In an age of vastly improved technology, deeply ingrained social media habits, and a generation struggling to get stable jobs in a failing world economy, Youtube and Instagram have easily become one of the quickest earning avenues for millennials. Effectively monetising their hobbies and basic interests, large accounts on both these websites have made it a plausible career option for those who enjoy sharing what they’re good at and being interactive with people all over the world. In today’s world, having social media influence can easily earn you tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds and millions.
But while this unique method of earning quick cash has become beneficial for those in front of the lens and behind the camera, it has had a range of effects on those who hit the like and subscribe button from the touch of our screens. Specifically speaking, younger audiences who look up to these influencers and consider them a standard to live up to.
YouTubers and Instagram beauty/lifestyle influencers are quickly achieving celebrity status that would’ve been unpredictable fifteen years ago. What started off as verified accounts, reviewer status and partnerships, has turned into becoming the face of fashion brands, starting their own beauty lines, selling merchandise with their USP, and having fandoms of their own.
given the amount of money that most of these influencers earn, the affordability of the look they’re selling is skewed.
Celebrity status, however, obviously leads to being placed on a pedestal and constant adoration, even emulation, from impressionable fans. It comes with the responsibility of putting fair and realistic content – especially on a medium that is not the same as selling a fictional story like with movies or television shows. These influencers are not paid actors, but real people who are trying to prove that the lives they depict are their real, achievable lives. This not only creates an odd standard to live up to, but also borders of false representation of what an average lifestyle should look like.
Take, for example, the trend of beauty gurus (on both YouTube and Instagram). These gurus are sometimes either trained, or self-proclaimed experts who have practiced the art of make up for years. Unfortunately, although their work is definitely admirable as an art form, it is also common for some of them to falsely advertise what their real skin looks like. Given that this is a money making practice, the kind of treatments they have access to allow them to indulge in skin care procedures that give the wrong idea of what natural beauty is.
In 2017, Wayne Goss, a popular make-up guru on YouTube did an exposé video explaining the lie behind YouTubers who use filming techniques to create a “live Photoshop” on their skins. While it’s fairly common for these celebrities to use the “It’s only good lighting” explanation for why their skin looks flawless, his video actually showed how easy it is to add a live filter while filming videos.
It’s bad enough that this filter is used by some artists while filming make-up looks, selling the idea that such perfection is achievable by using expensive products and practiced techniques – it’s even worse when used by skin-care YouTubers who put the filter on their bare face and sell the idea that it’s possible for make-up-less skin to look pore-less, blemish-less, and lacking texture.
Image Source: Youtube / Wayne Goss
YouTubers like J MAYO were accused, by fans, of using skin filters in skin care routines – what is essentially supposed to be an entirely authentic video given the content. Love halssa was accused of using make up and slight filters in her skin care routines instead of showing what their authentic skin looks like. LovingLifewithJudi uploaded a video around the same time as Wayne, showing exactly how different a make up tutorial and the end product can look by simply adding a filter.
Whether any of these YouTubers are using the filters they’re being accused of using is a matter of drawing inference on your own – chances are those who want to use them discretely would be unlikely to admit that they do. But that doesn’t change that many of them still use creative filming techniques – like excessively bright lights, slightly out of focus lenses, blurring backgrounds (which also blurs the sides of the face) – in order to appear more flawless.
It also doesn’t change that there are tons of people in the comments willing to splurge the amount to acquire the exact same products and equipment to look similar, all without knowing for sure how much of it is natural.
Later in 2017, Kaushal from Kaushal Beauty did a similar video where she showed her viewers how different her skin looked under different camera settings (she has also previously made videos giving honest advice on how and where to get laser hair removal and eyebrow micro-blading done, so that any viewers inspired to approach technicians know how to do it right).
It shouldn’t be coming as a surprise to anyone that adding skin filters on a live video is possible, given how we all use Instagram and Snapchat filters on our daily clips and posts. Yet, we buy into the belief that this is what actual perfect skin looks like because there is no official “production” value in the way that movies, magazines, and music videos have. The illusion that is created because these are somehow more “real” people simply because they film from their home and on a regular camera – even sometimes their phones – forces our minds into thinking that those facial perfects are achievable even if it’s not possible.
Twitter is filled with selfies of people with their “highlight popping” despite the obvious use of Photoshop to add a glow, Instagram has far too many posts with #NoFilter that aren’t true, and Snapchat continues to use filters that lighten and modify skin – to the point of being racist