According to a recent study of social media users in the UK, a whopping 71% of them said they won’t post an unedited picture of themselves online.
54% said they prefer to touch up imperfections on their skin, nearly half admitted to editing their faces to create a sharper jawline and higher cheekbones, and 46% noted that they’ll edit their arms in photos when they’re unhappy with the way they look.
All of this obsessive editing creates a vicious cycle of comparing ourselves to other people’s equally edited photos, and then feeling the need to keep up appearances by using more and more filters and apps to fit in with the rest of our feeds.
It’s no secret that editing has gotten out of hand on social media, but it’s still a topic worth bringing up time after time until the compulsion comes to an end.
That’s why TikToker Holly Cockerill won’t stop calling out how fake social media is.
Over the past couple of years, Holly has been sharing videos online showcasing just how easy it is for people to edit pictures beyond recognition and portray a false version of themselves on social media.
We’ve covered Holly’s videos once before, about a year ago, but as she’s continued spreading her message of how fake social media is, we’ve decided to share even more of her photos with you all down below.
We were also lucky enough to get in touch with her via Instagram, so be sure to keep reading to hear Holly’s thoughts on this topic!
Holly is a social media creator, makeup artist and support worker for people with learning disabilities who is based in Blackburn, England. And lucky for us, she was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda via Instagram about how this series came to be. The last time we spoke with Holly, she shared, “I enjoy making people laugh, so I started making funny videos on Tik Tok,” she said. “But I had a passion for makeup, and that’s why I created my makeup page. That’s where my ‘Instagram versus real life’ videos are.”
When asked what inspired this particular video series, Holly told Bored Panda, “Social media is fake. Don’t be fooled.” She then explained that the idea appeared after she posted a few photos years ago where she had visible acne. She noted that those pictures received a positive response, so she decided to create more and more content on the topic of exposing social media.
Holly also understands how hard it can be to resist the urge to compare yourself to others on social media; none of us are immune to that temptation. “I’m guilty of always scrolling through Instagram and seeing ‘perfect’ selfies with the perfect life, and it made me feel so bad about myself. I’d constantly compare myself to these fake images,” she previously told Bored Panda.
“I then started seeing accounts showing celebrities and popular influencers on social media versus real life, and I couldn’t believe the difference.” That’s when Holly started creating her own ‘Instagram versus real-life’ images. “It made me feel so much better after I had girls message me saying my posts were helping them, so I continued to do them,” she shared.
This time around, we wanted to first check in with Holly and see if she had any major updates to share since the last time we interviewed her. “Since we last spoke a year ago, I feel as though more people are calling out the fakeness!” Holly told Bored Panda. “I’ve seen a lot more videos like the ones I do. I still see people use the editing app, but it’s still an improvement I think!” she added with a laugh.
We also asked Holly if she thinks social media will always have these heavily edited photos or if the trend will die out eventually. “I hope the trend will die out eventually, but realistically, there will always be people using it to feed their insecurities,” she shared. “Social media is a big platform for people to make a lot of money on, so if, say, a beauty influencer makes money off of her (edited) pictures, then I doubt they would stop.”
When it comes to what Holly would say to anyone who feels the need to heavily edit their Instagram pictures, she told Bored Panda, “I would say to really start working on yourself and learn to love everything about you. Even your flaws. It’s what makes you, YOU. If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place. People would probably respect you more by showing your real self instead of lying to everyone. You would also probably start to learn to respect yourself too.”
“And as I always say, never believe everything you see on social media!” she added with a laugh.
We also asked Holly if she believes there is a healthy way to use social media. “I would suggest unfollowing people that make you believe you aren’t good enough and make you question yourself or your life,” she shared. “Start following more people whose posts make you feel better and good about yourself. I started following accounts of girls who had acne when I was younger, as I suffered with it too, and it made me feel so much better.”
Holly previously told Bored Panda that she understands how damaging these photos and filters can be on impressionable audiences. “These young people look up to influencers and want to be like them or look like them,” she shared. “And if those influencers are using an app that changes everything about themselves, then it’s making normal people question why they don’t look good enough.”
“People start to hate themselves, which then can cause serious mental health problems,” Holly continued. “They are comparing themselves to life like ‘avatars’ that don’t even exist, and it’s scary. Young people will get surgery to look like their idols, when really, those idols don’t even look like they portray themselves online.”
“Everyone has flaws, texture, scars, etc., but seeing perfect images all the time makes you feel like you shouldn’t,” Holly previously shared with Bored Panda. “It’s dangerous.”
“I’ve seen a lot more people talk about the fakery on social media, and I’ve started to follow accounts that make me feel better and happy instead of following those that make me question my self-worth,” she noted.
“It’s so refreshing to scroll through Instagram and actually enjoy it again. If more people showed their true self, then more people would relate to it.” Holly also added that she has hopes that the pressure to look perfect all the time will soon go out of style.
We hope you’re enjoying this reminder that you really never can trust everything you see online. If you ever feel the temptation to heavily edit your pictures, remember that it’s better to look like yourself than some false version that no one else would recognize in real life. Keep upvoting the pictures that you find most shocking, and then let us know in the comments how you feel about editing photos for social media. Then, if you’re interested in checking out even more of Holly’s content, you can find our previous article featuring her right here!
