How Photoshop Gives an Unrealistic Expectation on Body Image

Photoshop apps are gaining popularity within the social media community. Celebrities especially are manipulating their photos. It creates a dangerous mindset among teens and giving them unrealistic expectations about how they need to look in order to look ‘good’. Psychologist, Sarah McMahon, wrote, “it leaves everybody else thinking they have no chance at all at looking good... the message it sends to people is that there’s always room for improvement and people can always be thinner” (Sullivan, 2014). The article shows a picture of Kim Kardashian showing off her body and, in the background, the door is curved, showing that Kim slimmed her waist and stomach to look smaller and her breasts to look bigger, dragging the door frame along with it. “So, people are comparing their realistic offline selves to the idealized online selves of others, which can be detrimental to well-being and self-evaluation” (New York Behavioral Health, n.d.) New York Behavioral Health is trying to say that comparisons with unrealistic pictures is a negative effect of social media.

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An experiment was conducted on the effects of manipulated photos on adolescents. Kleemans, Daalsmans, Carbaat, and Anschütz got 144 girls of different ages to come and look at some pictures. The test subjects were shown a series of photos. A set of manipulated photos and a set of unmanipulated photos. They then made them take a survey with (1) totally disagree to (5) totally agree to a series of questions like, “I often compare how I am doing socially (social skills, popularity) with other people”. It showed that the girls agreed more with the survey questions when they were shown the manipulated photos. The results showed that exposure to manipulated photos leads to lower body satisfaction. The experimenters talk about how the girls didn’t even noticed that the photos were manipulated and that they even liked those photos better than the unmanipulated ones. They said, “girls in both conditions reported to find the pictures realistic” (Kleemans, Daalmans, Carbaat, and Anschütz, 2016).

#photoshop #manipulation #concernsforbodyimage #unrealisticexpectationsonbodyimage