A PICTURE-PERFECT GENERATION: OVER 14 MILLION BRITS SAY THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA DOESN’T REFLECT REAL LIFE

A new study commissioned by personalised photo gifting and printing site, myFUJIFILM, has revealed that the average Brit takes eight attempts to get the perfect picture for social media, with men the most image obsessed taking up to nine photos to get a fool proof shot.
And even after all that time taken to find the perfect image, a third (30%) of Brits still say they wouldn’t post a photo to social media if they didn’t feel they looked attractive enough, while a fifth (22%) wouldn’t post it for fear of judgement, leading to over 14 million admitting that their social media doesn’t reflect their real life.

This obsession with image has also seen over 18 million Brits admitting to deleting a photo if the background reveals a mess and 1 in 10 (9%) even betraying a friend by posting an unattractive picture if they look great themselves. A further fifth (21%) have admitted to not posting any pictures from a significant occasion if they didn’t feel they looked good, while others have posted a picture and then removed it shortly after if they didn’t feel they looked attractive enough (16%) or if it didn’t receive enough likes (11%).

This picture-perfect society is causing some concern for the younger generation however, with three fifths (60%) of Brits worrying about how this ‘perfect’ ideal on social media will have a negative impact on them. Two thirds (65%) cite the reason for this concern is that the younger generation may become obsessed with their image, have unrealistic body expectations (64%) or become insecure (59%).
myFUJIFILM, the leading personalised photo gifting and printing site, is encouraging the nation to celebrate the imperfect, everyday moments that make up a day – whether it is the three hours the toddler screamed before the happy family portrait or dropping the house keys down a drain after just Instagramming the ‘picked up the keys’ shot.

Supported by Actress and Singer, Alexandra Burke, the brand is launching its A Million Moments competition, asking Brits to submit their own ‘imperfect’ picture using the hashtags #amillionmoments and #myfujifilm to be in with a chance of winning either a £50 myFUJIFILM gift card, or a weekend getaway in the UK and a family photoshoot which will see them become the face of the campaign.

Alexandra Burke, Actress and Singer said: “”If we are all honest, I think we all worry too much about the photographs we post on social media? People talk about the ‘perfect’ image, but I’ve always found myself asking what the word actually means, does perfection really exist and who decides this?

Sometimes the background is too messy, or the angle is wrong; you might be having a bad day and don’t feel yourself, or your friend or loved one in the picture won’t give you approval. Yet funnily enough when I look back at pictures, months or even years later, it is those fun and caught off-guard photos, that perhaps have never been seen, that I treasure and make me smile the most!

I’m really happy that myFUJIFILM have launched this campaign to try and encourage us all to celebrate the imperfect, everyday moments that we capture. Let’s stop overthinking everything and live in the moment. My only tip to you all is to always use a flash!”.

When Brits do decide to post on social media, two fifths (43%) admit that the way they do so has changed over the past ten years, with almost half (46%) saying they are more cautious about what they post now, two fifths (42%) saying they post less regularly and almost a third (27%) tending to post one photo from an occasion as opposed to a whole album.
And it’s not just sharing photos that Brits are cautious about, as although two fifths admit they have a favourite photo of their children (44%) and pets (36%), only one fifth (22%) actually print out fond memories to display at home, with one fifth (20%) rarely looking back through nostalgic photos. However, with two fifths (36%) admitting that they have previously lost photos that were stored on an electronic advice and not shared on social media or printed out, this leaves many at risk of losing some of their special memories for good.