On social media we will always feel inadequate (even without filters)
In recent days there has been a lot of talk about Meta’s decision to remove “beauty” filters, i.e. those applications capable of altering facial or body features in order to make them more aesthetically attractive. In reality, as often happens, the news was not reported correctly by everyone, since at least 140 native filters will still be available on Instagram, i.e. those created by Meta itself, while only the filters created by third parties will be removed. So essentially nothing will change, yet this decision was sold to us as an epochal turning point, aimed at protecting the mental health of young people, who are increasingly under pressure due to the high standards of beauty proposed online.
Meta sells itself as a company that pays attention to the psyche
In reality, Meta has been trying in every way to pass itself off as a company that pays attention to the psyche of its users for some time. You may remember when in 2019 they tried to hide the number of “likes” on posts, as they were accused of generating performance anxiety and dependency dynamics. Evidently the test proved detrimental to the use of the application, so much so that the “likes” became more prominent than before and, as if that wasn’t enough, in addition to the posts they were also added to the stories.
Nothing changes
However, blaming Meta alone would be hypocritical: the truth is that social media users want to see “likes”, just as they want to use filters. In fact, even if they will no longer be available on Instagram, people will continue to edit their photos using the filters of external platforms, and then publish their masterpiece on Instagram.
Which then filters probably represent the lesser evil, since in most cases they are also easily identifiable and therefore less impactful. The problem is instead intrinsic to the continuous ostentation of the body. In fact, physical filters (makeup) and the manipulation of light through framing (from above, from below, etc.) are sufficient to generate anxiety; nothing more.
False claims
Filters or no filters, the problem is that by using social networks we will be exposed every day to an infinite number of bodies that are on average more attractive than they are offline, and this will contribute to distorting our standards of beauty, consequently altering both the judgment on our body and that on the body of others. Incels themselves (the “involuntary celibates”, i.e. those who are unable to unblock themselves from a psychosexual point of view) are sometimes also such because of unrealistic aesthetic standards that they don’t even realize, so addicted are they. Outside of a certain aesthetic model they no longer even experience sexual arousal and sometimes this is enough to destroy their relational life and their mental health.
To counter the anxiety about the body generated by social media, we can only do one thing: close social media. If we decide to use them we will inevitably be exposed to them, and there is nothing Meta or anyone else can do to circumvent this deleterious mechanism. Let us not be fooled by false proclamations.