Social Media and Images: LJ5

 Images are a powerful tool that have transformed social media. With the rise of Instagram came the photo-sharing phenomenon. Suddenly everything could be captured in a single click. This only furthered over time that has even led to social media platforms that are primarily video platforms allowing for a use of photos. TikTok is a great example with its slideshow feature that allows users to swipe through pictures. However, referencing Instagram once more, eventually came filters. Filters allowed you to change your image in a unique way. Now not only could you share your images with the world but you could tweak them. This lead to insecurities and beauty standards being exploited to find the best picture. Realness came out of the picture in exchange for the digital currency of “likes.” This worsened when monetization and advertisements became more of a phenomenon on these platforms. The readings really emphasized these points and showed just how powerful social media can be. Now the perfect ad campaign can be captured right at your phone with your favorite celebrity endorsing the product. On the other side of this, there are many images that have been altered for the sake of evoking fear and entertainment. If you wish to look at yourself as a cartoon character, then it can be done! This has led to a number of controversies. Instagram was notably labeled the social media platform that was the worst for mental health due to a study. This was only driven further by the number of eating disorders and mental illnesses perpetuated by the social media platform. Even to this day, almost every popular Instagram influencer uses some sort of color-altering or photo-tweaking tool. However, I think TikTok can be considered a better photo-sharing platform due to the decreased focus on photo-sharing content. Most of the time, many of the images have a lot of text or are less about the person looking attractive. Whilst of course, there will be much bias and issues it is important to note how they differ and see if anything can be done to improve Instagram’s system.