This article reviews research on how social media beauty filters affect adolescent girls’ body image and further their psychological well-being. Filters that specifically smooth skin, make eyes bigger, slim faces, and other attributes, combined with other filters that modify bodies to create a slim waist, are popular among girls who are concerned with their appearance. “Social media also normalizes cosmetic procedures, with platforms increasingly contributing to their acceptance. Moreover, social comparison is prevalent, as appearance-consciousness and self-esteem influence the preference for visually-driven platforms” (Haryo et al, 2024). These filters present a digitally perfect version of themselves, and frequent exposure/normalization to these filters encourages comparison to the real face and the altered version. This makes girls more self-critical and less satisfied with their natural appearance.
This is important to my research as it explores the relationship between girls’ real versions of themselves and the hyperreal versions they can create on digital platforms. Beauty filters play a huge role in constructing hyperreal beauty norms that adolescent girls struggle to meet but have been conditioned to strive for. Mediated images become more real than real life, which affects girls’ perceived understanding of what they should be. Overall, hyperreal standards don’t just affect perceptions; they reshape actual identity and behavior related to gender perception and understanding of self.
This week, I got good feedback for my proof of concept. I was recommended to expand my script and go a little deeper for each section. This is exactly what I did for my proof of concept. I have gone a little deeper for each section and created the script for the first 5 minutes of my video essay. It will basically cover the introduction of my paper, the overall understanding of hyperreal identity related to dolls, then filters and influencer culture, to the self.
Haryo, B. D. W., & Subriadi, A. P. (2024). The impact of social media filters on body perception and psychological well-being in adolescent girls: Systematic literature review. 2024 International Conference on Informatics, Multimedia, Cyber and Information System (ICIMCIS) (pp. 423–428). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIMCIS63449.2024.10956368