I scrolled through my apps after reading the Meitu article to see how many picture editing apps I have, in which I have about eight for strictly editing. This does not include apps like Instagram or VSCO that are also social networks with an editing feature. Out of the original eight I only use one or two regularly, but still, how many editing apps does a person need? I guess I can blame my love for photography, because as a photographer it is normal and almost expected to edit your digital pictures. I find it sad that we feel the need to enhance every picture we take, because it starts to make true life feel lackluster. If we always need to increase saturation and contrast to make our pictures more dramatic, what does that say about the world we live in?
These days with the accessibility to all these apps, it seems like everyone is a photographer. You scroll through Instagram over spring break and you see a lot of similar looking girls posing on similar looking beaches with similar looking swimsuits, all edited to enhance the colors and overall mood. You scroll through Tumblr and everything screams teen angst, VSCO and everyone becomes "artsy". A few years ago I idolized girls who posted pictures of their coffee or a book of poetry, a delicious looking croissant, or ice cream cone. All their pictures had a similar filter over them, giving them a more cohesive mood. But over the years I have realized no matter what filter is used, these people's Instagrams have morphed into the same thing. Where is the originality?
I too am guilty of posting things to my Instagram because they look "aesthetic." But what makes it unhealthy is when we lose ourselves in our social media. Everyone is quick to blame social media for everything wrong with society, but we still all use it. Why? Because we want to update our followers, whether we have 100 or 2,000 of them, that our lives are great. I find this common especially in college because we have to make sure all our high school acquaintances know we are #THRIVING.
If you've followed my blogs, you know I rant and go on tangents. Today my main idea/theory/argument is that we are losing our originality because of our desire to be like the successful people we see on social media. The same me that idolized the girls who posted their artsy pictures tried to be artsy to be like them. Now my Instagram is more me, I don't care as much about fitting a specific mood.
But I will probably still always take pictures of my coffee.
I really liked what you said about editing photography as well as selfies. I am a (super) amateur photographer, and I edit all of my pictures. Sometimes, editing is required because I just don't have the skill yet to take a picture and make it look how I see it in real time. Sometimes, it is because I want the picture to look a particular way based on something else I have seen elsewhere. Is this my own originality or a repackaging of someone else's?
ReplyDeleteAlso, your point about how even though most everyone points an accusing finger at social media for all of our problems, people still have it! I think this gets into the desire for connection that humans have. We want to have a "pack". Social media has allowed us to connect with a larger number of people and stay connected.
I found this interesting as I don't often think about editing from the stand point of a photographer. It is crazy the ease and abundance of ways there are to edit/filter/Photoshop/change a picture. Some of the changes you can make are quite impressive and cool but you are right about questioning the originality of things. I think many people assume that many pictures that people post online are probably edited in some way.
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