Who Are We Editing Ourselves Into?

00:01 Yesterday, I saw

00:02 an interesting image in a group chat.

00:05 It described a joint study by

00:08 PolyU and Sichuan University.

00:12 If I remember correctly,

00:14 the study was called

00:18 Achieving Your Best Self: How Socio-Economic Variation

00:24 and Cultural Values Shape Digital Beauty Trends.

00:29 It mentioned that

00:32 women in regions with lower GDP

00:35 were more likely to edit themselves

00:38 to look pale, youthful, and slim,

00:42 with large eyes and round faces,

00:46 as well as fairer skin.

00:49 But women in regions with higher GDP

00:53 tended to edit their photos

00:55 in ways that preserved their appearance.

00:58 The study suggested

01:00 that regions with higher GDP

01:04 may be more open to different cultures

01:08 and diverse standards of beauty.

01:11 Therefore,

01:12 women in those regions

01:13 may more easily accept how they look.

01:16 But in regions

01:19 with lower GDP,

01:21 perhaps due to competition for resources,

01:27 people need to move

01:31 toward places with more resources.

01:34 So women may use their appearance

01:36 as a competitive advantage.

01:40 When I saw that screenshot,

01:42 I felt it matched quite well

01:46 what I had once observed

01:49 in my own hometown.

01:52 I'm a woman

01:54 from a Tier 5 city.

01:57 After graduating,

02:00 I worked there for over two years.

02:03 During that time,

02:05 there were women around me

02:06 whom I thought were very beautiful.

02:10 Even without makeup,

02:11 I thought they were genuinely beautiful.

02:13 But after taking photos,

02:16 they would retouch them.

02:19 And after the retouching,

02:21 the resulting style

02:23 looked so different from them

02:25 that they seemed like another person.

02:29 Their faces would be edited to look...

02:38 I don't know how to describe the style.

02:41 "Pale, youthful, and slim" comes close,

02:45 but it doesn't quite

02:46 capture the difference I perceived

02:51 between their photos and real appearance.

02:55 So the screenshot reminded me

02:57 of things I'd noticed back home

03:01 that had really shocked me.

03:04 I rarely take selfies.

03:08 Partly because I feel

03:10 I'm genuinely not photogenic

03:12 and not pretty.

03:13 So when I take photos

03:14 with my friends,

03:17 I'm quite...

03:20 I wouldn't say resistant.

03:21 I just avoid photos whenever I can.

03:25 And if my friends want to edit a photo,

03:29 I tell them,

03:30 "You can brighten my skin a little,

03:33 but please don't alter my facial features.

03:37 Don't change things

03:39 like my chin,

03:40 my eyes,

03:41 or anything else."

03:43 Because I think

03:46 I may be very sensitive to such details.

03:49 Once the photo no longer feels like me,

03:53 I don't want other people to see her.

03:58 People who know me

04:00 know what my face looks like.

04:02 If I posted a photo

04:04 that had been heavily edited,

04:07 I'd feel intensely uncomfortable.

04:11 My own standard is that

04:15 whether it's how I look in real life

04:17 or how I present myself online,

04:20 if the two look different,

04:22 I feel deeply uncomfortable.

04:24 By "different," I mean

04:26 making my chin look sharper,

04:28 making my eyes look larger,

04:30 or perhaps

04:33 making my nose bridge look higher.

04:36 Even these slight changes

04:39 make something feel wrong,

04:42 improper.

04:44 It's something like

04:46 needing consistency in my appearance.

04:49 I set a high bar.

04:50 I don't want the image to look unlike me.

04:59 I don't know.

05:00 Although when I record videos,

05:03 I do use one of the app's templates.

05:10 It definitely brightens my skin,

05:13 but overall,

05:14 the contours remain very faithful to my real face.