Snapchat Case Study

Photographs express a lot about who we are as individuals, yet is it an accurate reflection if the photograph has been altered to a certain extent? The use of personal photography rocketed with the launch of iPhone, which revolutionized every aspect of an individual’s life. With the introduction of the front facing camera many users started to capture their faces in order to share it with the public online. The rise of this self - representational phenomenon led to an increase of self-consciousness of one’s facial features. Consequently, the use of the face filters has become a norm. The use of filters is so prevalent in contemporary culture that many teenagers refuse to post any photos of themselves without any type of tampering with it. However,

In the case where in America, 24.5 % of children for ages up to 11 and 83.4% of users from ages 12 to 17 use Snapchat (“US Snapchat”), many of these individuals grow up with developing perceptions of beauty based upon these filters. Therefore, what the filters are trying to communicate to its users is very important to scrutinize. Since, these filters enhance the images using western standards, many of these children, specifically girls, will acknowledge only specific types of beauty to be acceptable if it fits the Snapchat created standards. This is evident in Davide Marengo’s article, “Highly-visual social media and internalizing symptoms in adolescence: The mediating role of body image concerns”, in which he states that “girls tend to seek a thin figure, in line with the socio-cultural model of aesthetic perfection in force in western society…”, and, when such ideals are not achieved, many of these girls develop dissatisfaction with their body(Marengo). Further, Marengo conducted a study to investigate the correlation between ‘high visual social media (HSVM)’ like Snapchat and Instagram, and body image issues among adolescents. Their study concluded that adolescents that use visual social media “express significantly greater dissatisfaction with their body image and report greater levels of emotional symptoms” (Marengo). Therefore, these filters could abet in creating insecurities within young girls when they are not able to identify their real image with their filtered digital version of themselves. Having low self-esteem can be detrimental to mental health as well. Simons Johan from the University of Psychiatric Center, states in his article “Impact of Mental Health Problem on physical self-esteem” that low self-esteem can lead to psychiatric disorders (Johan). Thus, there is a potential for there to be a rise in the girls