Inventions have driven humans to see themselves as inept beings. Not only mentally when supercomputers as well as Artificial Intelligence have proved to be far more efficient than a human brain but also the many social media apps have inculcated in the minds of millions of the notion that they are imperfect when it comes to their facial features.
This has led to a new hysteria: that humans aren’t as perfect and wise as they so smugly believed themselves to be in the past. One issue that has perplexed the medical professionals is the one where patients have walked in to share their experience with them regarding their looks.
Their experiences are horrifying, to put it mildly. Plastic surgeons in particular have seen many patients with crippling anxiety that has hindered their lives.
This new insecurity relating to Snapchat Dysmorphia found expression in the daily conversations of the medical community as well as the knowledgeable folks. This is an obsessive-compulsive disorder and is called Snapchat Dysmorphia. Here I am going to tell you all about this phenomenon.
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What Is Snapchat Dysmorphia?
The Snapchat dysmorphia definition goes like: it is a medical, or rather a mental, disability where the social media users want their looks to emulate the selfies that they take and edit with a plethora of them available on the internet.
This mental disability is for real according to all the mental health experts at least. This has been covered by many of the news journals in the past couple of years.
According to research carried out by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), 55 percent of plastic surgeons say that their clients come to them to have a request about altering their looks to look like their selfies that have been used on social media apps using filters.
Sounds weird, right? However, it is a true phenomenon. According to another research, 1 out of 50 Americans has insecurity thanks to their more perfect photos on social media. This is an obsessive-compulsive disorder, it means these patients spend at least 1 hour of their day thinking about how imperfect they look.
A separate study conducted in 2008 by the reputable journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery has the following to say: “A quick share on Instagram, and the likes and comments start rolling in. These filters and edits have become the norm, altering people’s perception of beauty worldwide,”.
Why there is such a huge increase in Snapchat Dysmorphia?
The reason for such an increase in the number of people suffering from Snapchat Dysmorphia is simple: they use social media to an extent that it aggravates their dormant insecurities.
Patrick J. Byrne, MD, board member of the AAFPRS, says that: “The more time people spend on social media, the more their brains are being affected by the content they are exposing themselves to. For some, this means it encourages them to view their own, natural appearance as being unacceptable.”
Is Surgery the Right Way to Counter Snapchat Dysmorphia?
The answer to this question is plain, no! The reason for that is the fact that perfection doesn’t exist. The things that we may find attractive and perfect today may do not seem so in the future.
The better option for people having this disorder is to forget about their looks and focus on stuff that really matters. Because let’s admit, everyone is beautiful in their own way.
Another thing that can help is the possibility to take breaks from social media apps as much as possible. This can give the patients the much-wanted break from all the negativity that is an essential part of social media.
Here you can read another related article: Anime Filter TikTok
Briefly:
Snapchat Dysmorphia is hampering the lives of thousands of people. This has also impacted the way they used to function.
The medical community is concerned about this phenomenon and fear that it may be the beginning and may rise exponentially in the coming days.