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Posting Posed Pictures on Social Media

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anniecpotts
anniecpotts Posts: 5 Member
edited January 2022 in Debate Club
A lot of fitness influencers will post pictures and videos showing off their amazing progress. I have nothing against this but then they will fail to show what their bodies look like in a natural light which can give some people the wrong idea of what working out can achieve. This is also not addressing how genetics play into your physique. I personally have nothing against this and I think it's ok to flex since these people have earned it through immense work but my sister has said that it bothers her greatly. I was wondering what you guys think?
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  • anniecpotts
    anniecpotts Posts: 5 Member
    edited January 2022
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    This is only applicable to influencers who never post their body in any other light than when it is posed and flexed!
  • Hiawassee88
    Hiawassee88 Posts: 35,754 Member
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    This slick marketing technique goes back to the first fashion magazine published in 1867. Filters and airbrushing sell copies. Polished and perfect images have become the norm. Barbie Dolls are unrealistic, too.

    The most magnificent art in the world supersedes photos and those wrinkle free images are flawless. Painters created their idea of beauty. We'll have to throw everything out with the bathwater if we want to rid ourselves of perfect and idealistic visions of beauty.
  • SuzySunshine99
    SuzySunshine99 Posts: 2,984 Member
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    It's very common for people, especially "influencers" to digitally alter their photos using photoshop or filters.
    I wouldn't assume anyone's social media photos reflect reality.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
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    Read the book "Looks Can Kill" which is all about the lengths that many "fitspo" influencers go to to get those photo-perfect shots.

    It's known to be bad for your mental health to spend too much time looking at "fitspo" so I just avoid it.
  • AlanM_1974
    AlanM_1974 Posts: 40 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    Yeah, I think Xellercin has it right. If it bothers you, don't look.

    This.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Doesn't bother me, but I also don't pay attention to such nonsense. Everything about social media is fake.
  • KristiiAly
    KristiiAly Posts: 40 Member
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    What bothers me is the “no excuses” mantra. I like the fitspo!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,164 Member
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    I know pretty much what I want my life to be like, have no use for the general run of professional "influencers".

    If I'm following anyone, I'll seek out serious, credentialed, accomplished coaches/trainers/teachers for my particular sports/activities, solid (RD-type) sources of nutrition information, degreed physical therapists, and that sort of people.

    I resent the effect that some of the popularized influencers have on naïve, vulnerable young people, though . . . the influencers who are pretty much all about false advertising, claiming that their 6-week program (or whatever) will get followers looking like them, when they've clearly been doing much different training methods for years, then using every posing/lighting/photoshopping trick in the book to look a certain way. It's morally reprehensible.

    (We see those young people here on MFP sometimes, wanting to get the booty of someone whose bendy woodwork shows she got hers from photoshop, or the arms of someone who's clearly been strength training since youth, or the uterus-free abdomen that most of us women can only get with photoshop, surgery, or both. Sadly, they think they can achieve those things in short timespan by buying whatever the influencer is selling, then are broken, feeling like a failure, when it doesn't work.)

    Adults well post-adolescence, with a little more world experience, are on their own to figure this stuff out: Follow it or don't. I'll stay in the "ignore them" camp.
  • ciaoder
    ciaoder Posts: 119 Member
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    A lot of pharmaceutical help being passed off as hard work and whatever supplements these people are selling. “Just link to the coupon code in the description below “, right? Oh… and don’t forget to smash the “like “ button and subscribe for more great content!
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,365 Member
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    SuzySunshine99 wrote: »
    I wouldn't assume anyone's social media photos reflect reality.

    Exactly. But I'm jaded and cynical like that. :D Since I'm not a big consumer of social media anyway, I'm more upset about cosmetic companies using 22 year models to try and sell me wrinkle cream. Yeah, I see through that ploy too.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
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    kenlchrzanowski wrote: »
    A lot of pharmaceutical help being passed off as hard work and whatever supplements these people are selling. “Just link to the coupon code in the description below “, right? Oh… and don’t forget to smash the “like “ button and subscribe for more great content!

    Yep. A whole lot of "eat clen and tren hard" going on in the fitspo space.
  • threewins
    threewins Posts: 1,455 Member
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    If someone wants to show off their body, good for them.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    This is not specific to fitness content. Scrolling through social media is *kitten* because most of the time you're sitting on your couch being lazy scrolling through a feed of other people's "highlights." People only post photos when they have their hair/makeup done and they're posing just right, they only post photos of their homes when they are immaculate and tidy, they only post photos of their families when they're out doing something fun and exciting, etc. I feel like it's widely known that social media is bad for our mental health. The best thing you can do if you feel like it's having a negative impact on your life, is to stop using it.

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