People are getting plastic surgery to look like their Snapchat selfies

“Snapchat dysmorphia” is
now a term used by doctors.

Avery
Morrison/YouTube

• Snapchat and Instagram filters are influencing how
  young people think about beauty.
• Alarmingly, more people are requesting plastic surgery
  to look better in selfies, according to the American Academy of
  Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
• And in one disturbing emerging phenomenon, dubbed
  “Snapchat dysmorphia,” some patients are getting plastic
  surgery to look more like their filtered selfies.
• According to Boston University researchers, digital
  filters are likely contributing to a rise in body dysmorphia,
  where people are overly anxious about their
  appearance.

Instagram and Snapchat filters are the new celebrity photo,
offering up unrealistic standards of beauty that might trigger
people to feel unhappy with the way they look in real life.

That’s according to three Boston University researchers,
who published an article about body dysmorphia in the JAMA
Facial Plastic Surgery medical journal this month. The article is
not a study, but an overview of industry research and studies.

Body dysmorphia is a mental health condition where people feel
unduly worried about the way they look, and the authors wrote
that Snapchat and Instagram filters were “altering people’s
perception of beauty worldwide.”

They highlighted one especially disturbing phenomenon: “Snapchat
dysmorphia.” They characterised this as an emerging phenomenon
where plastic surgery patients no longer ask to look like
celebrities, but more like their own filtered selfies with
“fuller lips, bigger eyes, or a thinner nose.”

Snapchat dysmorphia
was first reported by The Independent earlier this year, when
a cosmetic surgeon said more women were asking to look like their
selfies. The Boston researchers wrote: “This is an alarming trend
because those filtered selfies often present an unattainable look
and are blurring the line of reality and fantasy for these
patients.”

Lucy
Yang/INSIDER

They added: “It is known that the angle and close distance at
which selfies are taken may distort facial dimensions and lead to
dissatisfaction. Patients may seek surgery hoping to look better
in selfies and social media.”

And according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgery, 55% of surgeons reported seeing plastic
surgery patients who wanted procedures to improve how they looked
in selfies in 2017, versus 42% the prior year.

“Overall, social media apps, such as Snapchat and Facetune, are
providing a new reality of beauty for today’s society,” the
Boston authors wrote. “These apps allow one to alter his or her
appearance in an instant and conform to an unrealistic and often
unattainable standard of beauty.”

Business Insider
has previously written about how the filters that come pre-loaded
on certain smartphone cameras, especially on Asian phones,
whiten people’s skin and airbrush features.

According to the Boston University researchers, the ready
availability of filters and self-editing on phones is an alarming
problem that is likely contributing to rising body issue
anxieties among young people.

They said: “Models and actors were made to look perfect in
magazines and ads, but the general public did not have easy
access to methods to alter their own appearance … Today, with
apps like Snapchat and Facetune, that same level of perfection is
accessible to everyone. Now, it is not just celebrities
propagating beauty standards: it is a classmate, a coworker, or a
friend.”