
Instagram Face: The rise of selfie make-up and quest for hyper-perfection (2018) - AndrewBissell
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5c237a34-7a47-4deb-a5b4-a23e77cc88f7
======
smacktoward
The key takeaway here isn't that "Instagram face" exists or what it looks
like, but that it's a product of two factors: the emergence of less invasive
plastic surgery techniques, and of software specifically dedicated to
producing these faces. This being HN, the existence of the software is the
really interesting bit.

It's called FaceTune:

 _> FaceTune, which was released in 2013 and promises to help you “wow your
friends with every selfie,” enables even more precision... “I think ninety-
five per cent of the most-followed people on Instagram use FaceTune, easily,”
Smith told me._

It's a phone app. More information is available here:
[https://www.facetuneapp.com/](https://www.facetuneapp.com/)

Click the "watch video" link on that homepage to see a good visual example of
what the software can do. (Warning in advance, the video has an obnoxious,
loud techno soundtrack. Mute the tab before you hit play.)

~~~
nostromo
My favorite FaceTune example:

[https://www.instagram.com/p/BmnSLiIF-
Rl/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BmnSLiIF-Rl/)

~~~
guelo
Warning: if you click that link on some browsers it will remove your back
button history by opening a new tab and killing the previous one.

Instagram is aggresively user-hostile and if you work there you should feel
bad.

~~~
hellisothers
When did it become ok to target individuals who work at companies? The last
week I’ve seen an uptick in these attacks on HN, they come off as very “I’m
better than you” SJW’y, totally oblivious to a person’s situation.

Let’s not turn this into a thing people do.

~~~
sincerely
I mean, as a society we agreed "I was just doing my job" isn't any sort of
ethical defense about a century ago. It really just comes down to whether or
not you support what these companies do.

------
spyckie2
I remember being a popular, outgoing, friendly kid from kindergarten until 5th
grade when I got my first pair of glasses.

The glasses were not fashionable, and I went from being popular to being an
introverted and isolated kid for the next 15 years. I eventually ditched
glasses for contacts and suddenly became outgoing again.

While having glasses wasn't the only factor for my behavior, there was a
noticeable difference to people's reaction to you based on how you look. I
consider myself confident regardless of appearance, but I have to admit that
the activation energy required for being sociable greatly increases when you
don't have the right look.

Many people don't have high levels of confidence from within themselves and
outward affirmation influences them a lot. Even if you have high levels of
internal confidence, you'll still feel the dopamine of affirmation noticeably,
and there's definitely a temptation to fall into milking that affirmation to
very unhealthy levels.

Affirmation is not the same as social acceptance, but they are close proxies.
Many people seek after social acceptance and mistake social affirmation for
it, leading us down the wrong path.

But social acceptance cannot be pulled out of people; it must be pushed. You
can compel someone to compliment you, but you can't compel someone to accept
you. Instead, active communication of acceptance is a trait that needs to be
fostered in our culture in order to have a healthier society.

------
userbinator
Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I can't say I find "Instagram Face" to be
attractive at all. It looks ridiculously unnatural, and evokes the same
feeling as those ultra-SEO'd mostly contentless sites that flood search
results.

~~~
addicted44
I wonder if that's true for people who end up spending more time on Instagram
than elsewhere, and start finding the IG Face to be more "natural" and get
weirded out when they see people with wrinkles and stuff.

I'm assuming here that "natural" is a result of what you (and I, since I feel
similarly) are just used to.

~~~
wreath
> and get weirded out when they see people with wrinkles and stuff.

Well someday they will have to look around them and see people with
wrinkles... in real life.. unless they are too hooked to their phones to even
realize this.

~~~
dwighttk
AR facetune will save them.

~~~
zo1
You probably said that tongue in cheek, but that's probably where we're
headed. People value their social media intensely, and the combination of the
two will naturally happen as a consequence of VR/AR becoming ubiquitous in our
lives.

~~~
filoleg
A bit of a side-topic, but I believe there are even more interesting
consequences/applications of future AR when it comes to looks.

Why bother with only "fixing" certain things about your looks, whereas you can
look like something/someone completely different? With AR advanced enough, I
believe we will get to the point of multiple "realities" overlaid on top of
the real one, which opens doors for so many interesting possibilities and
applications. Don't like that pesky skyscraper blocking view of the lake from
your apt? Luckily, there is a reality server you can subscribe to that has it
removed. Or another reality server that acts like ad-block for real life.

When the AR tech matures and gets in the hands of an average person, I expect
life to change in such a crazy way, that changes brought by wide smartphone
adoption will look like a tiny blip in comparison.

------
JMTQp8lwXL
I one time let a friend edit a photo, blurred my skin, etc and posted it to
social media, and it got way more likes than any of unedited, unfiltered
photos. I never edit photos (rarely do I post any for that matter) but man
that was a real disappointment.

There's no question social media has to be bad for our self-image.

------
brenden2
I've really improved my happiness ever since I uninstalled these apps (IG,
Snapchat, etc) and never looked back. I suggest everyone do the same. They get
you hooked on a dopamine drip feed, instill feelings of inadequacy, and
otherwise do nothing to improve your life.

~~~
turc1656
Good for you. I never had any of those types of services except for Facebook
and I never used that much at all. So, I don't know what it's like to "unplug"
in that regard, but I can imagine how much it must suck to be in that spiral.
I think in addition to the dopamine addiction, there's also some sort of
neurotic or narcissistic aspect to it as well for many. I see it all the time
with people everywhere. Women on the bus are constantly on all of that shit
taking selfies. Like, who the fuck needs to see you making a wannabe cute/sexy
face on the bus on the way to work? And that, amazingly, isn't limited to just
women in their 20s, but it does trend heavily to them.

I'm married but the concept of dating in this modern world is terrifying to
me. First thing I would do would be to lookup a woman on social media to see
if she's one of these crazies.

~~~
to1y
I think it's funny how 90% percent of these 'selfies' are taken in bathrooms.
Used to be you went to a nice place and took a photo to show where you went.
Now I think the average selfie taker doesn't even realize they are in a
toilet, it is completely self focused. There is a fitting metaphor in there
somewhere.

~~~
usrusr
The way I remember early selfie culture is that it actually started in places
like bathrooms and only spread to include location later. But those details do
not matter, the real story is how bathrooms apparently became places of public
representation.

~~~
agustif
All bathrooms usually are private places in the house + have one or multiple
mirrors, real selfies weren't made with a second lens/selfie mode in your
smartphone before 2008 lol

------
brootstrap
my little sister is (or wants to be) one of these, my wife watches them on
instagram. I heard one woman talking about 'instagram brows' and she was just
so fucking excited about how great her face and eyebrows looked. Here is this
lady with the face (i've never heard it coined like in the article but I know
it) and she has (tens?) of thousands of folks staring at her reinforcing the
vicous cycle. More views, more facial contours, more stimuli, more ads, more
money, more searches, more ads, more views

~~~
faissaloo
I've found it subtly unnerving and in some way boring how women are beginning
to look exactly the same, it's almost like something of comparable virality to
the whole flat minimal UI design meme now exists in fashion.

~~~
nemo1618
To grossly generalize: Differentiation does not benefit females in the way it
benefits males. Being "average" is a safe mating strategy for females, but not
for males.

~~~
woodruffw
The existence of persistent cultural tropes around “not being like the other
girls” is at least one piece of evidence to the contrary.

~~~
jetrink
I think that comes from misogynistic stereotypes concerning personality
traits. "Women, ugh, they're all so x. Not you though, you're different."

~~~
silveroriole
Funnily enough I only ever see women using the phrase to shit on other women
for not staying in line. Woman actually likes tech/cars/whatever and doesn’t
like makeup and fashion? Ugh, she thinks she’s “not like other girls”, she’s
looking down on us, she’s just trying to impress men.

------
TrackerFF
There's so much fakery going on, you'd might as well just assume that what you
see is not real.

See
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagramreality/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Instagramreality/)
(Warning: may include slightly NSFW images)

~~~
firecall
Thats a decent sub that generally mocks terrible photoshop work for Instagram!
LOL

The pinched waist with huge ass look... done badly!

------
unsignedchar
Related story in the New Yorker today:
[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-
age-o...](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-age-of-
instagram-face)

~~~
malingo
The author of that piece, Jia Tolentino, has a collection of essays called
Trick Mirror. This quote pretty aptly describes the transition to the social-
media-driven internet:

“At ten I was clicking around a web ring to check out other Angelfire sites.
At twelve I was writing five hundred words a day on a public LiveJournal. At
fifteen I was uploading photos of myself in a miniskirt on Myspace. By twenty-
five, my job was to write things that would attract, ideally, a hundred
thousand strangers per post. Now I’m thirty, and most of my life is
inextricable from the internet, and its mazes of incessant forced connection —
this feverish, electric, unlivable hell.”

------
xandyalexg
I think the most interesting thing here is the comparison between these hi-
tech options we've got now (FaceTune, cheap and low-invasion surgery) and
their lower tech analogues (ie. makeup, haircuts). These hi-tech options may
be way more quotidian 10/20/30 years down the line - according to the article,
the stigma around the procedures is already diminished to the point where
celebrities are willing to promote it. It still doesn't feel like something
I'd want for myself, but it's not hard to imagine a reality not too far off
where this becomes much more common, especially considering what we know about
the positive correlation between conventional attractiveness and
fame/money/career advancement.

------
dirtyid
There's an analogous drive for men in western masculinity with the resurgence
in gym culture and elevation of muscularity in media, particularly driven by
physiques portrayed superhero franchises.

We're rapidly shifting from Brad Pitt fight club "ottermode" bodies into some
bignorexia territory. Though, it's much more self limiting, since you can't
simply "buy" a well built physique, even with drugs unless you're an
exceptional genetic outlier. It still requires years of dedicated training and
continued maintenance. Though the fact that steroids are scheduled drugs makes
pursuing these standards literally illegal in many countries, which is a
separate topic altogether.

~~~
0x8BADF00D
It depends on the person, but many people’s bodies tend to be catabolic which
makes gaining muscle hard - the so-called hard gainers. These males also tend
to have feminine qualities in facial structure. TRT will probably help those
individuals more w.r.t to muscle gain than steroids. Or RHGH.

~~~
dirtyid
I think somatypes like hardgainers have been debunked, the explanation being
that predominantly, these folks are habituated to not eating enough, GOMAD
etc. There's edge cases of medical conditions or training non-responders
though.

My main point is that western aesthetic standard for muscular men is
increasingly moving towards more mass to the point where most individuals are
below the bell curve for what's attainable naturally even with consistent
training. It's reaching a point where achieving these bodies require either
both elite genetics and conscientiousness, or good genetics and
conscientiousness and illegal drugs. It can't simply be bought by 30k worth of
plastic surgeries.

Theoretically most men can diet themselves down to Brad Pit fight club,
there's an attainable amount of muscle mass, the trick is mostly diet and fat
loss, which may still be prohibitive for some. But much less men can be Chris
Evans Captain America, or more obviously the Rock. At some point drugs enter
the picture. There's also VFX that adds muscularity in these productions, so
we're also dealing with filters at the end of the day, but most people do not
know that muscularity is just as easily edited in live action as facial
features or de-aging.

~~~
adrianN
Habitually not eating enough sounds like something that can be influenced by
genetics.

~~~
dirtyid
Everything is, but in terms of factors, eating enough is more within control,
i.e. the excessive GOMAD prescription, gallon of milk a day. Mostly diet
genetics becomes an consideration when you're at the extreme ends of weight
goals, like dietting down to unhealthy bodyfat levels or trying to cram 8,000
calories a day to maintain in the heavier weight classes (250lbs+). Compared
to genetic propensity for gaining muscle or one's training response,
conscientiousness to train consistently - eating habits for most "hard
gainers" is current diet + a few spoonfuls of peanut butter a day.

------
naringas
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus)

~~~
reedwolf
The concept in comic form: [https://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-
stimuli/](https://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/)

~~~
nemo1618
Here's a weird idea: is music a supernormal stimulus? I mean, I listen to
music constantly, every day, and I become irritable if I must go without music
for long periods. It would not be a stretch to label this an addiction.
Furthermore, music does not exist in our natural environment. You might
protest that birdsong qualifies as music, but even granting that, birdsong
bears no relation to the highly rhythmic, bass-heavy music that humans seem to
prefer. Where did this preference come from? And if music really is a
supernormal stimulus, is that necessarily a bad thing? Can a supernormal
stimulus be morally neutral, or perhaps even good?

~~~
samatman
It depends on what your threshold is for supernormality.

I would say no; bone flutes are among the oldest human artifacts, we may have
been making music for as long as we've been using language.

There is, on the other hand, a clear supernormal 'vibe' to pop music, which
has been tuning in since the 80s. If you look at the waveform of a
contemporary pop song, it looks like a brick: everything has been compressed
and condensed to fill the available audioscape.

------
kiwifan
The one comment that stuck out to me in this article was the coworker who said
she felt anxious whenever she saw the author of this article. Personally I am
not someone who likes to wear a full face of makeup on a daily basis but the
pressure to do so feels more present every day. A lot of this is because you
never know when you will be photographed and end up on any social media
platform. Even simple tasks like heading to the grocery store seem to require
at least some mascara and eyebrows drawn on.

------
dwighttk
I saw a similarly titled article in the New Yorker[1] twice before seeing this
link. For some reason that author saw fit to only use words (outside of a
drawing at the top of the article) to describe the effect which did nothing
for me. Kudos to this author who actually included pictures.

[1] [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-
age-o...](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-age-of-
instagram-face)

------
mensetmanusman
People use to strangle their feet to keep them small in order to be attractive
for men. This is harmless by comparison?

~~~
Cougher
One of the trends that's directly related to "this" is the trend of getting
plastic surgery. That's a pretty ugly, disastrous road.

------
welluu89
I just don't think this kind of thing is good for anybody. Thinking, that a
perfect face and body can exist or even should is unhealthy. It adds up to a
lot young people, who are still trying to figure out, who they are and trying
to get comfortable with their own bodies.

------
friendlybus
It's supposed to be a veil you unveil to those you want closer in your life.
That's part of the fun, getting to know people better. The idea that you have
to become the veil you are projecting out is the illness.

------
enriquto
The "before/after" images are uncanny! Before, she looks like a normal,
approachable person; after a scary seller of shady stuff that you would
nothing to to with.

------
ebg13
Because it's The New Yorker, there are no photos in the article. So if you're
hoping to learn what "instagram face" actually looks like, you'll have to dig
somewhere else.

~~~
Crazyontap
I think this BBC article about the same is good for people who need the actual
visuals:

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5c237a34-7a47-4deb-a5...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5c237a34-7a47-4deb-a5b4-a23e77cc88f7)

~~~
dang
Ok, we'll change to that from [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-
review/the-age-o...](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-
age-of-instagram-face). Thanks!

