Screens are the new mirror

‘My Instagram feed has recently been looking a little different, yet strangely familiar.

- AYUSHI SINGH

Almost every frame shows a woman in a red saree posed against the same warm ochre wall, lit by the same gentle sidelight, her shadow falling in a gentle arc behind her. The faces change, the drapes shift, but the image barely does. Their skin appears cinematically smooth, the colours deepened to a quiet glow, the expression held in that delicate place between candid and composed. It’s as if the photos were taken in a single room, one where the front camera understands exactly what we hope to see.

These portraits come from Google’s Gemini Nano, the “Nano Banana” trend that turns regular selfies into retro-style images. The tool smooths the skin, adjusts light, and folds everyone into the same nostalgic frame. One filter, repeated with surprising consistency.

This moment has been a long time coming. A few years ago, photographs posted online looked like the days they emerged from. Facebook albums held rugged corridors, awkward birthdays, red-eye grins, and flashes that washed out half the room. They weren't flattering, but they were unguarded and that honesty carried its own weight. Early Instagram had the same roughness: a Valencia sky, a half-bright food plate, edges that blurred simply because no one cared enough to fix them.