Everyone knows that there’s a lot of photographic trickery going on in the media we consume. It’s pretty much expected that photos will have gone through not just editing but manipulation when they’re splashed across shiny pages and on fancy websites.
This isn’t just present in Hollywood blockbusters , though. You can also see it in more mundane places like social media.
A TikToker recently broke down one such video to explain how edits can alter reality.
A lot of this ties in to body image.
It’s tough to love the way you look. So when technology makes it really easy to alter the way you look, at least in videos or photographs, it’s tempting to just play around with the image until it looks the way you want it to.
TikToker Sophie recently shared this video.
Sophie, who uses the handle @residualdata , has racked up more than two million views on this video.
In it, she shows a video that’s apparently gone viral on Chinese TikTok. It shows a woman crossing the street. Let’s just say that it doesn’t look quite right.
Everything’s out of proportion.
“In the comments, a lot of people knew this was edited,” Sophie explains. “But a lot of people didn’t.”
Sophie points out that looking at the background of the image often reveals the edits. In this case, lines that should be straight are skewed, which is a dead giveaway that the video is manipulated.
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Commenters added some tips of their own.
Many of us want to look taller and longer, not shorter and wider. To accomplish this, the simplest way entails just stretching the image out.
In the video Sophie’s talking about, it looks like the legs and torso were unrealistically stretched out.
Yeah, it’s edited.
“I’m really using this to show you how sophisticated this technology is, and how hard it can be to decipher these edits,” said Sophie. “Seeing is, unfortunately, not always believing, and you never know who might be using this.”
We live in a strange world.
It used to be really difficult to manipulate imagery, but now it’s second nature. Heck, the camera apps on most phones do some light tweaking to everything they shoot, and it all happens completely under the hood.
Many psychiatrists have been looking into how photoshopping images impacts people’s mental health.
As young people are becoming more exposed to heavily altered images put forth as “reality,” there are worrying ramifications that this has on the mental health of today’s youth — as it can lead to the widespread development of eating disorders and other associated mental health problems.
Worryingly, these negative effects can be seen “even when [the public] are told images have been edited.”
Jacqueline V. Hogue, a psychology expert who has extensively looked into the effect of social media on body image explains:
“Even when we are told images have been edited, overall these disclaimers are ineffective at reducing the negative effects of viewing thin-ideal images on women’s body image.”
Hogue also discusses how “body neutrality” can be a force for good and bad.
“It is considered normative for girls and women to be discontent with their bodies, and we exist in a society that says girls’ and women’s worth is due to their bodies, whether for men’s objectification, self-objectification, or female empowerment,” Hogue goes on to say.
“Body neutrality, on the other hand, takes away the immense power and control body image (whether negative or positive) has over girls and women. […] If collectively society could get to a place where our bodies were considered the least interesting thing about us, think of all the time, energy, and joy we could get to focus on other pleasant and meaningful aspects of life!”
What’s the moral here?
Well, one lesson is that many images on social media are edited.
Another, deeper lesson is that we should accept our bodies rather than try to tweak them digitally.
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.