Social media has dissolved the distinction between the celebrity and the everyday, and the separation between online and lived experience is blurred. The public broadcast themselves using the same tools and platforms as models, actors, popstars and brands,and it’s a shift that continues to shape visual culture. Research by Dove revealed that 63% of women believe social media is influencing today’s definition of beauty more than print media, film and music. 

 But how? A new visual language is being written to express aspiration, success and attractiveness. With all lives conducted in the public eye, celebrity has become more real – and in turn, reality has become more celebrity-like.

As a generation of digital natives comes of age, their self-editing skills become more sophisticated – and the desire for a glossier, more forgiving, or even a more complex image of reality intensifies. What does beauty look like when perfectly-posed teen selfies jostle for space online with Beyoncé’s? And how do we communicate what makes us 

in just a picture? From no-make-up selfies to Instagram-filtered meals and lovingly curated Pinterest pages, nothing is too mundane to be edited and made perfect. And in a digital age that places authenticity at a premium, ‘Glossy Real’ is the order of the day.

When the iPhone launched in 2007, the line between real life and celebrity lives was still clearly demarcated. Celebrity remained either distant and impossibly glamorous, or tabloid-driven and sensationalist – either way, surface and vacuity were at a premium. But it was starting to sour. Post-recession sales of gossip magazines in the UK and US started to decline. 

 was accused of hitting "the lowest point in British journalism" for publishing a sticker mocking Katie Price’s disabled son. 

 A mid-breakdown Britney Spears shaved her head in front of hordes of paparazzi. YouTube blogger Chris Crocker’s tearful plea to ‘leave Britney alone’ became one of the first truly viral videos. User-generated social media was starting to nudge celebrity-driven media from its seat at pop culture’s top table.

The noughties had seen a public newly captivated by the appeal of real lives and real stories. 

, talent shows and docusoaps drove an explosion in the reality TV genre. With social media and the rise of the smartphone, this practice – watching other people’s lives for entertainment – spread outside of television to become the pre-eminent meta-genre of the mobile age. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter all offered voyeurism as entertainment and a superstructure structure for the performance of self – available constantly.

Structured reality expresses… a managed vision of reality and identity that reflects wider cultural changes – in particular, the rise of the transparent, ‘always-on self’ that’s the same at work, at home and at play

Now, the famous and beautiful use the same publishing tools as the public. Mail Online, the world’s biggest English-language news website, regularly runs stories off the back of the latest Instagram posts of Rihanna or Beyoncé. Celebrities have unprecedented control over their image, and the ability to create an illusion of intimacy. The result is a celebrity culture that rejects tabloid-overexposure in favour of a heady combination of glamour and ‘realness’. Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie didn’t reveal anything that wasn’t already being broadcast all over the world, but it briefly became the most retweeted tweet of all time. The sense that she was providing a sneak peek into the ‘real’ side of the most glamorous night in the world was a powerful one.

The original reality genre – reality TV – has also evolved to embrace a combination of authenticity and gloss,as a celebrity-infused social media has normalised the heavily edited and stage-managed performance of the self. The raw messiness of early reality TV has been superseded by the heavily stylised and stage-managed ‘structured reality’ of shows like 

 was first screened on British TV in 2000, it was partly rooted in the slacker genre of the 1990s,” writes Louise Jolly on Semionaut. “Reality was represented as baggy, loose and unstructured – about endlessly hanging out and discussing trivia. Structured reality expresses the opposite: a managed vision of reality and identity that reflects wider cultural changes – in particular, the rise of the transparent, ‘always-on self’ that’s the same at work, at home and at play.” 

Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars selfie helped people feel ‘closer’ to the celebrities at the awards

Narrative, as theorised by psychologist Donald E Polkinghorne, is an essential tool for fashioning self-identity; human being tell stories about their lives to turn the chaotic process of existing into a meaningful whole. 

 Over time, social media has evolved to embrace more of the narrative qualities. Facebook introduced its Timeline feature in 2001 – condensing life into a single, scrollable feed. In 2013, German ‘slow dating’ website im gegenteil launched, promising to capture its members’ true selves by employing professional editors and photographers to turn the awkward messy business of identity into one glossy, but authentic, package. 

 follows the last summer a group of teens spend together before college. It promises ‘#realkids in #reallife in #realtime’ and unfolds across multiple social media platforms – using the cast’s Twitter feeds as part of the official broadcast. This is social media as storytelling. Similarly, the tools available to document day to day life promise to make normal existence more dramatic, even epic. The Memoto camera, a wearable device that captures photos at thirty-second intervals has been rebranded as the ‘

’, and the best-selling camera in the world is currently the 

. Robust and wearable, its slight fish eye effect adds a sense of drama to lived experience.

Unlike early reality TV, ‘structured reality’ shows offer a heavily stylised version of life

Perhaps the ultimate visual expression of glossy real culture is the photographic filter. Popularised by Hipstamatic and then institutionalised by Instagram, the rise of the filter also coincided with the emergence of high-resolution and high-definition technologies. As reality media became not only ubiquitous but super sharp, the need to make sense of the glut of unedited, chaotic documentation – either narratively or visually – has intensified. “Digital is unforgiving in a way that the human eye isn't,” says Simon Dumenco from 

. “A 20-megapixel camera can detect – and bring into jarring relief – the laugh lines around even a 20-year-old's mouth.” 

 The desire to add a softening filter reality – even offline – has become compelling enough for Tens, a pair of wayfarer style sunglasses that add an Instagram filter to real life, to raise more than 3,000% of its crowdfunding goal to go into production. 

Digital is unforgiving in a way that the human eye isn't. A 20-megapixel camera can detect – and bring into jarring relief – the laugh lines around even a 20-year-old's mouth

As Dumenco points out, Instagram filters also rose to prominence just as outrage over photoshopping was reaching tipping point.

 The digital age is obsessed with authenticity. “The internet and a connected culture places a higher premium on authenticity,” says Seth Godin, “because if you're inconsistent, you're going to get caught.” 

 But where photo-manipulation is concerned, there’s often one rule for the brands and another for the user; adding a flattering filter to your own photo can be an ‘authentic’ and ‘creative’ act of self-editing – but when Ralph Lauren uses a digitally slimmed model to sell jeans, for example, outrage erupts over what is seen as a corporate lie. 

The Tens glasses give real life the Instagram-like filter that people are used to seeing online

“When you get into the virtual world, what ends up becoming status is really about attention and visibility,” says Microsoft researcher and author Alice Marwick. “It’s about broadcasting your messages out to an interested audience, and having those people respond back to you. To sort of become this micro-celebrity model, to become somebody who is looked up to by other people. And that doesn’t necessarily correlate at all with wealth.” 

Every day, 40 million photos are uploaded to Instagram – that’s ten times the total number of articles in the whole of English-language Wikipedia – and the dominant visual culture of social media is changing the way people expect photographs to communicate. 

 A greater demand has emerged for aspirational images that communicate more than simply economic power or unattainable beauty.

When you get into the virtual world, what ends up becoming status is really about attention and visibility

While these attributes are still powerful, in a ‘glossy real’ online culture, those who can use photography to express intrinsic values benefit from a boost of social capital. 

 is the beauty queen of social media. She may have model looks, but it’s her endless supplies of optimism and character that make her a social media icon to her five million followers.

The No Make-Up Selfies trend of 2014 started as a charity drive, but went viral by offering a way to post a carefully stage-managed version of a person’s ‘real’ appearance to social media whilst communicating intrinsic values. ‘I am beautiful, natural and real’ is the implicit message of the no make-up selfie posters, ‘and I am also modest and giving.’ 

Supermodel Cara Delevingne’s willingness to put ‘ugly’ selfies online creates a ‘human’ appeal

“To photograph people is to violate them,” wrote Susan Sontag in 

,“by seeing them as they never see themselves.” 

 The desire for a more flattering view of reality has grown as social media has exposed people to images of themselves and their peers online. Self-editing, whether through adding instagram filters or de-tagging Facebook photos, or carefully constructing an online life story, is a way of creating a more comfortable, glossy image of reality. And it’s a practice that’s more accessible and normalised than ever.

But as much as gloss is making a comeback, the desire for authenticity is driving an appetite for beauty and glamour packaged as something attainable and ‘real’. Brands are already resonating with consumers by using real people as models. American Eagle used non-professional models in its lingerie adverts, announcing that “These models have not been retouched. The real you is sexy.” 

 – chosen for their sartorial flair – and put them in a carefully stylised video and photoshoot with the tagline “We’re all at our most beautiful when we are being our true selves.” Both projected an attainable and aspirational combination of authenticity and gloss.

To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves

In a visual culture, greater demands are being placed on photography – and it’s now required to document, beautify 

convey meaning. “You get more explicit and implicit cues of people being happy, rich, and successful from a photo than from a status update,” says Hanna Krasnova of Humboldt University Berlin. 

As people look for ways to better project a sense of ‘self’ in this environment, self-editing practices are set to develop in interesting and unexpected ways. The ‘Ugly Selfies’ trend – largely spearheaded by teenage girls online and inspired by Cara Delevingne’s own Instagram gurning – could be a prescient one. It not only reflects a desire to push back against the pressure to look perfect, but also serves as an alternative way of communicating an authentic sense of self online. 

 They may not look like an airbrushed version of real life, but ugly selfies are another way of individuals taking control of their self-image. By turning ugliness into a joke, they place a gloss on the reality of imperfection. And in an ever-evolving digital culture, that gloss doesn’t always look the way we have come to expect.

: Managing your personal image and reputation.

: Welcome to the age of the micro-celebrity.

: Everyone has the potential to be a media channel.

‘Dove Short Film Embraces 'Selfies' to Redefine How We Perceive Beauty’

Gen Y (born 1982-1996)

Gen Z (born 1997-2010)

Beauty

Other

Behavioural sciences

Psychology

Communications

Mobile

Social media

‘Celebrity Magazines Post a Downturn in Sales’, The New York Times

‘Media Lifeline: Heat Magazine’, Campaign

‘Changing Realities’, Semionaut,

‘Narrative and Self-concept’ Journal of Narrative And Life History

‘im gegenteil: slowing down speed dating’, Canvas8

‘Instagram Is OK, But Photoshop Is Evil? The Truth About Digital Lies’, Advertising Age

‘Tens: The Real Life Photo Filter’, Indiegogo

‘Authenticity’, Seth Godin’s Blog

‘Ralph Lauren Apologizes For Image Of Emaciated Model: "We Are Responsible" (UPDATE)’, The Huffington Post

‘Alice Marwick: Full Interview Transcript’, rdigitallife

‘Instagram Reports 90M Monthly Active Users, 40M Photos Per Day And 8500 Likes Per Second’, TechCrunch

‘Size of Wikipedia’, Wikipedia

‘Why the ‘no make-up selfies’ campaigned raised £2 million’, BBC

‘On Photography’, Sontag S

‘Aerie's Unretouched Ads 'Challenge Supermodel Standards' For Young Women’, The Huffington Post

‘Selfie-loathing’, Slate

‘Ugly Is The New Pretty: How Unattractive Selfies Took Over The Internet’, The Cut

More than 60% of women believe social media is influencing today’s definition of beauty, more than magazines, film or music. But with Instagram filters and self-editing becoming the norm, what does this mean for those who are less than picture-perfect? And is actual authenticity a thing of the past?

Real emotion: the rise of reality culture

Thigh gaps and funeral snaps: the dark side of the selfie

BeautyPlus: fulfilling Asian beauty ideals

GoPro: turning a camera into content

What does a cool kid look like?

U.S. Taco Co.: Instagram-ready tacos

Instagram the world with your sunglasses

Campaining against "unnatural beauty"