There’s a trend that always follows popularity. It is simple, the more you are in the top ranks the more people will take advantage. This means both in a positive and negative light. The selfie has become popular enough to gain that trend. Now-like with most photos-the selfie has fallen victim to image concerns.
To get to this conclusion-that the selfie could cause personal image problems-you need a couple of ingredients. You start with the selfie. These photos are taken by men and women, and some at impressionable ages. Once the selfie is taken, you need to edit the photo. There’s a new app that needs to be thrown into the mix. This app is called SkinneePix, the purpose of the app is to remove any weight added by the appearance of the photo. Once this is done, you will look skinnier. It could get even worse if you add online dating to the ingredients list but you can play with that idea on your own.
The company behind the app claims a different idea. Susan Green, co-founder of the company behind the app-Pretty Smart Women- had this to say about the reason behind the app, “Cameras add additional weight to photos when you’re taking a selfie [five to fifteen pounds] you’re also dealing with bad lighting, angles, close-ups and a lot of other factors that make people complain that the photo isn’t an accurate representation of themselves.” Though this may be true, the app is having many different affects on people. According to the other co-founder of the company, Robin J. Phillips, the app is working as a motivation tool to lose some weight. Others say this is causing image issues for people.
A social worker with eating disorders and addiction being her specialty at the Center of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto is stepping up to the plate with a different argument. “The majority of young girls wouldn’t develop an eating disorder because of an app like this, but some might be more vulnerable and it could contribute,” The idea is that starting with media as the hun. Skinny, beautiful women plastered everywhere thanks to Photoshop, gets the idea started. Give those impressionable women or men, the power to see what they would look like skinnier, and poof we have an eating disorder. However Green seemed to be prepared for this kind of argument.
Green says, “We definitely understand that people can have body image problems and we’re not trying to contribute to that in any way.” Green adds, “I think if someone who is very thin uses it and goes straight for 15[pounds], then that’s probably not the best thing, but they could also do that in Photoshop,” Which is most likely the argument everyone’s waiting for in this situation anyway. Photoshop is capable of doing the same thing. The difference is, it isn’t as easy as the app makes it out to be.
At the end of the day, this app is just another way for people to show themselves as they want to be seen. This could be an issue for some people. It’s solely up to you, the person using the app. Do you think that this app (and any other photo editing app) contributes to self-image issues? Is it possible that the self-image issue is already there and just intensified by the apps? You decide, and let us know down below, or on our G+ page.