The ‘Instagram vs. Reality‘ battle continues, and blogger Sara Puhto is back to fight for the latter. She continues sharing side-by-side pics that reveal how much a certain angle or sucking in your belly can change the way you look in an Instagram photo. Sometimes the difference in her uploads is so striking, it’s hard to believe they’re the same girl.
“I’m sure we’ve all had that feeling where you’re feeling cute at the beach but then you sit down and all of a sudden feel insecure and don’t know how to sit without … feeling … too exposed,” she wrote. “Nobody is judging you and even if someone was then that’s a reflection of their inner insecurities, not yours.”
With hashtags like body confidence, be kind to yourself, and progress, not perfection, Sara is telling the world that beauty starts within.
However, people are revealing quite a lot with their photo manipulations posted on Instagram. Even if they’re trying to conceal things. Including depression.
Andrew G. Reece and Christopher M. Danforth examined Instagram data from 166 individuals, as well as asking whether or not they had a diagnosis of clinical depression from a mental health professional. Then, they applied machine learning tools to identify markers of depression. The researchers examined 43,950 participant Instagram photos using colour analysis, metadata components, and algorithmic face detection.
The results conclude that photos posted by depressed people were bluer, greyer, and darker. Also, these folks were less likely to use filters. However, when they did use photo editing tools, their most popular filter choice was Inkwell, which makes everything black and white. Interestingly, when the machine gave a depression marker, it was right about 54 per cent of the time. For comparison, unassisted primary physicians correctly make a depression diagnosis about 42 per cent of the time.
