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PBS39 News Reports
7:21
Published: 2020/01/31

Lehigh University Students, Staff Weigh in On Ramifications of Photo-editing Apps

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Facetune app demo shows before and after photo-editing selfie
Facetune / YouTube

BETHLEHEM, PA - Some days many of us wish we could change a few things about our appearance.

"Sometimes you’re not feeling your best, like, maybe alter a few things," says Lehigh University Senior, Dana Teach, "I definitely wish that it could be different."

But what happens when the power to change your appearance is in the palm of your hand?

"You can do basically anything with facetune," Teach explains, "You can change your hair color, your eye color, you can change any sort of shape you have on your body. You want to change your nose shape, your lip shape, there’s like reshape tools and grow your eyes, shrink your eyes, stuff like that."

Photoshop and other graphic editing tools were once reserved for models in the pages of magazines or celebrities posted to billboards. Now, that’s changed.

"I think one of the tell tale signs is that if you’re looking at the person and next to them the background is all squiggly, they definitely did some sort of reshaping," Teach tells PBS39 News Tonight Reporter, K.C. Lopez, "Either to their body, to their arms, their legs, whatever."

When Lehigh University freshman, Alondra Perez,was first exposed to face altering filters and apps at thirteen years old, it made her question her own self-image.

"At such a young age, I started being self conscious of how I looked and how my face looked, my nose, how big my lips were," Perez reveals, "It just like makes my nose and my lips looks really good and yeah, honestly, it really kind of inspired me to think, should I get plastic surgery? I look really good in this filter. And plastic surgery isn’t bad at all but it’s sad that this app that was supposed to be for fun and to connect with people is now making me consider altering my face permanently. It just shows how dangerous these apps can be with the filters that they have. It definitely can have an effect and I see it today. I’m still using—relying on filters like that."

There’s a plethora of apps to choose from; ‘BeautyPlus’ and ‘Perfect Me’ allows users to alter their body and face shape; easily adjusting complexion, hair and jawlines, while Facetune and Facetune2, apps downloaded more than 50 million times since their creation in 2013, will remove any signs of acne, enlarge eyes, slim noses, plump lips and more. Many of them, for free.

"It could be apps that are fun. I know my little brother loves to play with the dog filters on Snapchat and all of that but it still—we have to be, as a parent and somebody whose related to a young person, you have to be aware what these filters can have, their effects in the long run" Perez tells Lopez.

And what seemed unattainable or reserved for those with the appropriate technology is now available for anyone and everyone. Regardless of status or age.

"The sense that it’s only for people of a certain status or celebrity is not the case anymore since we can all use them and download them for free—or maybe not," explains Rita Jones, PhD, Director of Lehigh University's Center for Gender Equity, "It’s just something that people do and if everybody is doing it then it must be okay, and there must not be any negative harm that comes from it, is the assumption that is made. And I really don’t think that’s the case."

A 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that 97% of adolescents report using at least one social media platform. 95% of them have access to a smartphone. Almost 90% of them report being online several times a day. Experts say, young people who spend more than 3 hours a day on social media are susceptible to depression, anxiety and other illnesses.

For a social platform like Instagram, with 1 billion monthly active users, the dominant user base is below the age of 35. The average person uses mobile Internet 3 and half hours, each and every day.

"The number of hours I see people, particularly young people, taking one photo over and over again to get just the right angle, or my hair is falling quite the right way," Jones explains, "It’s the lighting, the back lighting, the thinning, the paling of the skin, the removal of blemishes, the heightening—all of these sorts of things maybe that I’m trying to achieve some standard. Then after that photo is finally done then the number of swipes to find just the correct filter suggests to me that’s probably not okay that there are probably some reasons we should ask ourselves why were using these so consistently and what are the ramifications of photo-shopping or filtering being normal?"

To catch up, stores like CVS Pharmacy have begun implementing “Beauty Marks;” labeling photos of models in its beauty aisles to distinguish whether images have been digitally altered. The U.S.’s second largest drugstore chain promises in 2020, all images in stores nationwide will be marked. The rule already applies to marketing materials, including social media posts.

And online, there are new accounts on platforms like Instagram and threads on reddit, dedicated to what users call, exposing the fakeness of social media. But in those cases, is ‘exposing’ someone who shares an altered image of themself helpful or harmful?

"Followers follow them because of that visual that they are demanding to see," Jones tells Lopez, "I don’t think I’m the grand scheme of things they’re helping because it’s only demonstrating what the influencer, the celebrity, has failed to do. You didn’t live up your expectation which was this expectation of perfection, flawless, aesthetic perfection. So you’ve either let me down or now I’m just going to drag you. Neither of which is good kind of elements to do."

"They are also affected by the systematic idea of beauty," says Teach, "and the pressure they’re put under, especially women, how women are supposed to look. I’m sure they feel that pressure."

To combat the negative psychological effects of so-called, “Snapchat dysmorphia;” where users are desperate to resemble their doctored selfies, experts suggest identifying examples of photo-editing with adolescents so they develop realistic expectations, emphasize with them that it is OK to have flaws, if you’re teen is using photo-editing apps, point out that their peers are likely using them too and remind them, appearance isn’t everything. Hashtag no filter or not.

Got a news tip? Email K.C. at KCLopez@WLVT.org