This game of digital spot-the-difference is just one example of our enduring cultural fascination with celebrity transformations. Formerly the bread and butter of weekly gossip magazines, this obsession has found a new home on social media. Today, Instagram is filled with eagle-eyed accounts that exist solely to satisfy our collective appetite for uncovering and exposing the perceived enhancements and modifications, whether digital or surgical, of famous people.
With clinical precision, these accounts pick apart transformations, poking a hole in the illusion of perfection and thriving on the schadenfreude that results. But what motivates someone to dedicate large portions of their time to playing celebrity surgery sleuth? What is the goal and, the biggest question of all, what effect is this having on both them and us?