In today’s digital age, social media plays a major role in the development of adolescent minds. Young people begin posting content in their early years and are exposed to a feed of others’ pictures and videos. However, while this system may ostensibly help people stay in contact with those they do not see in person, it also creates an environment of comparison that can lead to self-esteem and body image issues. Beautification technology like augmented reality filters and photoshop have only exacerbated the issue, making it so that young people are not only comparing themselves to a curated version of others, but an entirely manufactured one. Engineers have a responsibility to examine the possible negative effects of the products they create, and beautification technology leads to far more harm than good.
View More Artificial and Unreal: The Ethics of Beautification Technology for Images and Social Media
