40 Times People Noticed Instagrammers Who Edited Their Pictures So Much, They Exposed Them Online (New Pics)

The rise of selfie culture has changed the ways we perceive beauty beyond recognition. It has blurred the lines of what’s real and fake, of what’s natural and purely fictional. When heavy photo editing and filters came to social media, at first, everyone was just messing around.

Now, kids as young as ten are airbrushing their selfies with ready-made augmented-reality face filters that often sharpen, shrink, and enhance their faces and bodies. But the result is often anything but pretty. And now, many social media influencers are being busted for using these filters to alter their identities and create fake personalities.

It’s no secret that some go as far as pushing this fakery to its very limits, and this is where the community r/InstagramReality steps in. “It’s unbelievable how some people get away with it while others don’t!” the subreddit writes on its page.

Let’s see some of the worst offenders below, and after you’re done scrolling, make sure to check our previous posts on Insta vs Reality here, here and here.

#1 This Model Makes Herself Look Easily 25 Years Younger And It’s Crazy

#2 You Can Barely See Her Nose

#3 Will Never Understand The Appeal Of Little Head Syndrome

We reached out to Erin Alyssa Vogel, a social psychologist and senior research associate at the University of Southern California. Her researches involve adolescent e-cigarette use, social media and digital health, and tobacco use disparities in the LGBTQ+ community.

“Influencers are under a lot of pressure to make themselves and their lives look perfect. Most people who use social media try to portray themselves in a positive light, by posting about good things that happen to them and posting their favorite photos of themselves,” Erin explained.

However, for influencers, the pressure to look perfect is even more pronounced, she said. “Their appearance is part of their brand. Face tunes and filters can help them achieve the perfect look. I wouldn’t say face tunes and filters are ‘addictive,’ per se.”

“But when people get used to seeing only filtered photos of themselves, they may start to really dislike their natural appearance, and continue to use filters,” she added.

#4 He Has One Sky That Follows Him Around Everywhere He Goes. Amazing How Its So Consistent!

#5 My Friend Met This Girl And She Looks Nothing Like This

#6 Body Positivity So Strong It Caused A Tsunami

It’s no secret that the addictive face filters, heavy photo editing and other appearance enhancements that are so popular these days on social media often do more harm than good. “Filters help create and enforce unrealistic beauty standards,” Erin stated and added that “For many years, we’ve been exposed to airbrushed and highly edited photos of models and celebrities.”

“Now, with social media, we see filtered photos of our peers too. It’s easy to forget that the other person’s appearance is not actually flawless. We may compare our real appearance to other people’s filtered appearances and feel worse about ourselves as a result. Also, if we only see filtered photos of ourselves, our natural appearance in photos may start to look strange and wrong to us.”

#7 What She Posts vs. A Screenshot I Took From A Video

#8 She Can Touch The Sky With Those Legs

#9 Hi Humans

We also spoke to Helen Egger MD, a child psychiatrist and co-founder and Chief Medical and Chief Scientific Officer of Little Otter. “We’ve always had the challenge of images being filtered and doctored to make unrealistic measures for what beauty looks like,” she said. But filters on social media take it to the next level, “because it’s not just seeing an image of a celebrity who is unrealistic and measuring yourself against that person, it’s measuring your real self against a pretend image of yourself.”

According to Helen, “Edited images receive positive reinforcement from likes and comments, which serve as a dopamine hit. You like the feeling and want to do it again, which feeds on itself.” Meanwhile, “Face filters use algorithms to reinforce a certain standard of beauty that is very narrow. It doesn’t support individuality, it supports conformity with what’s the standard of beauty, which is worrisome.”

“In some cases, this can turn into body dysmorphic disorder, in which you are convinced some aspect of your body isn’t good enough. It becomes a fixation, an obsessive worry that often leads to anxiety, social isolation, eating disorders and seeking out cosmetic surgery,” the child psychiatrist concluded.

#10 Tagged vs. Posted. She Actually Looks Really Good For 72 Y/O But Can’t Help Herself With The Photoshop

#11 Intestines ? Never Heard Of Them

#12 Saw This A While Back… Thought I’d Post It Here

#13 Makeup Is Truly Amazing. It’s The Nose For Me

#14 It’s Like A Mask

#15 Don’t Understand How Someone Can See This As Anything But Straight Up Scary

#16 When Your Shadow Looks More Realistic Than You. Seriously, Bellies Don’t Need To Be Fixed

#17 Came Across On Pinterest. It’s On A Clothing Website. When Your Arms Are Bigger Than Your Legs

#18 Iger Compares Editing Before And After

#19 Claims It’s All Makeup And Expensive Wigs

#20 I Don’t Even Know Where To Start

#21 What Am I Even Looking At

#22 This Side Profile Is…

#23 Found One On A Dating App…

#24 Does Anybody Else See The Purple-Ish Rectangle Around Her Head In Both Pictures? Also, The Proportions Just Seem Off

#25 I Don’t Think This One Needs Explaining

#26 Aight

#27 Excuse Me?

#28 Her Eye Edits Make Me Uncomfortable

#29 Spotted On Tinder

#30 Instagram vs. Youtube, Ma’am, You’re Lying To Yourself

#31 Finally Spotted One In The Wild On Tinder

#32 He Has An Onlyfans Where I Can Only Assume He’s Photoshopped A Giant Dong As Well

#33 She’s My Current Favourite From The Show She’s In But The Ig vs. Reality Isn’t Adding Up

#34 Instagram Picture vs. Livestream

#35 Hard To Believe It’s The Same Girl

#36 Those Grocery Shelves

#37 Loves Those Curves On The Door

#38 Gray Halo All Aroun’! Or Floating Buttocks’?

#39 I Absolutely Love This Brand And Have Bought From Them Many Times, But How Dare You Have Fingers That Bend? Feeling Like I Don’t Fit In With All My Joints

#40 Photoshop? Filters? Surgery? Yes

#41 Instagram vs. Press Pic

#42 I Don’t Even Know What To Say, This Is Absolutely Hilarious

#43 Thumbnail vs. The Actual Video

#44 There Is A Lot Going On Here

#45 This Is Honestly Terrifying

#46 Taken A Few Days Apart – Insta vs. Press

#47 Female Body Builder Meets An Nba Player At The Gym And Thinks That No One Will Notice The Extreme Leg Photoshop

#48 I’m Just Tripping On The Arms In Each Picture. There’s A Lot More Going On But Just Can’t Get Over This. The First Picture Had Over 2k Likes

#49 Sooo I Was Shopping For Shorts

#50 Dislocated Hips And Cartoon Faces Are Trendy On Insta Now!

#51 Instagram vs. Paparazzi

#52 Not Instagram, Still Entertaining

#53 Infamous “Fitness Model”

#54 Can’t Imagine Why The Comments Were Limited

#55 Because God-Forbid Our Lips Have Texture

#56 Her Beauty Is Otherworldly, Literally

#57 What She Posted vs. Photos From The Event

#58 Wow

#59 Edward Scissorhands

#60 Her Poor Friend…

#61 At First I Thought I Clicked The Wrong Video

#62 Fitness Model Transformation

#63 I Know This Family Is Low Hanging Fruit But..

#64 When Your Diet Makes Your Waist Disappear

#65 Poor Guy Donated His Calves For Her Quads

#66 What The Singer On The Right Posted On Her Insta vs. The Same Picture In The Club’s Page

#67 It Almost Doesn’t Look Like The Same Person

#68 Do Nails Count? Because These Are Awful

#69 That’s Just Weird

#70 Those Damn Mirrors And Glasses On A Shop’s Ig Page. Don’t Ever Buy From Brands That Endorse This Type Of Thing

#71 Proportions? Never Heard Of Her

#72 Not A Line In Sight

#73 When You Forget To Send Him The Edited Pic…

#74 Guys Triceps Are So Large That Light Itself Bends Around Them

#75 Been Trying To Convince My Cousin That She’s Just Using Filters On Her Photos And Videos. Cousin Finally Found A Video Of Her Unfiltered Posted By A Guy She Did A Collab With