Social media awareness: Image manipulation

With the on-going debate about image manipulation and maybe even more about "everyday people" influences aka bloggers I thought it would be a good time to write something myself  about this.

The Norwegian blogger Caroline Berg Eriksen was recently caught for manipulating photos of herself after claiming that she doesn't and it started the debate about bloggers expectations and duties, and how much they affect people.

As Eriksen is a fitness and lifestyle blogger I don't find it okay at all that she manipulated herself thinner. The fact that she hands out eating and training tips/schedules makes this so serious, because people, mainly young impressionable girls, sees her and believe that is how you should live and are fooled into thinking she actually looks like that. The truth is, I wouldn't have thought it was so serious if she blogged about something like fashion or beauty, since they are not handing out tips that affects our health.

But seeing this coming out into the media should make people think about media awareness. Most people know ads are manipulated, and in magazines and so on. But are we prepared for the bloggers? Since bloggers essentially are regular people we generally feel more connected to them, and it makes it easier to forget the filter they can put on them self and the editing available.
Even a photographer amateur with free (Not pirated) programs can easily edit reality! That girl on facebook, your daily bloggers and that boy on instagram, they can do whatever they want.


Here I'll show you an example of a book I did a post of recently, and trust me, all my friends can say under oath I am not a particular good editor,

Before

After

This was more innocent looking to fix the lighting and background, but imagen what it can do with eye colours, lip size and waists? 

All in all I think we should remember that bloggers are just ordinary people, and ordinary people aren't unknown for concealing their life these days, so next time you feel awful, remember, it can be photoshop!