Good news for all the broke college students out there. Instead of putting your money towards plane tickets, hostels, and tourist attractions, try investing in Adobe Photoshop instead. At least, that is what one Dutch student did: Zilla van der Born convinced her friends and family that she had been backpacking through Southeast Asia for five weeks, when in reality she had never left her home city.
From posing in a local Buddhist temple, to snorkeling in her apartment complex’s pool, van der Born used Photoshop to convince all of her Facebook friends that she had been traveling the world for five weeks. Van der Born was inspired to conduct this scheme as part of her university thesis, but her intentions for doing it go far beyond just getting a good grade.
She wanted to prove how easy it is to distort reality using social media. Van der Born states, “Everybody knows that pictures of models are manipulated. But we often overlook the fact that we manipulate reality also in our own lives.”
Despite van der Born’s particular “fakecation” getting international attention, the truth is that a majority of society has taken part in similar fabrications.
While some of us are certainly better at doing it than others (reference the photo below for proof), it appears that this generation can no longer resist exploiting the advanced features of today’s technology to enhance the way others view them online.
Regardless of the kill involved in creating these illusions, the truth is we don’t need another article arguing how society manipulates social media to give off false appearances to others. Instead, let’s look at it this way: By augmenting reality, your manipulated photos of over-saturated sunsets and filtered selfies are taking away from the true identity of this era.
Many of our grandparents grew up at a time where only black and white photos existed. Many of our parents used Polaroid cameras that produced low-saturated, low contrast photos. Even many of our older siblings grew up with that vintage, unsharpened look that displayed the time and date the photo was taken in the bottom right-hand corner. These photos were accurate depictions of those generations’ lifestyles. The difference between then and now is that photography for most people then was a 2-step process: Take the photo and print it. Today, we have adopted an additional step in between those two: editing. Too many people use this middle step to manipulate a photo to the point that it isn’t an accurate depiction of reality.
Technology has given us the tools to essentially time travel with our photos. Going for that throwback, early '90s look? Throw a vintage filter on it. Going for that futuristic, new age look? Saturate that photo ‘til it looks like a coloring book. But, what about a modern look? What does a typical 21st century photo really even look like? This process of distorting reality online has hurt the identity of our generation and caused us to lose touch with our present reality.
I understand there is a dilemma between making a photo look as good as possible and preserving the actual reality of it, but it’s time we balance out where our photos fall on that spectrum. When you look back on your photos 10 or 20 years down the road, you are going to want to remember that moment for what it was, not what you wanted others to think it was.
I'll leave you with this: Did van der Born fool us any more than we already fool each other?
Reach the columnist at ralynch3@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @ryguy916
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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