napchat and Instagram filters smooth out our skin, give us fuller lips and even make our eyes look bigger, all of which fall in line with Western society’s current beauty standards. As anyone who scrolls through their social media feed knows, filters ― whether animal-faced, fairy-like or just altered in contrast ― are the norm.
There has been much discussion about how these apps and filters may be bad for our self-esteem and whether they can lead to issues like body dysmorphic disorder, a body image disorder “characterized by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one’s appearance,” according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
Now, patients are even bringing filtered selfies to their plastic surgeons to illustrate what they’re looking to achieve, according to Dr. Matthew Schulman, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in New York City. One doctor has referred to this phenomenon as “Snapchat Dysmorphia.”
Some have even argued that Snapchat filters might be making us forget what we actually look like.
“There’s an issue with losing perspective on what you actually look like, and it’s not something we talk about much,” said Renee Engeln, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, and author of Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women. Before the days of Snapchat and Instagram, Engeln explained, altered photos were typically reserved for celebrities and models in ads or magazines, and we generally knew these images were edited.
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