STOP Using Filters on Social Media. Seriously 😱🧐
A speaker argues that facial filters on social media create unrealistic beauty standards that damage self-worth, especially in children. He describes seeing a model at an Alexander McQueen show use a real-time filter that completely transformed her face, and calls for people to stop filtering and show their authentic selves instead.
Chapters
Please stop using filters on social media, for the love of God. Please, please stop. I believe a pandemic in reality is the unrealistic fantasy of what we look like and how we feel about ourselves because of filters on social media. I have never used a filter on social media. I mean, maybe I need a word filter. But man, I was shocked. Two things. One, on Instagram, when you post, you can literally— when you put your photo up, just go like that. I know, that looks better. And that looks even better. And that changes the shape of my face. And that gets rid of all of my blemishes. How easy it is to change how you look for a public persona to please people who maybe don't even care about you. And number 2, I was at an Alexander McQueen fashion, um, show 2 days ago, and the lady gave me her phone and she said, can you just take a photo? But it was in video format, and I could not believe what I saw. I'll talk to you about that in a moment. I would like to start a campaign to stop filters on social media. You don't look like your filters. So what's happening is you're showing the world a false perfect version of you, which I actually don't think looks better anyway. I don't think your face looks better in the shape of a triangle. I have to be honest about that. So actually, a lot of people probably think you look worse, not better. Um, it looks nothing like you. And then when people meet you in real life, they're like, who is that? So you create this unrealistic fantasy that you cannot live up to in real life. So when you go to real life, real life is a letdown. Now people are always saying, I hear this all the time, I just want to be loved for who I am. Then you have to show who you really are on social media. And if you put a false version of yourself out on social media, hey world, this is me, but it's actually a filter, look like a pixie and a fairy and I'm unblemished. Hey, hey world, this is what I really look like. And then you meet people in real life and you're flawed and imperfect because we are all flawed and imperfect. Then you've created an unrealistic expectation. So no wonder dating is a problem for a lot of people. So why do you feel the need to do this? I don't think people look better with filters on, with a triangulated face, pointy features. You're a person, not a pixie. You are beautiful as you are, with your flaws, with your blemishes. Now the problem here is Maybe it's okay if it's just you. I don't know. Look, you could say, who the fuck am I to tell you what to do with your filters and your Instagram and your social media? So then leave. But our children are watching this. My 7-year-old daughter is being taught by people that she doesn't look right how she is and she needs to filter how she looks for a false world. Young people copy older people, so we're damaging their self-worth from fucking age 6 and 7. It's wrong. Beauty is not in a filter. Beauty is in a human being. Our wrinkles are beautiful, our crow's feet are beautiful, our flawed teeth are beautiful, our white bits are beautiful, our soft bits are beautiful. So there's a lot of campaigning, isn't there? There's a lot of people talking about it's okay to be a plus-size model and not be a skinny rake. Well, then we need to do the same campaigning for filters. Be brave enough, have the courage to show the world who you really are. I believe most pain is when there is a fantasy, an unrealistic expectation of what life should be and how you should be. And then when reality hits you on how it actually is, that— I believe that distance between fantasy and reality creates the greatest amount of pain, the greatest amount of, um, hurt and self-worth. So the more we're trying to look better to appease people we don't even know, the bigger the comedown. The bigger the damaged self-worth. And I actually think that the people who do the most filtering and touching up on social media and on Instagram, I actually believe that they probably have the lowest self-worth. But people have to start the process because, look, it's pretty sexy for social media channels to give you a little bit of a filter and just press and swipe and make yourself look better and get rid of all your flaws and blah blah blah and post that out, and then it becomes a, a craze. and then it becomes a frickin' pandemic. And Instagram aren't gonna take the blame for it. So please hit the share button if you agree that we should stop using filters and start showing the world who we really are. If we want to be loved for who we really are, we need to show the world who we really are. And if we show the world a filtered version of ourselves, we're only going to attract people that like and want a filtered version of ourselves. And then we're gonna go, wait a minute, this person doesn't love me for who I am. But you showed them a false filtered version of who you are, so you can't blame the world, you have to blame yourself. Do you have the courage to show the world who you really are? Because people talk about it a lot, 'Oh, have the courage to be yourself and be vulnerable and have the courage to be disliked and, you know, share your message to the world and express yourself who you really are.' And they're talking about that in terms of what you say and what you preach and what you share, but not your face and how you look. So I was at this Alexander McQueen, um, fashion show, and this lady handed me a phone. And she was stood there, and I saw her face there, and she handed me a phone and she said, 'Can you just take a picture?' And I said, 'Of course.' So she went into the distance, and I pulled the camera, and I could not believe my eyes. It was a video-based filter which was changing her in real time. It changed her face, it changed her body, it made her look a different shape. And she wanted a photo in a McQueen fashion show which didn't even look like her. And of course I obliged and didn't say anything, but I thought, get out there, show the world who you really are, don't hide behind a filter, stop using filters, hit the share button. This filter, um, these apps and filters are a pandemic. You don't look like that. And here's the problem, what happens And I can't believe people do this, but what happens is there are filters that make your face look pointy like a triangle, and you've all got all these dainty pointy pixie fairy features and no blemishes and, you know, fucking great big lips like that and whatever else. And then what happens is people go and ask to be cosmetically changed to look like that in real life, and the face goes out like that and the chin goes in like this. And how do we know that the stuff that people are putting in their face is actually not gonna harm them in the future. 'Cause I'm sure 100 years ago when people were smoking cigarettes, "Ah yeah, these make me feel good, there's nothing wrong with this." And then everyone's frickin' dying of cancer from cigarettes. Well, what about the stuff that people are putting in their face? What are our kids gonna feel about how they look and their natural beauty? Human beings are naturally beautiful. You look better without a fuckin' filter. Show the world who you really are. Have the courage to show the visual version of you that's real. Let me know what you think in the comments. Please hit the share button. I don't think these filters are doing the world any good. I think there's a pandemic. I think it's killing self-worth. I think it's making people compare themselves to other people much more and therefore feeling shit about themselves. It looks nothing like them anyway. People are misselling themselves. When you meet people in reality, they're like, well, what's that? You were a triangle on a filter and now you're an oval. What's going on? And our young children, our kids are freaking copying this and we're damaging and smashing their self-worth from age 6 and 7. Have the courage to show the world who you really are. Stop fucking using filters and hit the share button and let me know what you think in the comments. Someone mentioned about makeup and what do I think about makeup. I'm not even going to start about that. I'm not even going to start about that. But let me know what you think in the comments and please hit the share button. I think that this could be the next pandemic. We don't need it. We just don't need it. Love you all. Thanks for tuning in. Hit the share button. Keep the discussion going in the comments. As Rose says, no filter always. I find it amusing when people go on Instagram and say hashtag no filter, like it's weird that they did no filter. I'm just going to really make an announcement, not on this particular video and photo, I actually didn't use a filter, although they probably did 78 takes to just look perfect and get the right angle, etc. So we shouldn't have to mention that there is no filter. It should be the exception to the rule that there is a filter. Hit the share button, get the discussion going. Let me know what you think.
