Influencers astound everyone by comparing their Instagram photos to how they actually look

The majority of the images we see on social media today are so phony, that the line separating fact from fiction is now hardly discernible. People can look almost unrecognizably altered by overuse of filters and retouching. The worst thing is that looking at these kinds of heavily manipulated photographs could lead you to have unrealistic expectations about your physical appearance.

Recently, two ostensibly Chinese influencers highlighted how much editing goes into creating the ideal social media image. You’ll see from their photos of themselves with and without filters that retouching is no longer only about hiding pimples or erasing freckles.

These two influencers recently posted pictures of themselves with and without filters

Image credits: Ex Treme

Image credits: Ex Treme

This is how they look after editing their photos…

Image credits: coeyyyy

…and this is how they look in real life

Image credits: Ex Treme

You can hardly believe it’s the same person

Image credits: coeyyyy

Image credits: Ex Treme

Here’s another example that shows just how much editing can change one’s appearance

Image credits: coeyyyy

This is how Coeyyyy and her friend typically appear on social media

Image credits: coeyyyy

Image credits: coeyyyy

Image credits: coeyyyy

The photos originally went viral in China but were eventually posted to Faceebook by Jevin Cheng, aka Ex Treme, where they got over 18k shares and nearly 6k likes. Not only that, over 11k people commented on the post and many simply couldn’t believe their eyes, and, honestly, it’s not hard to see why.

People couldn’t believe what they were seeing