Photoshop Persuasive Essay

Photoshop is a major contributor to mental health problems in teens and people everywhere. Suicide rates have gone up and depression is polluting everyone, and digital alteration is partially to blame. Photoshop creates an unobtainable ideal for society, is false advertisement, and creates a serious and dangerous epidemic in the development in children.

The use of photoshop creates an unobtainable ideal for society. Teens everywhere are dealing with self-esteem issues that are causing major problems. Having women photoshopped to perfection is showing how women have to look like for them to be considered beautiful. Even famous people are taking a stand. Lorde reported, "Taylor Swift is so flawless, and so unattainable, and I don't think that's

breeding anything good in young girls" (Not-So-Flawless). Having images of the ‘perfect’ body out so often and all over the media creates this idea that ‘I'm not pretty because I don't look like her’. It is contributing to health problems that need to be recognised: "These fake, impossible, and digitally altered bodies have been contributing to serious, deadly health issues like eating disorders for too long," (Photoshop Crusade). Although it is known that the images are altered, they are still having negative impacts on lives. Men, women, and children everywhere are taking them as the standards for being attractive. The usage of photoshop is getting better, and some cannot tell the difference between real photos or altered ones.
Now Photoshop is causing a serious and dangerous epidemic in the development of children. The statistics make it clear that this is one of the contributions to eating disorders and other mental problems. A survey was done on self-hate in women and some of the causes were from the media presenting unrealistic body images. "The average woman has 13 thoughts of self-hate everyday" (Photoshop Crusade). This is far too many, and much of it has to do with the standards the media is presenting. From fat slimming to acne erasing, many people are thinking this is how people are supposed to look. "When at least 30 million Americans are suffering from eating disorders, we can't simply ignore the problem and hope it goes away.” (Ros-Lehtinen). Children are growing up unhappy with themselves, looking at magazines and ads wishing they were the models, and wondering what they can do to be like them. Banning photoshop could be the ultimate cure.
Photoshopping models to fill the clothing is false advertisement, wrongly showing how the item will fit the body type.

Photoshopping makeup to appear flawless also is false, as it wrongly shows what it will look like applied. It is used to make their product look better than it actually is. By editing away zits or acne scars to make their product seem to work, when in reality it doesn't work as well. Some claim that it is on the same health level as what we eat. “It's mandatory for food and medicine to be labeled accurately for the physical health of consumers -- why shouldn't images be labeled if they will affect the mental health of the reader?” (Menza). It should be mandatory for an altered picture to be labeled with Photoshop. Being Photoshop-free has its advantages; consumers can see how the size of their body or body shape will look in the item, and their self esteem in the item won't be diminished.

Photoshop is not even a form of creative art. It only brings health issues and false images. There is no point to photoshop, it is lying about products, bringing people down, and is blurring reality. It makes the models think that there was something wrong with their bodies, which just adds to the mess. This problem is on the same level as any other mental health issue, and it needs to be dealt with

immediately.