Pictures and filter; semblance above 90%

Personally, I don't use filters on my pictures unless it is to change the background to make it look presentable. I like originality and as a result, I always love to present myself for who I am.

Application of filter results to deception in most cases. Imagine a dark coloured skin person like me filtering my picture and making myself fair in complexion. I see this as low self esteem. People do this a lot both offline and online. Those that do this offline are the ones that bleach their dark skin with creams or other substances. The online ones use filters to alter their appearance.

Whenever someone presents himself differently from who he is, through the help of a filter, I see it as low self esteem.
"Why believe that you are not beautiful or handsome the way you are and decide to adopt a false appearance?" This question is what I ask in my mind whenever I see people who are different in pictures from who they are in reality.

I must say that not all filter applications give a false presentation of the person. Some do it moderately in such a way that the picture is more than 90% of the same appearance as the person in reality. Once the percentage connecting the two is at least 90%, I don't see any problem with that.

Unfortunately, I have seen where filtered pictures represent just 30% of the characteristics of the person in reality. Some are even lower and this is deception.

Personally, I haven't experienced a situation where I was deceived by someone as a result of applying filters on pictures but my friend did to my knowledge. He met this beautiful lady on a social media platform and they got talking. They planned to meet severally without success but finally met at the wedding of the lady's sister.

My friend had been telling me a lot about the lady prior to their meeting. He expressed his undying love for the lady in what he termed love at first sight. He invited me to go to the wedding with him, which I obliged.

We got to the wedding and we met the girl behind the scene to have some discussions. Immediately I saw her, I sensed a slight difference in her appearance from her picture that my friend showed me online. The percentage of being alike was less than 90%.

They had some private discussion and we attended the wedding reception before going. I remembered telling him that if not that he had met the girl online before, an event like a wedding is not the best place to fall in love with a lady's appearance. Though there are exemptions. We laughed over it and left.

Their relationship continued and one thing led to the other and my friend visited her in her parent's house. According to him, he was shocked by the appearance he saw without makeup. It was then he realized that the picture online was more beautiful than the person he saw at the wedding and the person at the wedding is more beautiful than the person he met again.

He registered his displeasure to me and vowed not to pick her calls again. I told him to apply wisdom because the lady's action wasn't directed to him specifically. She felt cool with too much application of makeup and filter excessively. I told him to explain to the lady that he wasn't interested anymore instead of ghosting her which he did.

A few weeks later, the relationship died.

I believe if the appearance online and offline had tally to a large extent, say more than 90%, they would have either gotten along or otherwise without any issue.