If you’re not sure what kind of reasons we’re talking about, scroll down to find some examples of people taking picture alterations one step too far, as shared by the ‘Instagram Reality’ subreddit. Ranging from editing gone wrong to excessive use of airbrush and filters, among other things, these pictures are somewhat extreme cases of altered reality posted on social media, but if you want to have a good laugh, you might just like them the way that they are. Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with a board-certified clinical psychologist and author of the books Letting Go of Your Ex and Lies We Tell Ourselves: The Psychology of Self-Deception, Dr. Cortney S. Warren, PhD, ABPP, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions on how social media can affect our views towards body image. “Social media is just one among many types of media that communicate cultural values and ideals—including interactive experiences and reflections of beauty ideals. As such, social media use and interaction often negatively influences people’s body image,” she pointed out. “Furthermore, the ideal appearance is very specific and rigid. For women, it’s a thin, fit, youthful body with clear skin and light eyes. For men, it’s a muscular, tough, handsome figure with no fat. “Finally, there is tremendous pressure to attain the ideal—it’s your responsibility to meet the ideal (or at least, try to) and much of our marketing is aimed at making you feel bad so you will buy products or diet to attain the ideal.” “In essence, our body becomes ‘a project to fix’ instead of a part of us to embrace, appreciate, and love. This fuels weight-based shaming, teasing, and bullying over body image and appearance, all of which sometimes happens in social media contexts,” Warren said. “All of these factors can interact to put someone—especially young girls—at increased risk for eating disorder symptoms like binge eating, body dissatisfaction, restrictive eating, body image distortion, chronic dieting, and thin-ideal internalization.” “The more photo-edited an image is, the more unrealistic our ideals of beauty become because most people see them as ‘real’ even when no one actually looks like the image; not even professional models,” Dr. Warren pointed out. “Some celebrities explicitly request not to be edited or state when they see an image of themselves that ‘doesn’t look like them’ because of photo editing,” Warren pointed out. “This transparency, along with efforts by some celebrities to show themselves without makeup in their natural environment, can be powerful in dispelling beauty myths.” The next step is reducing exposure to people and media that make you feel bad. “If you notice looking at fashion media or being around certain people who are highly critical of their body makes you feel worse, it’s perfectly healthy to set a boundary and limit your exposure.” “Try not to compare yourself to others who you think represent the best (people or media images),” Warren continued. “Try to focus on yourself without comparing your looks to models, media images, or even friends and family who you think represent “the best” because it often will make you feel worse about yourself.” Finally, she emphasized that it’s important to focus on health, not weight. “The journey of life is a long one. The goal really is to be as healthy as possible, but we’re very focused on weight in this cultural context. If you want to use a scale to track your weight, don’t do it more than once a week. If it’s very triggering, perhaps don’t do it at all for now until you feel unaffected by the number that appears.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
