Snapchat filters are the new plastic surgery goal

published 6 August 2018

Where once plastic surgeons would be handed an image of a celebrity to inspire their work, now patients are bringing in their own selfies modified by a flattering social media filter.

This horrifying development in the human psyche is called "Snapchat dysmorphia," and it's explained in a new journal article published by Boston University School of Medicine researchers. Patients are "seeking out cosmetic surgery to look like filtered versions of themselves ... with fuller lips, bigger eyes, or a thinner nose," the report explains. "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."

"Sometimes I have patients who say, 'I want every single spot gone, and I want it gone by this week,' or, 'I want it gone tomorrow,' because that's what this filtered photograph gave them," Neelam Vashi, a co-author of the article, told The Washington Post. “That's not realistic. I can't do that. I can make people a lot better, but it will take me a lot more time than a week, and it won't be 100 percent."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox