Pure Telecom research reveals almost half of people sharing their images online edit their selfies

Not so long ago, we had to develop, organize, and sift through hefty photo albums to look back on the good times. Nowadays, with the dawn of smartphones and fast broadband speeds, we can take, upload, and share photos instantly – all at the swipe of a screen.

But just how often do we share photos? We wanted to find out more about Irish people’s photo-sharing habits.

Our research found that 79% of people share images online via social media, instant messaging apps, and email. The average person shares 25 images per week and has 1,103 images stored on their smartphone. Our research carried out by Censuswide, surveyed 1,000 adults across Ireland.

Interestingly, our survey found that 49% of people who share images online edit photos of themselves before sharing them, with one-in-five admitting that they do it most or all of the time.

Of those who edit pictures of themselves, 54% said they use filters or adjust the light or saturation settings, to achieve their desired results. An additional 24% touch up their complexion, while 19% make adjustments to the coloring of their skin, eyes, lips or teeth. Furthermore, 9% try to make themselves appear slimmer. The survey also found that 9% of men digitally enhance their body parts such as their bum or chest, compared to just 4% of women.

We found that the biggest offenders for editing their photos were people from Westmeath, with 73% admitting to touching up their photos, followed by residents in Laois (60%) and Kerry (57%). Roscommon (20%), Wexford (28%) and Tipperary (35%) were among the counties least likely to edit their photos.

Paul Connell, Director, Pure Telecom, said: “Our smartphone images are so important to us, we assume that every image in our library will be backed up to the cloud. All of this relies on internet connection – people need fast, reliable broadband that allows them to make the changes they want, upload or share their pictures in an instant and have the peace of mind that everything is safely stored in the cloud.”

With the rise of social media, sharing photographs has never been so popular. As the trend shows no sign of slowing down, we know that our customers need fast and reliable broadband that can support heavy data usage. At Pure Telecom, we are committed to providing great value broadband bundles, so you can continue to upload and share photos at ultra-fast speeds.