Week 8; Augmented Reality filters!
Filters have taken social media application by storm in recent years after Snapchat released their first set of AR filters in 2015 (Baker 2020, p. 207).
This development in technology has had a vast variety of impacts on digital citizens with implications of unrealistic beauty standards, biometric observation and digital identity to be considered when addressing their role online.
Baker (2020) touches on the problematic issues of these beautification filters and highlights that there is a continuation of sexualisation involved in the advancements of the filters, similar to the subject that was touched on last week in ‘Body Modification’ (p.209).
The more you edit your image, the greater the harm.
In this article [linked above], Dr Wells discusses the Dove Self Esteem Project as their research shows the majority of their research found that “80 percent of girls have downloaded a filter or used an app to change how they look in photos by age 13,” (2020 study). She explains the detrimental connections that users experience are apparent as they are commonly tied to having low self-esteem and body dysmorphia. Making the young starting age of this issue overtly concerning as it sets a precedent of body dissatisfaction at an age where most boys and girls have not even hit puberty yet.
In more recent years these filters are seeing a favour shift towards beautification as opposed to the goofy nature of original Snapchat lenses. As the filters are well received in popularity by digital citizens other applications and companies such as Instagram and TikTok have advanced the technological phenomenon. The beauty industry has impacted this shift with filters focusing on the ‘ideal’ physical image. Baker exposes that this has led to social media brands partnering with cosmetic companies (p. 211). Creating this financial relationship has impacted the wider society, with an expectation to remain consistently airbrushed and perfectly contoured as we appear online. Accompanied by overexposure to celebrities who airbrush their paparazzi images (p. 212), these sponsors and brands who use the filter partnerships aim to emphasise fun and creative product showcased. However, due to the age and mentality of most users, these intentions are not received and rather attributed to vulnerable and poor mental well-being and self-image (p. 212).
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Have you ever used a filter to improve your physical appearance?
yes
no
Additionally, scholars such as Rettberg (2017), explore the repercussions of filters in a society so addicted to “selfies” that we could become blinded to the potential biometric surveillance and automated recognition of facial algorithms (p. 89-90).
Khalid's 2020 article identifies the trend in dissatisfaction with CCTV biometric recognition. With the main concern for the ethics of this surrounding identification during protests. Khalid explores makeup that works to defy biometric recognition seeing individuals attempt to stray regain elements of anonymity that have been entirely lost within the mass use of AR filters. Rettberg concludes Dazzle makeup is “specifically designed not to make humans appear more beautiful to each other but to fool surveillance cameras trying to identify human faces in a crowd,” (2017, p. 90)
CV Dazzle makeup's creator said it won’t trick today’s sophisticated facial recognition algorithms. Experts said there are other steps prote
References:
Barker, Jessica. (2020). 'Making-up on mobile: The pretty filters and ugly implications of Snapchat'. Fashion, Style & Popular Culture. 7. 207-221.
Khalid, A, 2020, ‘‘Dazzle’ makeup won’t trick facial recognition. Here’s what experts say will’, Digital Trends, 5 June, viewed 30 1 May 2023, <https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/cv-dazzle-makeup-facial-recognition-protests/>
Rettberg J.W. (2017) 'Biometric Citizens: Adapting Our Selfies to Machine Vision', Kuntsman A. (eds) Selfie Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Well, T, 2023, ‘The Hidden Danger of Online Beauty Filters’, Psychology Today, 23 March, viewed 2 April 2023, <https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/the-clarity/202303/can-beauty-filters-damage-your-self-esteem>