How often have you ever thought, “I don’t know what I seem like to other people”? Perhaps it’s an issue that lingers within the periphery of your conscious thoughts. Or perhaps it’s something that rattles inside your skull while you see an unflattering candid photo of yourself or attempt to take an unfiltered selfie. Almost everyone seems to be used to seeing their face through phone and laptop cameras, filters or mirrors, all of which present a reversed image to the beholder – but that isn’t how the remainder of the world sees you.

On TikTok, the proliferation of the viral inverted filter and a contraption called the True Mirror has caused millions of people to query what they really seem like. Each the filter and True Mirror vertically flip someone’s image to disclose a perspective they rarely see: how they appear to others. This revelation has caused something akin to an internet-wide tailspin. Many who’ve used the filter and mirror filmed their reactions. Some people cried, others were completely disgusted, and most of the people compiled an inventory of asymmetries of their faces from lopsided jaws, uneven eyebrows and mismatched eye size.

It’s a weird and complex feeling. For the last ten to fifteen years, we’ve seen selfies be traded like social currency used for creating connections, hierarchies and even careers. But such an emphasis on what we seem like has its downsides. Multiple studies have shown that more people than ever before are experiencing body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) because of this of social media. Beauty standards, like fuller lips, hollowed-out cheekbones, fox eyes, button noses, sharp jawlines, hourglass figures and BBLs, have caused people to spend time and money pursuing these ever-changing ideals. And now, these inverted images have unleashed a latest standard of beauty that, admittedly, is just as fantastical and not possible as emulating an Instagram beauty filter: facial symmetry.

“My mum has all the time told me how beautiful I’m, so I grew up with confidence,” Mery, a 21-year-old TikTok user tells Dazed. “I attempted that filter with the identical confidence, but I didn’t expect that the outcomes were going to be horrifying.” After trying out the filter, Mery googled its legitimacy hoping it will tell her that wasn’t how others saw her. “I came upon that it’s, so I began to hide the puffy side of my face after I spoke to people.” She admits to avoiding making eye contact with people now, frightened what they’ll consider her. She doesn’t take video calls on Instagram, WhatsApp or Viber anymore. “I only make calls on Snapchat since it stays similar to the image I see.”

Mery’s TikTok of her using a gua sha in a lofty try and restore facial symmetry has 4.9 million views. Within the comments, people offered solutions: sleep in your back, try eye massages, fix your hair. Others lament that they feel the identical way, stricken by these newfound insecurities and desperate to seek out an answer. “For those who’re seeing yourself inverted, you’re going to note the things that deviate rather more than on every other person because you realize your face pretty much, and also you notice when things are within the improper place,” wonders Dr Pamela Rutledge, an authority within the psychological and social impact of media and technology.

Dr Rutledge says that humans have all the time cared about how we glance; in spite of everything, we’re social creatures. But this obsession with our facial structures is an not possible feat. Especially after years of seeing filtered images of yourself, which could cause dissonance, making your unfiltered, inverted self much more upsetting. “If I take advantage of filters, I even have now just created an idealised version of myself that I won’t ever have the ability to compete with. I’ll all the time be inferior to this image of myself that I’ve created, but since it’s alleged to be me, it’s much harder to cognitively correct and say, ‘I can’t compare myself to that.’”

Mery admits, “I once forgot what I looked like with no filters. It’s like a fantasy or a delusion created to make us experience the sweetness that we don’t have or can’t afford to have since feeling prettier is a necessity that comes with our nature. These filters feed it perfectly.”

Sarah Khursigara, who shares her hot takes on the sweetness industry on TikTok, has posted multiple videos comforting those that feel personally victimised by this filter. “There’s a number of panic around this. I believe that’s because people consider the sensation they get once they flip their face is similar feeling other people have once they see them.”

@em.ilyclare 🤭🫣 that is something people may not notice but i obsses and hate my face eveyday. #Inverted #asymmetricalface #imperfection #myinsecurity ♬ Forever – Labrinth

It’s true that while you watch other people’s inverted filter TikToks, they appear virtually the identical; it’s just your individual videos that cause an emotional response. Nonetheless, what’s truly worrying is seeing how this hysteria is being taken advantage of. Many plastic surgeons and aestheticians are marketing facial balancing procedures that bring symmetry to the face. TikToker, Nathan Alexander posted online, admitting that it was the inverted filter that drove him to get masseter Botox. “Principally the inverted filter fucked me over, it fucked me up and now I hate my face even greater than I even have ever hated my face,” he says within the video. “Also, my lips is likely to be just a little off too.”

Anastasia Goron is the founding father of All You Can Face, a facial yoga program that has over 1.1 million followers on TikTok. Her videos teach people reduce a puffy face within the morning, treat wrinkles and restore symmetry. Over the phone, her conviction for self-love and acceptance is infectious, though she admits she’s frightened about how her videos impact people. “I hope I don’t cause more problems,” she admits after I ask about her facial symmetry videos. Goron sees facial yoga as providing each aesthetic results and mindful time with oneself. “Face yoga actually helped me to love myself more. It made me more comfortable looking within the mirror and feeling empowered to get to know myself on a deeper level.”

Goron does recognise, nevertheless, the litany of other face yoga accounts could also be tugging on peoples’ insecurities. When you get into the facial symmetry side of TikTok, you’ll likely get bombarded with different face yoga creators stitching insecure TikTokers with an answer for his or her problem. Sometimes these end in selling ten-minute face massages, or weeklong courses. Goron admits that while facial yoga will help with gaining more “symmetry” to a certain degree,” it’s vital to watch out where you spend your money.

“Some people even outgrew my following because they’re doing these shocking videos, which in fact are clickbaity. They’re like, ‘You’ll seem like Bella Hadid should you do that exercise.’ No, you won’t,” she laughs. “Her face is surgically made. I’d fairly underpromise and overdeliver than give people completely false hope.”

@sarahssuperspa Replying to @. One other explanation, hopefully more clear 😭😭 you’re technically inverted but that “inverted” version to other looks like your non inverted version does to you! No person sees you as unsymmetrical as you see yourself while you use the inverted filter so please stop worrying ❤️ #invertedfilter #unsymetrical #plasticsurgery #unevenface ♬ original sound – Sarah’s Super Spa 💅🏼🧖🏼‍♀️

John Walter, the inventor of the True Mirror, thinks that his invention is the answer to breaking this vicious cycle. Much like the inverted filter, the True Mirror flips an individual’s image to disclose how they’re seen by others. This effect is achieved by placing two mirrors at right angles, although while you look straight ahead within the True Mirror, there isn’t a distracting line in the course of the image. It’s garnered quite the next on TikTok because of Walter’s videos, which show someone looking into the mirror for the first time. But unlike the inverted filter, it seems as if when people cry in these videos, they’re tears of happiness.

Walter posits that because a daily mirror reverses our image, we never get to see our real selves or make real eye contact – “right eye to right eye, left eye to left eye” – which subsequently feeds our brain “faulty information”. With the True Mirror, he says we are able to communicate with our eyes and brain properly. “Some people hate the True Mirror once they first use it,” he admits, referring to the TikToks of individuals using dupes from Amazon. “But while you get past being crooked within the mirror, which the inverted filter also does, you’ll notice the vibrancy in your eyes and for the primary time, communicate with yourself.”

It’s an enormous promise, but one which Walter has staked his entire profession on. He believes that the world can be a unique place if more people could see themselves within the True Mirror on daily basis. “I’d like to get this into schools and even psychological research labs. One in all my biggest desires is for youths to grow up with this so that they don’t lose that light. People convey light and life of their expressions, but they lose that when they appear in cameras and mirrors.”

It’s amazing to think that a $275 mirror could solve this cognitive dissonance everyone’s afflicted with, whether that’s from their very own reflection or a symptom of many years of being online. But something tells me which may not be enough. 

@truemirrorco_jwalter wow, I really like her response, such light in her eyes! all of us have that light after we show up to one another, she has plenty of it! #junxionnyc #newyears2023 #truemirror #brighteyes ♬ original sound – truemirrorco

Aubrey Ober, 21, is an online personality committed to deinfluencing the facility of the inverted filter. She often posts TikToks of herself using the filter, imploring in her captions: “You might be beautiful no matter how symmetrical you’re.” It’s taken a number of work for her to get to a spot where she will post these videos, reclaiming her own imperfections as a type of defiance. “Not using filters anymore has modified my life and self-confidence.” Today her TikTok has inspired others to not take the filter so seriously… and perhaps even reconsider that plastic surgeon consultation they booked.

Seems that trying to find your true self in the best way you look is probably going a thankless task, one with no real ending, or joy. It’s a maze crammed with deadends, financial pitfalls and obsession. Perhaps, at the least for now, we aren’t equipped with seeing ourselves as others see us, without being compelled to repair it. But perhaps we don’t must.

“No single image – photo, mirror reflection or filter – can capture this ever-changing, multifaceted ‘self,’” Dr. Rutledge implores. “We should not who we seem like. Counting on that in a visible culture is tough to avoid, but very dangerous if that is where we invest our self-worth.”

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