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"For many of us in today's visually-obsessed culture, self-image is a fragile thing. We were reminded of that last week, when a Dove ad featuring a forensic artist who draws portraits of women as they describe themselves, followed by more beautiful portraits of the same women described by strangers, went suddenly and massively viral. \nFor many of us (men too, despite what this hilarious parody version suggested) there was the shock of recognition. We live with that bathroom mirror day in, day out; we get tired, bored, even angry with the face that smiles weakly back. We are too familiar with our physical imperfections. We are surprised to find strangers aren't obsessed with our bone structure. We forget how transparent we really are. \nSo that was an undeniable step forward for self-image. Now here comes the step back: an app called Pixtr, which promises to \"put your best face forward.\" What that means, as you can see in the ad above, is that it automatically cleans you up like a magazine Photoshop artist. Noses are thinned. Eyes are tweaked. Faces are re-shaped. Wrinkles, blemishes, even freckles \u2014 ever-so-lovely freckles \u2014 are history. \nYou'll look fantastically plastic, and it won't bear any resemblance to the dreaded face in the bathroom mirror.\nThe app's co-creator, Avi Gadot, told Business Insider a nice founding story about how beautiful his wife is, and how he wanted to be able to take pictures of her that she'd actually approve of. I can relate: my wife is beautiful, and would also delete every picture of her on my phone given half the chance.\nBut we all know what this app is going to be most used for, and it isn't spousal enhancement. It's self-improving selfies. A generation raised on the virtue of vanity will now find even fewer reasons to put their real face forward.\nIf Pixtr becomes popular, and there's every reason to suspect it will, there will be something like an arms race in profile photos. Soon enough, it will be supposed, if your chosen pic doesn't look drop-dead gorgeous, there must be something really wrong with you. \nNot that this is any slight against Gadot, who is simply being a good businessman; indeed, what's surprising is that no one came up with this before. The desire to mask ourselves is so inherent, so nakedly obvious, it's a wonder algorithms were ever applied to anything else. \nIf all the app did was the equivalent of a makeover, it would be far more benign. But it also changes your bone structure. It imposes the sadly prevalent belief that you need a heart-shaped face or a thin nose to look pretty. (Have we learned nothing from Michael Jackson?)\nAnd there lies the rub, because the face you own is the one you'll always have with you. You can't avoid it forever by staring at your smartphone. We don't need any more reasons to start thinking about fixing our faces with surgery or botox injections. \nWhat we need instead, then, is an affirmation app; something that teaches us to love what's already there. Perhaps it could show us famous faces with whom we share our supposedly unusual noses, or tell us that 60% of the population also have our cheekbone structure. Maybe it could sketch us based on descriptions from friends. \nOr maybe, in lieu of a camera, the app could just offer a single, well-worn, but never-more-necessary phrase: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. \nImage couresty of Pixtr"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/04/24/pixtr/>