Thank you so much for reaching out with this one. This is a problem I’m sure more people can relate to than care to admit it.
While social media offers a lot of wonderful benefits, it’s also a breeding ground of comparisons that we were never meant to have access to. Humans aren’t meant to be able to see what millions of people are doing around the world at a touch of a button. This has been made worse by the fact that it’s only the really good bits that are ever posted. No wonder we feel the pressure to present our best selves to the world all the time.
It’s interesting that you notice your editing is coming from a place of needing validation. My first step would be to step back, and check in with yourself about why it is you feel you need that validation from social media. Often, we need more external validation when we are struggling with our relationship with ourselves and our ability to self validate. I think it is really important for you to understand what is at the root of the problem, rather than just addressing the symptom (the facetune).
While I think you will find the urge to do this decreases as you address the underlying issue here, there are a couple of ways to break this pattern. You could lean into a good old fashion social media cleanse. Take some time away from the apps to ground yourself in the real world again. Next, delete Facetune. Having the app installed is making it easy for you to jump in and edit your photos. Lastly I would set yourself a challenge to upload maybe some stories first, and then posts of yourself with no filters or editing. Do it as an experiment, and observe what happens.
I’m proud of you for addressing this head on, and I wish you all the best.
Read more of Ambers advice here.