Here again, I find myself talking about Snapchat. Recently, Snapchat has come out with new filters. Users can “face-swap” with their pets, throw up a rainbow, take on a new persona, or, you know, just thin and perfect their faces. I’m going to be honest – I use the perfection filter from time to time. I mean, it makes my eyes bigger and thinifies my cheeks and gives my skin a flawless glow. It allows me to send a triple-chin snap, while still flaunting flawless skin and Zooey Deschanel eyes.
When the perfection filter made its debut, it was pretty exciting. I had friends joking, “Even Snapchat thinks I’m ugly,” and “This filter makes everyone look prettier than they actually are.” It is kind of funny, but its also another scheme perpetuating this idea of the model female – big eyes, thin, flawless skin, you know the deal. Snapchat went even further to create another filter in which people can swap their faces with others in their camera roll. It calls for some solid "lol" moments, but I started to see a trend. It is the Kardashian effect, if you will, where women, including myself, swap faces with Kendall Jenner and Kim Kardashian. There is the occasionally face-swap with Rob Kardashian or Kanye, but more often than not, it is a swap with sisters.
The captions associated with the face-swaps typically follow like this, “When dreams become reality.” “This filter makes me want plastic surgery.” “Life goal achieved.” Or “When I die remember me like this.” All fun and jokes, and maybe it’s not something I should dig too deep in because it is just fun.
However, perfection is not obtainable. We search and search for the secret serum. We think we've found it in filters and clever captions that match our untainted skin. The imperfections are hidden - no one can know that we have breakouts or a hint of a double chin from a cheeky smile. But those imperfections are our stories, they are inescapable. They follow us as we shame ourselves and our stories because they don't line up with what we post.
We force our lives to fit into square dimensions; the edges pristine and the lines arrow straight. Our lives though are without pristine edges and lines. Our edges are blurred and our lines have breaks. Those are the moments of growth, the moments of unfiltered living, yet too often these are the moments we are too shameful to admit.
