Haimson: Social media filters can foster gender identity

With a click of a button, filters on social media platforms like Snapchat or TikTok can transform your regular face into that of a glamorous movie star or a bearded lumberjack. 

Filters can be fun, but they may also have a more serious and useful role. MIT Technology Review interviewed Oliver Haimson, assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of information, on how social media filters can help some people explore their gender identity. 

Haimson says that filters are an important and widely used tool for identity exploration. For some, a filter can provide people with a rush of joy at seeing what they would look like if their outside appearance matched what they feel inside. 

For trans, gender-nonconforming, or gender-curious folk, Haimson adds that filters can be a way to play with gender expression without the investment and skill that makeup requires or the time, hormones, and luck it takes to grow facial hair. 

In the article, some trans people noted that social media filters allowed them to fully embrace that their gender identity is different from what was assigned at birth. The filters also allowed some to play with what features would help them feel most like themselves, whether that was changing the shape of an eyebrow or adding the appearance of facial hair. 

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Read “Social media filters are helping people explore their gender identity,” on technologyreview.com.

Learn more about assistant professor Oliver Haimson.