! The women in these digitally improved photos look, quite frankly, as real as Barbie and her friends, and few women actually believe that the women in the pictures look that flawless in person. However, these pictures have the power to make any woman, including those in the pictures, feel inadequate because she is not as “attractive” as a Photoshopped image, the power to make a woman detest herself

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

Another way that photo shop portrayed in the media is negatively affecting society is the increase in use of plastic surgery among teens and young adults. Supporters of cosmetic surgery for teens say: A teenager's emotional maturity should not be measured by age, as each individual is different. Rather, a cosmetic surgeon should carefully interview a teenager, and, when practicable, a teen's parents, to assess the maturity and emotional stability of the child. Cosmetic surgery is a viable means of helping teenagers with cosmetic flaws improve their self-esteem (“Teenagers and Cosmetic Surgery”). Although plastic surgery can improve a teenager’s self-esteem, the surgery wouldn’t be needed in the first place if it

With the use of photoshop people have been lured into believing that flawless beauty does exist, but in reality, this level of perfection is unsustainable(“Keep it”). Photo shopped images have a negative effect on humanity. Doctored photos are detrimental to society.

When presented with the question of “who is to blame for today’s beauty standards?” the simple yet obvious answer comes to mind, the media. What an abundant amount of people for reasons unknown to me, fail to realize, though, is that the media is not an all-powerful being that has a mind of its own. The media is ran by humans and watched by humans. Both having an equal share in what is publicized, one cannot survive without the other. Numerous individuals have argued that if we were all too just boycott anyone who uses photoshopped images of anyone for marketing strategies that they would just cease to exist anymore.

While the vast majority of images of females are being digitally enhanced, so is our appreciation for normal, healthy, beautiful, and attainable. Photoshop has gone over the top with how they make pictures look, so much that it’s negatively affecting vulnerable children, and teens with low self-esteem issues. One important justification for why people go through serious issues with their bodies like self-esteem, and eating disorders is because of the media. The media plays a huge role in our everyday life, and when a person sees an image they are automatically influenced by what that image portrays.

Technology allows the photographers to photoshop their models so they are flawless. Photoshop gives them the power to make someone look like a completely different person. From a young age, girls have looked at magazines and the internet of all their favorite celebrities. They admire these people. Little do they know, that they are retouched before the editors publish the magazine. Society has given us unrealistic standards to meet. Girls will flip through a magazine and look at one of their favorite celebrities and want to be like them. To do that they will inspect every part of them so they can be exactly like them. 91 percent of women are dieting to achieve their ideal body. 47 percent of girls fifth through twelfth graders lose weight because of pictures in magazines. 69 percent of girls are influenced by magazine photographs. Women’s magazines had 10.5 times more weight loss articles than men’s. Girls believe that this is really what they look like, but in reality, they don’t. Although the person might be skinny, toned, and pretty, they might not be as skinny, toned, or pretty as they look in pictures. Photoshop allows you to do anything to an object. Making someone skinnier isn’t something hard for these editors. Young girls who look at these magazines will admire celebrities and long to look like them. Teenagers especially will wish to be like models because they want to impress a boy. High standards for “perfect” bodies starts from a

For instance, Amanda Fortini of The Cut describes a new way to think of how we should look at photoshopping advertisements and social media posts: “Looking at them, one can’t help wonder why we resist accepting, or even celebrating, a retouched photo for what it is: an open fiction, a candid fantasy. If we could ditch the idea that these images bear any resemblance to reality viewers might not feel conned of played for fools” (Fortini). Fortini believes that we should start viewing photoshopped pictures as the works of art that they are and not as an ideal to strive for. By being able to sperate the two trains of thought, thinking of altered photos as works of art and thinking of them as the ideal way to look, it would make social media a safer place to explore while also taking the pressure off women to look how advertising and media want them to look. However, that mindset is not as easy to achieve as it seems as advertising celebrates perfectionism causing an enormous pressure on girls to conform. For instance, author Samantha Yee Yee Foo conducted a study for her college thesis at the Auckland University of Technology where she concluded

Many photographers and artists argue that they have such amazing new technologies to enhance their work such as new digital cameras and powerful tools such as Photoshop therefore they are compelled to use them. The AMA consists of joining physicians that promote professional, public health issues and raise public awareness about the impact of image manipulation on childhood development (Diller). People often claim to ignore advertisements but these messages are reaching people on a subconscious level. At the center of numerous ads is an image of idealized female beauty. Models are perceived as tall, slim, light skinned and digitally altered to even more unrealistic proportions. Many young girls compare themselves to these images all the time and failure to live up to these expectations is inevitable because they are based on a sense of flawlessness that does not actually exist. Perhaps,

Technology has come a long way with the invention of Photoshop and photo editors. With these software programs people can change the way they look physically. Individuals around the world idolize singers, actors, reality stars, and models. Looking up to celebrities as perfection, people begin to want to look like them. In “Pretty Unreal” the authors state, “…Photoshop a widely used software program, can digitally narrow hips or add to cleavage and make almost any change to look realistic. ‘It’s all fake’, she added” (286). The use of Photoshop is used on celebrities, making them look “perfect”, not nearly as your “normal” everyday person. When people see these images of the stars they look up to, they have a desire to look picture perfect. Being picture perfect meaning— blemish free skin, healthy hair, and a toned body structure. In reality those stars have

Mental disorders and hypersexualized images. Regarding other influences and impacts of photo manipulation on body images and beauty, Day (2014) states that the three most common mental disorders caused by photo manipulation are eating disorder, depression and low self-esteem. Furthermore, she lists out several statistics and surveys that prove its negativity on human beings: 80% of women feel worse about themselves after seeing a beauty ad and people as young as thirteen begin to feel unsatisfied about their body and how they look. As shocking as it is, a study included in Day’s (2014) article states that “adolescent girls are more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents or nuclear war.” Photo manipulation also creates a hypersexualized issue: A study done in 2011 by the journal Sexuality and Culture shows that 2% of men and 61% of women are hypersexualized (Nelson, 2012, p.180). Retouched photos are continuously used as sex sales and convey the wrong definition of “sexy” that is almost unreachable (Nelson, 2012, p.218).

Photographs nowadays are mostly lying and affecting us negatively. They are able to lie right in front of our face, deceiving us from reality. For example, images in business advertising which is not foreseeable, but affects us mentally, psychologically, physically, and socially. One of top lying and negative images are models. Images of women in advertising lies to us completely, eliminating the truth and reality. Models are portrayed in images as absolute flawlessness, not a single line or pore to be seen, which cannot possibly be achieved. Images of women in advertising manipulates by telling them who they are and who they should be by showing ideal women, portraying them as objects revolving around sex. Even male models in advertising images lie and deceive but not as severe as women. A model, Cindy Crawford said, “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford”. She knows she can’t possibly look like herself in the photo. These manipulating and deceiving images of models are affecting girls’ self-esteem by expecting them to be thin, hot, and flawless. The massive objectification of women in photographs rises violence against women and is also one of the main causes of anorexia. The way images/photographs are able to control and manipulate us is not foreseeable. Many would say it doesn’t affect them at all but overtime, it conquers your mind, more of a subconscious. Images don’t always lie in certain cases but are very powerful in achieving the desired goal, like they say, “ads sell more than products”. It’s not the product/object that attracts people, it’s the

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.