Do I look my age?

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Melody Ra, Editor In Chief

 How old are you, really? Often times, teenagers try to disguise themselves as adults in hopes of being more respected, being able to be more independent, or being able to try activities that are not allowed for their age (ex: seeing rated R movies at the theaters). For some, the teenagers resemble their older peers, whereas others look their age no matter what changes they attempt to make (or even younger!).

On May 9, 2015, Microsoft released an app to guess your age. The app is called “How-Old.net,” and it uses pictures of people’s faces to determine their age. This new app uses a softwarfddfe technology that detects facial features of its users to see what age and gender that person might be.

The process is as goes:

1. Upload a “selfie” onto the app

2. The app determines the gender and age of the person in the picture.

That’s it! The app’s engineers are able to let the app possess the ability to extract the people’s features, and thus, determine how old they “really are.”

Yet, as interesting as the app is, the reason why it has gained such popularity is not because people are legitimately concerned with their true age (obviously, we know our ages), but it is that people are curious as to what age they appear to other people. “Do I look old? Do I look young? HOW OLD DO I LOOK?”

Well, WomensHealthMag.com tested the accuracy of the app. The website editors posted their own “selfies” onto the app, and let the app calculate the rest. Wait, that’s not it! They uploaded not one, but numerous pictures of themselves with differing variables, such as makeup, and hairstyles. The result? The app gave them different ages each time! Sometimes it was 32, other times it was 13!

Junior Prahbleen Kouri states, “Although this app is so funny to use, it’s completely inaccurate! It says that I’m 28 years old when I’m actually 16. I feel as if it distorts everyones faces to make them look old.”

According to Microsoft, they are still undergoing changes to the app for better usage among their customers. Hopefully, the future, updated app will actually be pretty accurate. But, for now, it is still a fun and popular app to try out.

So, how old are you? Give the app a try!