#instagram filters

[venusplanetofloveee]

The coolest person in the world, badgalriri.

[monoalien]

[toxicpudge]

Okay hear me out…..

blonde is a look for me.

These are 3 years old okay!!

just let younger me use terrible instagram filters and wear terrible wigs. She’s thriving

(I literally had to edit this post because I spelt hear like here…. Someone just fucking kill me)

[ijlii]

God I love this filter 😍

[mipommee]

Just placed 1st place at my wrestling tournament btw this was my first medal. 🥇 ♥️

#thisissosurreal

[mavrice]

//just enough madness to make yourself interesting//

[bonedisco]

🕰🕯🎞 | road trip

[savannahdmx]

[murcielagamuerta]

willow, lo-fi & inkwell

[davekatzdefensesquad]

4•24•24 || bathroom photoshoot to cheer myself up. It’s period week. Also got some coffee so I feel better.

[foreshvdowing]

i’m bored, send asks 🫶🏻

[unknown-artist-013]

Some filter images of funtime freggy-

[seramicdragon]

I look so girlypop

🖤he/they🖤

[mipommee]

Yooo🐆.

#lanadelgey

[mavrice]

//im not shy, i just dont like you//

[capyboba-down-the-rabbit-hole]

6th Stop: The Online Body and The Authentic Self

Many of us have our go-to filters, which serve as digital mirrors reflecting our online lives. As someone who habitually embellishes my photos with filters, I contend that these tools, akin to traditional photo editing, vintage cameras, and carefully staged compositions, offer us the means to craft a visually pleasing narrative of our reality, which also holds authenticity in them.

Defamiliarizing Life Online: La Vie En Rose

The use of photo filters not only enhances the visual appeal of our images but also, as Sontag refers to the portrayal of war imagery, can desensitize us to the mundane aspects of our daily lives (1973, 20). Yet, concurrently, filters present us with images that deviate from the familiar scenes we're accustomed to witnessing.

One reason why filters captivate us is their ability to give images a sense of strangeness, defamiliarizing our everyday existence. Filters steal a little bit of our images; they corporate our vision with what the lens of a machine portrays.

Let me see my life through someone else’s eyes—or, in this case, the unfocused and impartial eye of a machine - Bianca Bosker (2014)

Although Instagram-style filters may initially render our selfies and everyday snapshots unrecognizable, their widespread usage eventually diminishes the effect of defamiliarization, transforming it into a commonplace occurrence. Nevertheless, our everyday photos serve as a means of heightening our personal experiences and giving them special meanings.

In essence, these filtered photos afford ordinary individuals the opportunity to engage in artistic expression—a realm once reserved for professionals due to the intricacies of photography and editing tools such as DSLR cameras and Photoshop. And each photo serves as a narrative that we consciously choose to share.

Platformatization: Finding Authenticity in Filters

Behavior of any kind, even that wholly in accord with societal mores, is authentic if it results from personal understanding and approval of its drives and origins rather than merely from conformity with the received wisdom of society. - Erich Fromm (2011)

Behavior, whether conforming to societal norms or not, is considered authentic by Erich Fromm (2011) if it stems from an individual's personal understanding and endorsement of its underlying motivations and origins, rather than mere conformity to prevailing societal expectations. Fromm views authenticity as a positive result of informed and enlightened motivation, rather than a negative consequence of rejecting societal pressures.

For instance, when selecting a filter for a photo, individuals make subjective choices that reflect their authenticity (Kumar & Madhushree Nanda Agarwal 2023). Consider a woman of color opting for a filter adhering to Western beauty standards. Her choice may signify a desire for societal acceptance, despite the inherent social injustices minorities face. In this context, her selection of a filter becomes a statement about her own experiences and struggles.

Platformization has transformed filters into customizable tools, allowing greater freedom to shape representations that reflect the diversity of our world. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook empower users, predominantly individuals, to design their own filters tailored to their unique needs and authenticity. Today, filter development is just as, if not more, likely to be conducted by a camgirl as it is by hundreds of full-time employees in a campus-sized studio. Skill-based barriers to entry have been eroded by the proliferation of low-cost and easy-to-use software development platforms known as AR toolkits .

These toolkits prioritize the creator's vision over technical expertise, resulting in a diverse range of filters that challenge conventional beauty standards. These filters may explore themes of disempowerment rather than conquest or feature mechanics that promote introspection over agency, thereby expanding the narrative possibilities and contributing to a more inclusive representation of reality.

Indeed, the filtered world we create online may diverge from its natural state, but it remains authentic in its own right. Through the lens of a digital camera, we craft a human-made vision of reality that reflects our perceptions, experiences, and desires. While this digital representation may not mirror the raw world, it nonetheless captures aspects of our inner selves and external surroundings, rendering it authentic in its portrayal of our lived experiences. Our online reality, shaped by filters and digital tools, serves as a unique and valid expression of our individual perspectives and narratives.

Reference

Bosker, B 2014, Hi, My Name Is Bianca And I’ve Already Taken Your Picture, HuffPost, viewed 31 March 2024, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/narrative-clip_n_4760580.

Fromm, E 2011, Escape from freedom, Ishi Press, New York, Tokyo.

Kumar, H & Madhushree Nanda Agarwal 2023, ‘Filtering the reality: Exploring the dark and bright sides of augmented reality–based filters on social media’, Australian Journal of Management, SAGE Publishing.

Rettberg, JW 2014, ‘Filtered Reality’, in Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 20–32, viewed 31 March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476661_2.

Sontag, S 1978, On Photography, Allen Lane, London.