When you don’t see eye to eye
The late American author David Foster Wallace had an idea about “videophony”. In his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, long before phones became an extension of our selves, he imagined a world where video calls had become commonplace. He predicted that this would lead to widespread self-consciousness, which in turn would give rise to digital masks that would brighten skin, erase wrinkles, delete dark circles and give us the perfect smile.
Eventually, people would become so obsessed with these digital masks that they would avoid going out and letting people see their real selves.
That prescient idea now has a name. Snapchat dysmorphia is a term coined by British cosmetic surgeon Dr Tijion Esho, first used in a report in 2018. He coined it, he has said, when he started noticing that patients were bringing in filtered pictures of themselves as references for cosmetic procedures.
Filters on photo-driven apps let users acquire the biggest eyes, the smoothest skin, cute freckles, long lashes, luscious lips. It’s easy to fall in love with this version of one’s face. But when you start seeing too much of an image that looks like you but has been altered to a point where it is no longer your real self, this can bring about changes in one’s psychological state and neural wiring, says cosmetic surgeon Dr Debraj Shome of the Esthetic Clinics in Mumbai.
This is further exacerbated by likes and comments on social media. “They are a sort of positive reinforcement that initiates a dopamine surge, which becomes something one wants more of,” says Dr Shome. “It reaches a point where you are now dissatisfied with how you actually look.”
A 2019 study conducted by the Esthetic Clinics and published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology aimed to explore how altering and posting selfies on social media affects an individual. The survey covered 300 men and women aged 21 to 26; 75 each from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad; all active on social media. The subjects were divided into three groups. One group was asked to post filtered images on social media; the second group was asked to post unfiltered images; and the third was asked to read items unrelated to appearance, such as the news. Each group was then asked how they felt (their psychological state).
The first two groups reported higher levels of social anxiety (60% higher in women; 58% in men, on average, when compared with the third group). They also reported a decrease in confidence, and a decrease in their sense of their own physical attractiveness.
This kind of body dysmorphia is causing concern in the medical community, says Dr Shome. “One patient said to me, ‘I hate meeting myself,’” the doctor says. “He said most of the time, when he looks at himself, it’s to take and post pictures, and there’s a filter on. When he sees his actual self, maybe on Zoom or in the mirror, he feels distress.”
Some tech companies are starting to make token changes. Google consulted with mental health experts and, on its newest Pixel phones, face retouching options are turned off rather than on by default.
Some of the language associated with the filters has changed too. “Natural” has been renamed “subtle”. “We’ve steered away from references to “beauty,” by using iconography and language that is value-neutral,” product manager Vinit Modi wrote on Google’s The Keyword blog, “so you can decide what retouching means to you.”