Social Media Filters and the Vestiges of the Psyche

Abstract

Over the past decade, social media filters have become a pervasive visual phenomenon. Filtered selfies with conspicuous animal features or flawless makeup have flooded social media platforms. In this study, it is argued that the massive popularity of these social media filters is not ungrounded. Instead, these viral filters have their origins in ancient or even pre-historic times. Approaching this phenomenon from an anthropological perspective, social media animal filters are traced as far back as classical mythology and folklore tales of human-animal hybrids. Makeup filters are similarly linked back to ancient cosmetic practices. In this attempt to demonstrate the persistence of both human-animal imagery and the use of makeup, this study also explores their deep psychological implications. The central argument is that both makeup and human-animal hybrid imagery, re-invented in a digital form, have reached extreme popularity because they strike deep chords of recognition in the human psyche, appealing to primordial desires and instincts. This article also draws attention to how social media platforms make use of archaic imagery and motifs to serve marketing purposes, capitalizing on human’s deepest and oldest instincts and desires.