Across TikTok, side-by-side faces are portraying the present and the future: how a person looks today and how their face could possibly appear decades from now.
The "aged" filter on the app is going viral for predicting the fate of one's appearance, down to the very last wrinkle. Millions of users have turned to the AI-powered filter, which may or may not be accurate and nonetheless has elicited some strong reactions.
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In essence, TikTok users — from influencers to past Love Island winners to aestheticians to Kylie Jenner — are trying out the filter, which shows your current self beside an AI-generated version of you looking significantly older. The resulting feedback lies on a spectrum. One user said she didn't find the filter depressing at all: "I look good. I look like my grandma!" Another presented an exaggerated skincare routine after trying the filter; yet another said "I am 100 percent not OK with this", gasping at her aged reflection. While some TikTokkers have welcomed the hypothetical visual, the more common responses are horror and concern at the aesthetics of an older age.
The hashtag #agefilter now has over 288 million views, and counting. But its popularity is nothing compared to the size and breadth of TikTok's communities dedicated to anti-aging. The hashtag #antiaging, in itself, has a whopping 5.6 billion views. Here you can find millions of skincare tips, botox and micro-needling vlogs, and other anti-aging solutions purported by influencers, including a tutorial on how to smile and avoid lines. Mashable's Elena Cavender unpacked this trend of "costly, laborious anti-aging routines" back in January 2023, writing, "The hyper-awareness of how our faces look due to online meetings, selfies, and creating TikToks, combined with the prevalence of filters, has proliferated unreal expectations."
Emphasis on youthfulness coupled with an overt resistance to aging has reached peak heights on apps like TikTok. The social media age filter isn't new; TikTok's rendition is just the latest in a long line of tech-driven, future indicators what our faces could one day look like based on AI. Snapchat has had its own iteration of it, as have editing platforms like FaceApp.
What these filters evidence is the long-existing societal obsession with youth, age, and appearance. Particularly when it comes to women, discourse around aging is expansive, and has historically been unhealthy. The thriving cosmetic surgery industry and growing skincare landscape are just the commercial outcomes of this fascination. TikTok knows this, as do its influencers. So the next time an age-based filter goes viral, maybe take it with a pinch of salt.
Aging gracefully can mean so many things. A filter can't quite capture that.
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