Social Media portrays a false sense of reality - AR Experience

For my final major project in university I decided to create an augmented reality experience called “Filtered” that showcased how what is seen on social media “only gives us a glimpse into the life that we choose to portray.”

Society uses social media to ‘filter’ out the unglamorous side of people’s lives to display a perfect life that is unrealistic and use it as a way to portray a life that they are not in fact living to gain the approval and acceptance of others in the form of ‘likes’. Many believe that social media gives us an open view into people’s lives, but it is only a glimpse of the life that they choose to portray. A peak through a window that can be controlled.

‘Filtered’ was therefore created to showcase that what is seen on social media is carefully crafted in order to appeal to an audience and in using augmented reality (AR), reveal what is truly behind the Instagram post and how people are only sharing a filtered happy version of a semi-public life to gain “likes” as a form of acceptance. This gives users a glimpse through the window of what people’s lives are truly like rather than them believing the unrealistic idolised versions of these lives.

At graduation I was awarded the SMARTS Communication Award for highest mark in the final major project with “Filtered”.