Picture Perfect

Malini Agarwal and Zahra Khan On Beauty In The Age Of Instagram Filters

- Zahra Khan

AS I WRITE THIS, there are over 256 million posts tagged #selfie on Instagram, and another 156 million as #beauty. You don’t need to be a mathematical genius to deduce that that’s a lot of hashtags dedicated to digital vanity.

In the age of social media supremacy, it has become increasingly natural for us to meticulously police images of ourselves online. I’ve never thought of myself as high maintenance—I go makeup-free on vacations, and can usually get dressed in under 20 minutes—and yet I know all my good angles, have perfected the selfie ‘smize’, and have preferred Instagram filters.

And I’m not the only one. Vanity has exploded on an epic scale in our virtual lives.

My trusty iPhone has changed how I smile, how I perceive myself, and how conscious I am of how others see me. You might choose to dismiss me as a member of a supremely vacuous generation, but let’s be honest: Nobody is immune. Just last week, when I was at a restaurant with friends, I overheard someone say: “No, don’t crouch! You’ll give me a double chin!” to a waiter who had offered to take a photo of a group of diners seated nearby. Admittedly, it was terribly narcissistic behaviour, but hilariously enough the waiter didn’t balk. Clearly, he was used to art direction.