On TikTok, faces side by side represent the present and the future: what a person looks like today and what their face could potentially look like decades from now.
The app’s “Age” filter goes viral and makes it possible to predict someone’s fate down to the last fold. Millions of users have turned to the AI-powered filter, which may or may not be accurate and yet has drawn some fierce reactions.
The tweet may have been deleted
The tweet may have been deleted
The tweet may have been deleted
Essentially TikTok users – from influencers to former ones love island Winners, beauticians and Kylie Jenner – try the filter that shows your current self next to an AI-generated version of you that looks significantly older. The resulting feedback is on a spectrum. One user said she didn’t find the filter depressing at all: “I look good. I look like my grandma!” Another shared an over-the-top skincare routine after trying the filter; yet another said, “I 100 percent disagree with that,” and gasped as she gazed at her aged reflection. While some TikTokers have welcomed the hypothetical visualization, the more common reactions are horror and concern over the aesthetics of an older age.
Photo credit: Screenshot: TikTok / Delaney Childs
Photo Credit: Screenshot: TikTok/WhatTheChic
The hashtag #agefilter now has over 288 million hits and counting. But its popularity is nothing compared to the size and breadth of the TikTok communities dedicated to antiaging. The hashtag #antiaging alone has a whopping 5.6 billion views. Find millions of skincare tips, botox and microneedling vlogs, and other anti-aging solutions claimed by influencers, including how to smile And Avoid lines. Mashable’s Elena Cavender exposed this trend of “expensive, tedious anti-aging routines” back in January 2023, writing, “The over-awareness of how our faces look from online meetings, selfies, and the creation of TikToks combined with the proliferation of filters.” , has raised unrealistic expectations.”
Glass skin, jelly skin, glazed donut skin: TikTok’s anti-aging obsession is coming to a head
The emphasis on youth coupled with an apparent resistance to aging has peaked on apps like TikTok. The social media age filter is not new; TikTok’s interpretation is just the latest in a long line of technology-driven, future indicators of what our faces might one day look like based on AI. Snapchat has its own version of this, as do editing platforms like FaceApp.
What these filters prove is the long-standing societal obsession with youth, old age and looks. Especially when it comes to women, the discourse on aging is widespread and historically unhealthy. The thriving cosmetic surgery industry and expanding skin care landscape are just the commercial outcomes of this fascination. TikTok knows this, as do its influencers. So the next time an age-based filter goes viral, use it with caution.
Aging gracefully can mean so many things. A filter cannot fully capture this.
