Filtered SM images that look like different people

[StrawberryDream24]

Can someone explain to me the thinking behind people (in this case I think it's entirely women) using images of themselves on FB that are so heavily filtered (and sometimes out of date) that they look like completely different people?

Does anyone else find this mind boggling?

I mean, anyone who knows them in person;; knows they don't look like that.

Are they getting gratification out of thinking people who don't know them in person or haven't seen them in person for a long time ...believe they look like that (?)

Are they not embarrassed that people who know them or who've seen them recently will look at the images and think "wtaf, you don't look anything like that?" or "Who is that?" ?

Is this some sort of delusion?

(Examples;

I was introduced to a young relative's girlfriend a while back - whose FB profile had been popping up on my "people you may know" since she started seeing my young relative and friended his family on FB.

I was completely non plussed and had to hide how confused I was, because the FB profile image that had been popping up was (and still is) of a tiny, thin young woman with bleached hair, posing in mini dress; but I was introduced to a v curvy young woman with brown hair who even facially appears to look nothing like the young woman in the FB profile image.

For a moment I thought he must have ended things with the young woman in the profile and gotten together with another young woman; except she had exactly the same name, and it's an extremely uncommon name, I had to assume it was the same person and was just left with trying to hide my non plussed expression.
The FB profile pic still seems to be up, so it"s definitely her.

Another young woman I know as an acquaintance (though she's not as young as my relative's gf) posts heavily filtered images of herself on Facebook regularly.
They don't look like her. They look like a different person. (She's generally posting saying she e.g. got a new hair cut and apparently prompting comments/compliments).
This is an intelligent young woman with kids, who's doing a masters and building a career.

I just don't get it.

There's trying to look your best but then there's posting images that look like a different person.

What's the point?

It fascinates me. I know some people who aren't their social media photos.

Is this some kind of psychological phenomenon?

I hardly use SM but would be embarrassed or would feel like it would be farcical to post images of myself that don't actually look like myself.

Or do they convince themselves that the images do look like them? (Or that because it's their "base" image, it's always technically them no matter how heavy a filter they put on it?)

About 70% of the men in my company have a work profile picture that’s about 20yrs out of date. Most of them look absolutely nothing like they do now!!

I think a lot of people who are on social media like to play around with filters, guess it’s a cheap and cheerful way of experimenting.

Well, for me the one that springs to mind is the the woman awaiting trial for smuggling ….. prison has clearly taken its toll already judging by the mug shot.

maybe this will do for filters what the Peru 2 did for hair donuts….?

It's bizarre.

One of my Facebook friends posted such a heavily edited/filtered photo I thought it was a joke but she got lots of replies saying she was beautiful. She was almost unrecognisable.

At the largest company I worked for, they got a photographer to take everyone's photo every couple of years, so there was no opportunity to use an out of date photo.

Does "experimenting" include actually posting images of you so heavily filtered that they look like a different person and then prompting compliments?

To me, I guess experimenting would be trying filters at home and larking around, not posting them publicly (when they don't actually look like you).

Is it not just like wearing make up? Some people wouldn’t post a photo unless they were fully glammed up- good makeup, flattering outfit etc. In their trackies with a bare face and a pony tail, unrecognisable.

I’d assume they feel they are giving themselves a glow up, posting their most flattering self. ‘This is what I look like on my best day, don’t I scrub up well?’, type of thing.

My mum thinks that ‘self respect’ requires always looking your best, only going out with full makeup and a well chosen outfit. Otherwise you’ve ’let yourself go’.

It’s the same concept I suppose.

The Daily Mail love to put up the pouting, ridiculously filtered photos from sm. Usually next to an awful, real life picture of the same person leaving court.
I read it for the lols. 😂

My neighbour does this.
She is a lovely woman but posts a new profile picture every few weeks and each time, by the use of (completely obvious) filters she looks about 20yrs younger than she actually is and people are gushing about how beautiful she looks, how youthful etc.
I think she definitely does it for gratification.

In their trackies with a bare face and a pony tail, unrecognisable.

No offense but I'd have to disagree.

People are almost always recognisable as the same person even without makeup and in casual clothes.

They might look very different, for sure. But rarely do they not look like the same person.

The two examples I gave; if I didn't have the name of the person on their profile; I wouldn't guess who they are. I'd just say "I don't know them".

I don't get the trend for massive lips and filler cheeks that a lot of young women seem to be into but then again I'm sure every generation of young people baffle older generations with their fashion choices.
As for filters, I don't post them on social media but I do edit them.
As an example I'm just back from holiday and I used face tune to make my hair thicker, teeth a shade whiter, sizing to drop a dress size.
I don't do it to the extent of some people but once you start playing around with them apps it's so easy to make yourself look better, I know it's silly and insecure but so what?!?

I recently watched someone taking a photo of themselves for a visitors pass
they did it 4 times to get a nice picture - WHY??? It’s small and blury and they are looking at your achual face in the meeting

same for ID passes who cares what it looks like I had a friend who turned it around on her lanyard all the time ( it was fine) I was looking at her face the whole conversation
bonkers to be so vain

dating apps are the same I’d rather have a nice but recognisable pic that someone likes the look of rather than some disappointed when they meet me

It's like some bizarre social ritual of delusion.

(And the photo posters are essentially taking advantage of people's politeness & kindness by prompting them to go along with the delusion).

Either that or it's reciprocal, so the commenters expect/get it too on their filtered images.
But it tends to be the same people always posting and the same people commenting.

Also, is it really good for (genuine) self esteem to post images that don't reflect how you really look, and be complimented and validated on them?

My cousins wife does this to all her photos
Including the ones with him in them
Unfortunately she blurs them so much they lose all their features.
Cousin is bald.
Hes now known in the family as Humpty Dumpty as in every photo he looks like an egg with a drawn on face.

I find it odd too. I have a ‘good’ pic but it’s unfiltered and recent. The kind people who know me would think ‘oh - she was having a good day’, not ‘who the fuck is that?!’

Lol

I find it bizarre, but I am also fascinated.
I have younger relatives who do this. It's a mix of insecurity and attention seeking. They feed off each other.

My neighbour (which I mentioned previously) never leaves the house without being fully made up but when she then heavily filters her (frequent) profile pictures, she is totally unrecognisable from the person I speak to when we go into each others houses.
I wonder if I am about the only person outside her immediate family who knows what she really looks like?

It’s weird. Surely it just emphasises your age or blemishes more when one comes face to face in real life? I don’t do OLD but if I did I’d be annoyed if the person who turned up looked nothing like their photo.

I find it really odd too. My brother used to edit his photos so ridiculously, he looked like an animated character.
What I don't get is, how do you get over the fact that people who meet you in real life after seeing your heavily doctored photos on SM will be underwhelmed os disappointed? I'd hate to meet someone who met me and secretly thought, "She isn't what I expected!"

I think it's sad enough that so much focus (for self esteem, validation etc.) is on appearance ..... But when the the appearance is fake; it's even sadder and really moves into the realm of farce.

It couldn't be good for people's mental health.

I used to have a small business where most of my orders came in from social media and the customers would pick up the items from my home - the shock I'd get when I opened the door to see someone who looked nothing like their profile pic.

It was also bloody annoying at busy times when I might have multiple people coming to the door on the same day and having to ask them for their name rather than being able to identify them by their picture. Even more so when I had 4 Emmas and 3 Courtneys coming to collect and none of them were recognisable!

Or confused; because the person doesn't look anything remotely like their photos.

With my young relative's GF, I honestly felt like I was in some kind of surreal real life play where one of the actors had been swapped but I was meant to not notice and continue as normal.

I think a lot of people don't know what they really look like. I see it all the time on here "Why do I photograph so badly when I look fine in real life?". If you take that a step further and "correct" photographs to match what you think you really look like, then you end up with a photo that you think is only showing your best self, whereas to others it is unrecognisable.

I read an article the other day which showed realistic and filtered pictures of a missing child's mother, and it made me think about the importance of being able to accept and deal with reality rather than choosing to live a lie. In that case I think the increasingly (and blatantly) deceptive pictures of herself probably reflect an inability to look honestly without discomfort.