Photographer Asks Teens To Edit Their Pics Until They Look ‘Social Media Ready’, Posts The Alarming Results
Teenagers feel a lot of pressure to be and look a certain way. But to what extent? To find out, creative agency M&C Saatchi has partnered with the renowned British photographer Rankin and MTArt Agency. As part of VISUAL DIET, a campaign that explores the impact of beauty standards on mental health, they asked a group of teens to polish their selfies for social media.
“In the series ‘Selfie Harm‘ I was specifically looking and experimenting with the apps that are actually targeted at teenagers,” Rankin told Bored Panda. “They are like playing computer games and consequently are really good fun. I’ve personally enjoyed messing around with them but they are very addictive.”
Image credits: RankinPhotography
The project saw the renowned British photographer shoot a group of teens aged 13-19. They were then asked to spend a few minutes editing the photo until they thought it was good enough to match the Instagram trends. “Initially, we used models and then I wanted to expand it to other teenagers, so we did a call out looking for [more] subjects for the perfect selfie.”
“The program we used was one of many like Facetune <...> but there are hundreds of these apps,” the photographer added. “The main thing is that we weren’t casting people that used these apps, but found teenagers and asked them to try them out. They were shown how to use them, which literally takes seconds as they are very easy to work out, then they did the body image editing themselves.”
Rankin also believes that there is no sense checking around it. “What you can do on these apps is way beyond what photoshopped images. The technology is moving forward very quickly and the idea of being somebody in any way different from the person you are can be exciting, but what are the pitfalls around it. That’s what I’m asking. If you can be even just a ‘more polished’ version of yourself, how hard does it then become to accept who you actually are? This is a very bad influence for mental health and this project is only just scratching the surface of it.”
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Rankin: rankin.co.uk | Instagram | Facebook
M&C Saatchi: mcsaatchi.com | Facebook
MTArt Agency: mtart.agency | Facebook | Instagram
VISUAL DIET: visualdiet.co.uk | Instagram
agreed, like something out of a horror movie. No thanks, I like the originals.
Load More Replies...None of the teenagers have acne? While I get what you are trying to say, why are all of these teenagers perfect?
Yeh, no acne scars or huge pores. I'm jealous of their skin. The before pictures look great
Load More Replies...only thing i see in the originals is a bunch of lovely people...that need chapstick! other than that, the original untouched photos are beautiful. Chapstick is your friend! Moisturize those lips.
He looks like the love child of Draco Malfoy and Benidict Cumberbatch
Load More Replies...Side by side placement would have been easier to show the differences, but it seems that most of the subjects think they should look like elves from the LOTR and Hobbit movies.
These people are beautiful the way they are. Having perfect selfies and getting likes isn't worth turning into a fake version of yourself. That's not what life is about, ladies and gentlemen!
I hated all the edited pictures. They all look like weird Avatar hybrids. I much prefer the originals, you can see their personalities in those....
If young people do this, image what would older people do? so sad, it shows that society is all about looks (yes, Bored panda, you do this too!). I am depressed these days because people tell me I look old and "tired" and older than I am. Instead of just ignoring them I am really depressed now, so I can understand these kids, society gives too much pressure on all of us. We should know better, but that day is far far away.
So the "social media look" is striving to look like a creepy Barbie doll. Poor kids.
This is not an accurate test. You taught these people how to use an app and then set them free on it, of course they're going to want to play around with it and see what it can do. This in no way represents how much they would actually edit their own photos.
Plus, in the first part he says he literally ASKED them to "polish their selfies". Not only isn't it accurate, it's complete and utter b******t.
Load More Replies...Character vs. bland. Strange, quirky, askew, off-center, uneven, oblique; way more interesting and arresting! I don't want to know plastic, I want to know crinkles, freckles, scars, and laugh lines.
Terrible to see so many young women, beautiful already, interested in changing. Women are given one life like men and body shaming pressure on women (and men) sucks and NEEDS TO END NOW.
Shame that this is inbuild nature. Humans want to find a mate, humans and animals do their best to impress that mate. Males will try to look strong or successful using cars, muscles, tattoos, walking in a stupid way...and females draw on their faces or in this case virtually draw on their faces. It has happened since the dawn of humankind and all animals do it in their own way. There is no pressure. The vast majority of people doesn't do this anyway. Men don't even like too much make up. So stop blaming them. Imagine Cleopatra without her eye make up, lol. Just leave them be, it's not stopping the world form going round.
Load More Replies...Photo filters drive me nuts! I laugh when people post pics of themselves with a dozen filters acting as if that's how they actually look, when in reality the picture they posted makes them look like an alien creature.
They all are beautiful people with their own original face type. Like all of us - our hair, eye color, face shape, noses, mouths - everything that makes us unique. But nowadays I feel like every kind of girl I meet on a street or see in music clips, in ads or Instagram looks exactly like one of Kardashians' family - they are all the same: characterless. Boring. Looking artificially.
Yeah before they came along nobody had ever had a photo edited to make themselves look "better".
Load More Replies...Jeeze...... One of them looked like a 5 year old when he was finished. Hilarious.
Hmmm. Even the before pics look digitized. Plus, all the “edits” have a similar style to them. Not sure if I believe this article.
I feel bad for the day these girls turn 40-whatever and get their first wrinkle. If they are already this looks-obsessed, they are screwed when gravity catches your a*s.
1. they were all gorgeous to begin with. 2. this is really sad that people think they need to change their appearance to be accepted. I don't have like any body positivity but it is still hard to see how much others would want to change themselves
the before pictures look great - perfect skin - georgeus eyes - beautiful people!!! The after pictures looks creepy with that make up like number 8 ....
so many of those people are naturally beautiful yet they still feel they need to heavily edit their appearance , in the edited version they all look like aliens, social media has a lot to answer for, young people are under so much pressure to look "perfect" but what under 125s think is perfect I find hideous , glad I grew up in the 90s.
What's up with everyone wanting a Michael Jackson Official Nosejob™???
So, people basically think they should have tiny noses, fat lips, glass eyes & no pores in their skin.
It's not so much alarming as thoroughly expectable. Everybody pretty much did the exact same things: made the eyes a little bigger, changed the complexion, slimmed the jaw. It's unfortunate that some very pretty people thought they needed to be enhanced. From the over-the-top headline, I thought I was going to see how everyone went crazy with photoshop. A few people took it too far and made themselves look creepy, and most of us would look at these pictures and see that the eyes aren't right. But I think the most striking thing to come from this exercise is that people didn't go crazy with it.
The more shocking thing is that everyone agreed on the exact same snap filter...
They look like badly rendered cgi Disney princesses in the touch-up pics. That kind of says a lot there.
All of the before pics win hands down! The edited pics are weird, unnatural, and just feels... wrong. Shocking that teens think this is how they "should" look. All of these young adults are so much more beautiful in the natural pics. :)
So just make the noses thinner and add makeup? Their reg misses looked better and makeup is the norm so? 🤨
they all look a little alien. the eyes are all stunning in the originals.
Sad they all look the same in the edited ones. Filters are giving people body dysmorphia.
I can also make people lips nicer and their eyes sparklilier and add a cool title
I thought the subjects were all quite lovely in the "before" photos. A few of the "afters" weren't TOO bad, the ones where just slight alterations were made, but some of them were downright scary. That first guy? With the blond hair? OMG - scary!
#9's eyebrows are great in his first photo, the after one looks really weird. Like this long thin line that goes into his hairline. Not that his original didn't go into his hairline but the before picture is better by far. Some look fine but others look strange or something one would do to their faces if they were going out on the town, at night, like at midnight! LOL Where are the fangs? :-)~
We, have done this to. Them. People are too worried about how they look naturally, and think they aren’t good enough... poor self esteem issues, body issues, there are kids out there that escaped this c**p, but not enough do.
They're all so much more interesting and attractive without the editing, and it's sad that they feel like they have to do this.
So weird. The Instagram ready just look plastic, and the first boy has pretty much lost all contouring; you'd think his nose is just two airholes sticking out of his face. I was glad to see the one girl didn't edit out her freckles/moles.
When I got to the black girl I was reluctant to scroll down because I was sure she'd make her skin lighter...but she didn't! So glad.
Load More Replies...The males all change to very androgynous looking. They all slim down their noses an sculpt the facial structure to look less ethnic. Very homogenized.
It would have been much better to have shown the pictures side by side.
Load More Replies...This is meaningless. If it was a psych experiment proposal, it would be instantly rejected. They SHOWED the teens the app then TAUGHT THEM how to use it. Then they PROMPTED THEM to edit the photos. The language used suggested to the teens that their photos already weren't good enough so they needed to Facetune them- that suggestion alone would be enough to taint the results of this if it was a real experiment on social media selfies. They implanted the suggestion that the pics weren't good enough then clearly showed them the program they wanted them to use and taught them how to use it. So all we've learned is that teenagers will do what authority figures tell them to do. Big surprise. The one real take away I'm getting is that we all need better critical thinking skills and also I hope this shoot was heavily supervised. Also, what a s****y format to upload this list in. Side by side, duh. But it's dumb and pointless anyway.
#2 is actually amazing and I only see increased colors and contrast, nothing else. Or am I blind?
Enlarged lips, slightly thinner nose, pointier jaw. And then there's the whole creepy plastic skin filter that they all seem to be using.
Load More Replies...All their original pictures are so beautiful. Natural beauty for the win, filter be-gone
In my opinion their face works as it is when they change things about their features it highlights other things about the face because it becomes very mismatched in the edited photo yet in the normal photo it looks normal
Issac looks like the Shermanator from American Pie, only blonde and younger.
Every single one of them changed their noses to be thinner. We can thank the Kardashians for their wonderful example to these kids.
My daughter who is about 3 years younger than the girls was visibly shaken looking at this post. Why? Thry all are so pretty in the before. If you are not good at subtext it is they are so pretty if they feel ugly what does that make me?
I love the originals, but I think the manipulated ones look just like what people do with makeup every day.
The childlike empress!! She lives, Fantasia must be real! Bastian must still be spinning yarns somewhere..
To be fair, some of them looked like aliens in their Before pics hahahahaha
Most apps have the built in face filters, I use them, don't see what the big deal is. Plus these photos mostly look like before and after makeup. I always like to point out the hypocrisy in that "they" invent these fun little photo taking machines with apps that let us share our photos, they add face filters, and then - they criticize us for using them.
They don't have bigger foreheads in the after pics. That's just an optical illusion because they airbrushed the skin and the jawlines are smaller.
Load More Replies...Good work? Check your monitor and/ or eyes. They either look like androids or wax figures left in the sun and started to melt. And surgery? Teenagers don't need surgery and photoshop to be beautiful.
Load More Replies...agreed, like something out of a horror movie. No thanks, I like the originals.
Load More Replies...None of the teenagers have acne? While I get what you are trying to say, why are all of these teenagers perfect?
Yeh, no acne scars or huge pores. I'm jealous of their skin. The before pictures look great
Load More Replies...only thing i see in the originals is a bunch of lovely people...that need chapstick! other than that, the original untouched photos are beautiful. Chapstick is your friend! Moisturize those lips.
He looks like the love child of Draco Malfoy and Benidict Cumberbatch
Load More Replies...Side by side placement would have been easier to show the differences, but it seems that most of the subjects think they should look like elves from the LOTR and Hobbit movies.
These people are beautiful the way they are. Having perfect selfies and getting likes isn't worth turning into a fake version of yourself. That's not what life is about, ladies and gentlemen!
I hated all the edited pictures. They all look like weird Avatar hybrids. I much prefer the originals, you can see their personalities in those....
If young people do this, image what would older people do? so sad, it shows that society is all about looks (yes, Bored panda, you do this too!). I am depressed these days because people tell me I look old and "tired" and older than I am. Instead of just ignoring them I am really depressed now, so I can understand these kids, society gives too much pressure on all of us. We should know better, but that day is far far away.
So the "social media look" is striving to look like a creepy Barbie doll. Poor kids.
This is not an accurate test. You taught these people how to use an app and then set them free on it, of course they're going to want to play around with it and see what it can do. This in no way represents how much they would actually edit their own photos.
Plus, in the first part he says he literally ASKED them to "polish their selfies". Not only isn't it accurate, it's complete and utter b******t.
Load More Replies...Character vs. bland. Strange, quirky, askew, off-center, uneven, oblique; way more interesting and arresting! I don't want to know plastic, I want to know crinkles, freckles, scars, and laugh lines.
Terrible to see so many young women, beautiful already, interested in changing. Women are given one life like men and body shaming pressure on women (and men) sucks and NEEDS TO END NOW.
Shame that this is inbuild nature. Humans want to find a mate, humans and animals do their best to impress that mate. Males will try to look strong or successful using cars, muscles, tattoos, walking in a stupid way...and females draw on their faces or in this case virtually draw on their faces. It has happened since the dawn of humankind and all animals do it in their own way. There is no pressure. The vast majority of people doesn't do this anyway. Men don't even like too much make up. So stop blaming them. Imagine Cleopatra without her eye make up, lol. Just leave them be, it's not stopping the world form going round.
Load More Replies...Photo filters drive me nuts! I laugh when people post pics of themselves with a dozen filters acting as if that's how they actually look, when in reality the picture they posted makes them look like an alien creature.
They all are beautiful people with their own original face type. Like all of us - our hair, eye color, face shape, noses, mouths - everything that makes us unique. But nowadays I feel like every kind of girl I meet on a street or see in music clips, in ads or Instagram looks exactly like one of Kardashians' family - they are all the same: characterless. Boring. Looking artificially.
Yeah before they came along nobody had ever had a photo edited to make themselves look "better".
Load More Replies...Jeeze...... One of them looked like a 5 year old when he was finished. Hilarious.
Hmmm. Even the before pics look digitized. Plus, all the “edits” have a similar style to them. Not sure if I believe this article.
I feel bad for the day these girls turn 40-whatever and get their first wrinkle. If they are already this looks-obsessed, they are screwed when gravity catches your a*s.
1. they were all gorgeous to begin with. 2. this is really sad that people think they need to change their appearance to be accepted. I don't have like any body positivity but it is still hard to see how much others would want to change themselves
the before pictures look great - perfect skin - georgeus eyes - beautiful people!!! The after pictures looks creepy with that make up like number 8 ....
so many of those people are naturally beautiful yet they still feel they need to heavily edit their appearance , in the edited version they all look like aliens, social media has a lot to answer for, young people are under so much pressure to look "perfect" but what under 125s think is perfect I find hideous , glad I grew up in the 90s.
What's up with everyone wanting a Michael Jackson Official Nosejob™???
So, people basically think they should have tiny noses, fat lips, glass eyes & no pores in their skin.
It's not so much alarming as thoroughly expectable. Everybody pretty much did the exact same things: made the eyes a little bigger, changed the complexion, slimmed the jaw. It's unfortunate that some very pretty people thought they needed to be enhanced. From the over-the-top headline, I thought I was going to see how everyone went crazy with photoshop. A few people took it too far and made themselves look creepy, and most of us would look at these pictures and see that the eyes aren't right. But I think the most striking thing to come from this exercise is that people didn't go crazy with it.
The more shocking thing is that everyone agreed on the exact same snap filter...
They look like badly rendered cgi Disney princesses in the touch-up pics. That kind of says a lot there.
All of the before pics win hands down! The edited pics are weird, unnatural, and just feels... wrong. Shocking that teens think this is how they "should" look. All of these young adults are so much more beautiful in the natural pics. :)
So just make the noses thinner and add makeup? Their reg misses looked better and makeup is the norm so? 🤨
they all look a little alien. the eyes are all stunning in the originals.
Sad they all look the same in the edited ones. Filters are giving people body dysmorphia.
I can also make people lips nicer and their eyes sparklilier and add a cool title
I thought the subjects were all quite lovely in the "before" photos. A few of the "afters" weren't TOO bad, the ones where just slight alterations were made, but some of them were downright scary. That first guy? With the blond hair? OMG - scary!
#9's eyebrows are great in his first photo, the after one looks really weird. Like this long thin line that goes into his hairline. Not that his original didn't go into his hairline but the before picture is better by far. Some look fine but others look strange or something one would do to their faces if they were going out on the town, at night, like at midnight! LOL Where are the fangs? :-)~
We, have done this to. Them. People are too worried about how they look naturally, and think they aren’t good enough... poor self esteem issues, body issues, there are kids out there that escaped this c**p, but not enough do.
They're all so much more interesting and attractive without the editing, and it's sad that they feel like they have to do this.
So weird. The Instagram ready just look plastic, and the first boy has pretty much lost all contouring; you'd think his nose is just two airholes sticking out of his face. I was glad to see the one girl didn't edit out her freckles/moles.
When I got to the black girl I was reluctant to scroll down because I was sure she'd make her skin lighter...but she didn't! So glad.
Load More Replies...The males all change to very androgynous looking. They all slim down their noses an sculpt the facial structure to look less ethnic. Very homogenized.
It would have been much better to have shown the pictures side by side.
Load More Replies...This is meaningless. If it was a psych experiment proposal, it would be instantly rejected. They SHOWED the teens the app then TAUGHT THEM how to use it. Then they PROMPTED THEM to edit the photos. The language used suggested to the teens that their photos already weren't good enough so they needed to Facetune them- that suggestion alone would be enough to taint the results of this if it was a real experiment on social media selfies. They implanted the suggestion that the pics weren't good enough then clearly showed them the program they wanted them to use and taught them how to use it. So all we've learned is that teenagers will do what authority figures tell them to do. Big surprise. The one real take away I'm getting is that we all need better critical thinking skills and also I hope this shoot was heavily supervised. Also, what a s****y format to upload this list in. Side by side, duh. But it's dumb and pointless anyway.
#2 is actually amazing and I only see increased colors and contrast, nothing else. Or am I blind?
Enlarged lips, slightly thinner nose, pointier jaw. And then there's the whole creepy plastic skin filter that they all seem to be using.
Load More Replies...All their original pictures are so beautiful. Natural beauty for the win, filter be-gone
In my opinion their face works as it is when they change things about their features it highlights other things about the face because it becomes very mismatched in the edited photo yet in the normal photo it looks normal
Issac looks like the Shermanator from American Pie, only blonde and younger.
Every single one of them changed their noses to be thinner. We can thank the Kardashians for their wonderful example to these kids.
My daughter who is about 3 years younger than the girls was visibly shaken looking at this post. Why? Thry all are so pretty in the before. If you are not good at subtext it is they are so pretty if they feel ugly what does that make me?
I love the originals, but I think the manipulated ones look just like what people do with makeup every day.
The childlike empress!! She lives, Fantasia must be real! Bastian must still be spinning yarns somewhere..
To be fair, some of them looked like aliens in their Before pics hahahahaha
Most apps have the built in face filters, I use them, don't see what the big deal is. Plus these photos mostly look like before and after makeup. I always like to point out the hypocrisy in that "they" invent these fun little photo taking machines with apps that let us share our photos, they add face filters, and then - they criticize us for using them.
They don't have bigger foreheads in the after pics. That's just an optical illusion because they airbrushed the skin and the jawlines are smaller.
Load More Replies...Good work? Check your monitor and/ or eyes. They either look like androids or wax figures left in the sun and started to melt. And surgery? Teenagers don't need surgery and photoshop to be beautiful.
Load More Replies...
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