Do You Have a Smartphone Face?

[cmone]

I'm pretty sure "smartphone face" really just comes down to plastic surgery and other non-natural cosmetic practices. That's why most celebrities can't play in period pieces, because people in those days looked like everyday, normal people. Not the "perfect" and manufactured aesthetic we go for these days. Perfectly straight, white teeth with filler lips and microbladed eyebrows doesn't work.

[MELLMAO]

Fan bin bin is the most smartphone face ever, asian smartphone face. She looks like every douyin filter available and has a look of every popular eastern asian cosmetic surgery. She is THE smartphone face. Directors aren't too concerned if you have the old timey look, just that you are pretty to look at

[mph]

fan bingbing definitely has a smart phone face! If you're familiar with chinese beauty standards they're not the same as american beauty standards. she fits so well into the definition of a moderm chinese beauty. not the face of an actual historic figure haha

[lenab]

A factor that hasn't been mentioned is camera use + focal length. Our eyesight perceives people similar to aprox. 40-50mm lens. The typical phone is 26mm, which makes fat/wide faces look leaner. People with narrow/petite faces with petite facial features get cosmetic enhancements to exaggerate their features for the camera. Now the ideal is someone who has a voluminous and highly defined face which photographs well & looks good in stills while still also being lean. It's not that the old-school faces are unattractive, its just that they're not optimized for selfies. Isn't this what smartphone face is all about? As a side note, I actually think that it's a deliberate choice on Apples behalf to make the lens 18-26mm because it caters to the average face.

[cryforthemoon]

Even before smart phones I thought a lot of actors did not look as if they could be living in the era they were portrayed to be in. It's more than just a face, it's mannerisms of modern life, pilates honed bodies etc.

[MsKateCK]

I think it's funny that you say Fan Bingbing doesn't have "smartphone face" because she basically redefined the modern Chinese beauty standards and almost every girl on Chinese social media looks like some version of her. She is very naturally beautiful however. Her features barely changed since early in her career but her styling has gotten a lot more modern. Also she was the main producer of the show Wu Zetian so of course she starred in the leading role

[avantgurl]

I've been saying this for YEARS. Microtrends are to blame in my opinion lol

[theonlycma]

While I believe that always looking down at a device could be affecting our faces, I feel like that was true in the past too… you lean down to farm, cook, read, embroider, play the piano… tons of things we’ve done historically have also involved that general position.

[theyellowbird]

Many historical dramas have inaccurate makeup and hairstyles too (in terms of historical accuracy), which cater to modern sensibilities/audience. that may also play a role in why these actors/actresses don’t appear “historical looking” even when in media based in the past.

[a.hopeful.rosebud]

i would say i have smartphone face due to mixed asian, european, and mexican blood and highly racially mixed facial features. you simply wouldn’t have had commonly had this sort of mix that long ago

[obdiane]

I disagree with Tyson having a "Smartphone face", he's a model true, but he hasn't had any surgery and has looked pretty much the same(other than aging), since the 90s, way before Smart phones existed.

[red_calla_lily]

The biggest difference I notice - in women - is the weird mismatch of features only made possible by cosmetic surgery. Straight out of uncanny valley. In old-time beauties, everything fits together. Marilyn Monroe is a bit on the heavier side - by today's standards - and has more facial and body fat, Audrey Hepburn is petite. Two totally different women - but their bodies and facial features just match. Nowadays, features don't match anymore like they would in nature. They've been exaggerated in a way that isn't natural, so the "smartphone-look" (modern) might as well be called "artifical look". The body is seen as a collection of parts instead of as a whole and uniqueness is not enhanced but erased. Instagram models have angular jaws and big lips like Angelina Jolie but they aren't her. Modern beauty is just a formula, pleasing to look at for everyone but forgettable.

[JENIA_SH]

We are also more ethnically mixed today.
Even in the past, only people with a certain appearance were on cinema, so I'm not sure that there weren't some who couldn't be seen as the smartphone -face, but the trends were different and people also looked different because there are characteristics that are stereotypically characterized with certain ethnicity people

[BigV]

also wanted to say those pictures of all the actors/celebs from the older eras were refreshing to see. they have their own charms in addition to having nice facial features.

[rebssoley]

I think a large part of this phenomenon comes from the fact that the people we are comparing these model celebs to are north american.

I would say that my friends who come from caucasian backgrounds (several gens living in NA/British/German ancestry) would look normal in western period clothes.

As a mixed person - half middle eastern/half european, i most definitely have a "modern" face. I would look very out of place in Western style period clothes. However, If you look at pictures of Iranian/Greek/Turkish women from history, you'll pretty much see my face everywhere. So a "classic" face probably looks different depending on what country you're in.

That being said, I think the reason we're noticing an increase in "modern" faces is that as time goes on, with more travel and immigration, people on the whole are becoming more genetically diverse. So more people, including those we see in the media, simply look different than they did 50+ years ago 🤷 and I think the kardashians are a prime example of this.

[subratafreelancewriter]

here is an interesting observation: in other parts of the world, you will see a lot more variations in terms of facial features. I am from India and typical LA style look isn't very popular yet here. I have traveled in other parts of Asia and yup, the pool of aesthetically pleasing facial features is very big. So, you want to keep in mind that too. I think the more international and hip a city/place is, the more smart phone faces you can see and local cultural preference is a massive factor too

[anyadarlingg]

I think the biggest factor here is how easily accessible cosmetic surgeries are nowadays, and then the "ideal beauty" standards. If you look at girls in magazines/actors, you can tell they were looking for girls with softer features, and rounded eyebrows. And not everybody was getting nose jobs/eyebrow lifts/lip filler/botox. Also hair extensions and wigs have evolved so much. Contouring use to be done way differently as well. Nowadays I feel like they star actors that have nearly perfect everything- cheekbone structure and jawline. Which wasn't the same beauty standard as before for women.

[Weesson]

Poor oral posture is affecting people’s faces more than smart phones.

[BigV]

I'm glad they have a term for this LMAO I definitely associate it with IG more than the second possibility. Being recessed or having malocclusion is an unfortunate reality that could be influenced by smart phones but as your past videos show there's many more factors that contribute beyond that. However, getting specific procedures and styling to achieve a certain look is definitely something I associate with social media apps/platforms and smartphones by extension.

[kento]

I think if you showed these people two faces from the same angle, same hairstyles, same clothing, color correction, and same makeup, nobody would be able to tell just from the facial structure.