If we're going to go down that route, then neither is any other photo you take. I feel a sense of disconnection with every photo I've ever taken (I don't take many) because the resulting image never feels like what I saw. The filter he applied is just deciding what manner it's not going to be real.
Cameras don't work exactly like your eyes, much less your entire visual system. Gamma curves are different, and dynamic range is way different. Not to mention the obvious fact that a photograph is a frozen instant from a single vantage point, so for example a facial expression may look way sillier that it did in person. Then there's the subtler filters and modification like levels and white balance adjustments, cropping, etc.
Where does this author draw the line?
Paste it over by a click and this feeling is disassociated from your pic (or as the author states: not real).