photomanipulation is nearly as old as
photography itself but modern technology
has made it common and easy to do using
photo editing software almost anyone can
make big changes to an image from
adjusting colors to adding and removing
content that's why you should always
keep a critical eye on images in the
media essentially images are meant to
either depict reality or be artistic in
artistic media images may be manipulated
for any number of creative purposes and
that's fine but for images intended to
show reality manipulation can equal big
problems while it's common for news
media to make minor changes like
cropping it's unethical for journalists
to edit a photo in a way that changes
its meaning or misleads viewers while
this practice does not happen often in
legitimate news media there are plenty
of less reputable news sources that
aren't afraid to edit photos to get your
attention
unfortunately photo manipulation is also
common in other types of media such as
advertisements and the quest to sell you
something TV commercials and magazine
ads have often been guilty of showing
people and products that look better
than they really are social media users
can also give themselves a digital
makeover with minimal effort using
editing tools and image filters built
into various apps users can make
themselves look however they like in no
time but because they're presented as
reality these edited images can affect
our mental well-being by constantly
seeing pictures of artificially flawless
people some of us may think that we can
never live up to these unrealistic
ideals opening the door to all sorts of
mental and emotional health concerns in
recent years however there has been
public resistance against this practice
in advertising and other media calling
for more realistic and natural
portrayals of people photo manipulation
may be common nowadays but hopefully
you'll keep an eye out for images that
seem too good to be true
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better life