Authenticity and

Social Media
Jodie Sanghera
N0698830
Fashion Design
Design Culture and Context
DCCT20001
Tutor- Peter Wright
 Living in an artificial world is challenging. With society
starting to latch on to the fact that the world is becoming
predominantly virtual, individuals are on the search for
something authentic. But how do we find something
authentic when mass culture has driven almost everything
to be reproducible?

The word authentic can be defined as something that is real,

true, or what people say it is (Cambridge Dictionary). My
interest in authenticity was triggered when reading Living
in an Artificial World by David Boyle.

“A revolution is starting that is going to

mean trouble for businesspeople and
marketeers alike, as their most conscious
consumers suddenly launch a determined
rejection of the fake, the virtual, the spun
and the mass-produced.” (Boyle 2004, p4)
Whilst technology is booming, people appear to fear the
virtual future that beholds us; it is daunting to imagine a
world where human interaction is no longer necessary, and
everything is accessible. Yet this arguably reveals a level of
hypocrisy from a great portion of society. The people that
are demanding authentic food, sustainable yet individual
clothing, and genuine interaction are also the same
 people that are buying from beast stores like Topshop and
McDonalds, using social networking sites like Instagram
and Snapchat to flaunt their ‘authentic’ lives through a
completely manipulated and filtered set of photos.

With regards to technology, the appeal of experiencing

things first-hand rather than spectating others do so
through a screen is becoming more appealing. Boyle
demonstrates this by using an anecdote where a group of
people are waiting for the solar eclipse.

“..there was just one voice remaining.

It was the wife of the man with the
hand-held TV. ‘Turn it off! Turn it off!
Experience it!’” (Boyle 2004, p2)
Having a television was a privilege in the 20th century,
seeing things that were never thought to be possible,
having everything you could want to see in the comfort
of your own living room, sat with your family. Fantasies
were becoming a reality on the screen in front of you.
Progressing from this virtual reality, it seems that now
most people know what is out there in the world, they want
to be able to experience it for themselves and they want
to be able to document the experience because without a
photograph how will one’s peers be truthfully informed of
their authentic and real experience?
Fig. 1. Elderly lady living in the moment at film premiere (2015),
photographed by John Blanding.
 Boyle states,

“The effect of an increasingly virtual world,

where nothing is quite what it seems,
has led to a growing clamour for what is
genuine and human.” (Boyle 2004, p12)
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why documenting on
social media platforms has become such a trend. The
closest we can get to authentic virtual reality is by showing
glimpses of our lives through an online identity, allowing
relationships to be built between people through their
phone screens. It’s crazy to think we can have a bond with
someone over the internet, not knowing a single thing
about their ‘real’ everyday life yet being able to see exactly
what they get up to, to the point where you can see who they
associate themselves with and where they choose to spend
their time. However, often enough our online personalities
aren’t a true representation of ourselves, they are filtered
and manipulated to simply show ‘the best bits’. Dominic
Strinati in Mass Culture and Popular Culture supports this
idea:

“It therefore tends to simplify the real

world and gloss over its problems.” (Strinati
1995, p13)
Fig. 2. Social media icon Kim Kardashian posing whilst reviewing
polaroid selfies (2018), posted on her Instagram

532 words
 What is possibly more authentic than a photograph? An
image capturing a second of reality, displaying a moment
of truth and aiding memories. Yet when I interviewed a
set of three young adults, having asked them previously to
bring a photograph of themselves that they have posted on
social media, I discovered otherwise.

“I was going to the beach with a couple

of friends, one of which studies media so
he brought his camera along. We all took
photos of each other, taking it in turns to
have our own taken, the aim was to get
some nice ‘candid’ shots. For this one
my friend was lying on the rug and I was
stood, just messing around until he got
a good selection. It probably took fifteen
minutes until we got a photo that I was
happy with.” (Participant 1)
Fig. 3. Set-up ‘candid’ photo (2017), posted on Participant 1’s
Instagram
 Photos are primarily taken so we can look back at them
and remember the day or event that corresponds. With
the world increasingly becoming more artificial, we turn
to photos in the hope of finding something that remains
authentic. However, the advance in staged photos means
that the purpose of having them taken has now been
altered, with the only memory behind the photo being the
drama of the shoot. Many individuals within society have
‘mini photoshoots’ where they have several photos taken,
often designed to look as though they’re natural. They are
then carefully selected, filtered, and manipulated before
being posted on social media platforms like Instagram
and Facebook. These photos are intended to make viewers
believe that the individual has a happy, care-free life. In
fact, no-one has an entirely happy and care-free life, photos
are simply used as a colourful armour to cover up what
really may have been an average day.

“It’s funny because this was taken right

in the middle of deadlines when I was so
stressed but the fact I’m laughing and in
an outside environment makes it look like
I’m dead happy and positive.” (Participant 2)
Fig. 4. False representation of emotion (2017), posted on
Participant 2’s Instagram
 Participant 3 showed me a photograph that they had
posted on Instagram. Unlike the photos Participants 1 and
2 chose, they brought in a photo that wasn’t intended to
look candid. When I asked why they like their photo and
why they chose that particular one they responded saying:

“It show’s I’m a little bit weird! It’s also

from a really bad angle but that doesn’t
bother me. I don’t really care about looking
perfect, I’m a real person and I want people
to see that.” (Participant 3)

Rather than attempting to create a photograph where they

look like they’ve been caught off guard, yet display an
element of happiness and fun, they have posed and tried to
show how they look in reality. The photo is authentic in the
sense they weren’t ‘acting’ or ‘pretending’ but on the other
hand it is still a posed image that I assume has been filtered
and selected before uploading for people to view.
Fig. 5. Posed photo (2017), posted on Participant 3’s Instagram
I agree with a large amount of Boyles’ statements regarding
the artificial world we live in, and how we are on the search
for something authentic. Having done primary research
into authenticity and the use of social media I see that
people are responding differently to this. Many people
use social media to display planned ‘candid’ photos of
themselves, hoping that peers assume they are authentic
and therefore offering a sense of realness that people are
demanding to see. On the other hand, individuals are
also offering a level of authenticity by taking photos that
might not be the most flattering, and instead show how
they genuinely are, again responding to the fact people are
wanting authenticity in the world. Everyone is on their
own search for authenticity, it appears people are finding it
one way or another, that is until technology and the virtual
world takes over completely.

479 words
List of References

Boyle, D., 2004. Authenticity: brands, fakes, spin, and the

lust for real life. London: Harper Perennial.

Strinati, D., 1995. An introduction to theories of popular

culture. London: Routledge.

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1. Elderly lady living in the moment at film premiere

(2015), photographed by John Blanding. [Online]. Available
at: www.eonline.com/news/703309/this-phone-free-old-
lady-has-reminded-the-world-to-stay-in-the-moment-
see-the-pic [Accessed 18th February 2018].

Fig. 2. Social media icon Kim Kardashian posing whilst

reviewing polaroid selfies (2018), posted on her Instagram.
[Instagram], 29 January. Available at https://www.
instagram.com/p/BejO55cl_tX/?taken-by=kimkardashian
[Accessed 21st February 2018].

Fig. 3. Set-up ‘candid’ photo (2017), posted on Participant 1’s

Instagram. [Instagram], 16 June. Available at https://www.
instagram.com/p/BVaEvRQB-QB/?taken-by=lucihulme
[Accessed 17th February 2018].
Fig. 4. False representation of emotion (2017),
posted on Participant 2’s Instagram. [Instagram}, 4
November. Available at https://www.instagram.com/p/
BbFdyv2lUaA/?taken-by=jacobpountney_ [Accessed 18th
February 2018].

Fig. 5. Posed photo (2017), posted on Participant 3’s

Instagram. [Instagram], 25 December. Available at https://
www.instagram.com/p/BdIeAh0HNmt/?taken-by=loo_
roll [Accessed 16th February 2018].

Bibliography

Books

Barthes, R., 2000. Camera Lucida: Reflections on

Photography. London: Vintage.

Berger, J., 2008. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin.

Burgin, V., 1982. Thinking Photography. Edition 2. London:

Macmillan.

Boyle, D., 2004. Authenticity: brands, fakes, spin and the

lust for real life. London: Harper Perennial.

Clarke, G., 1997. The Photograph. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.
Strinati, D., 1995. An introduction to theories of popular
culture. London: Routledge.

Magazines

Suited female in fashion editorial (2017), photographed

by Clara Balzary. From: Celine, 2017. Womenswear
advertisement. Dazed IV (Winter 2017), pp. 196.