Entertainment

Don't Compare Your Selfies To Kim Kardashian's

by Marenah Dobin

Maybe she's born with it, maybe she just used a filter and three different apps to edit her selfie. According to a source who spoke with Us Weekly, Kim Kardashian is using a particular free app to edit her pictures. Obviously, Kardashian is no stranger to posting photos on social media. In fact, her Instagram has reached the milestone of having 27 million followers. On top of that, she is actually publishing a book of her own selfie photographs called Selfish . Needless to say, the woman loves sharing personal photos.

The reality star is gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but she is not perfect by any means. Apparently, Kardashian uses a free photo editing application called Perfect 365. Plus, one of the latest Kardashian rumors was that she employs someone whose sole purpose is to edit her selfies for $100,000 a year. This is a story that Kardashian later denied through a representative.

Nevertheless, Kardashian has been called out by the photoshop police in the past for altering her "candid" Instagram photos. To be honest, I have nothing against her photoshopping any pictures. That is her prerogative. If she feels like altering a photo will help promote her personal brand or even lift her self esteem, then I think it's perfectly OK.

My problem is that many fans do not know the difference between what is "real" and what is altered. This distorted perception is what worries me. Fans should keep in mind that Kardashian is most likely editing her photos, and not compare their edit-free selves to her altered images. If a famous celebrity uses technological help, why uphold yourself to such a high standard without the same technological help? People need to recognize that seeing is not always believing and that we cannot compare ourselves to an image.

We need to realize that things are not always as they appear. We have all been in awe of model in a magazine — a different image than what photographers saw in person at a photo shoot. And similar to this, we should not compare ourselves to images of celebrities or anyone else on social media where, just like in a magazine, so many people are editing photos.

We need to take these technologies into account and realize that we are at a point where there is not a level playing field for comparison. When it comes to social media photos, we should have no desire to "keep up" in real life.