Filter Dysmorphia
Written by: Lauren
The young girl shifted the backpack strap that hung from her shoulder until she could reach into the bag and withdraw her cell phone. It wasn’t the latest model, but it got the job done. Her parents weren’t like Zoe’s who made big bucks and always gave her the newest, shiniest gadget. Claire tapped in her passcode and flipped over to the social media platform she was looking for. She turned on the camera, checked out how she looked, and then tapped the option that allowed her to select and add a filter. It only took a nanosecond but the image looking back at her changed drastically. Her lips were more plump, skin smoothed out without any sign of acne or wrinkle, and eyelashes thickened to accentuate her eyes. She got the camera at an angle she liked, took the shot, then tapped the words onto the screen that she wanted to post along with it. When she saw her mom’s car pull up to the curb, she slid the phone back into her bag and headed out the door, but her reflection in the door’s window made her cringe. If only she looked that beautiful in real life. All the time. She climbed into the vehicle and pulled the door shut behind her.
Filter Dysmorphia is described as an obsession with the perceived flaws in one’s face or body. The term itself was created by Dr. Tijion Esho, a plastic surgeon, after receiving and refusing countless requests from patients to have alterations made that would make them look like they do in filtered selfies (Newport Academy, 2020).
It’s a growing occurrence and concern among those who regularly use filters in social media photos and video. Instagram and Snapchat both offer beauty or augmented reality facial filters and platforms such as Zoom or TikTok also have ‘enhance’ or ‘touch up my appearance’ features. As one child psychiatrist pointed out, we’ve been using Zoom A LOT over the course of this pandemic and… “one of the strangest things about Zoom is that you’re looking at yourself (when) usually we don’t look at ourselves when we meet other people” (Haines, 2021).
That increased level of self-awareness could be part of what’s contributing to the disturbing trend. It’s one thing to want to put your best foot forward. It’s another to believe that your face is never good enough on its own without heavy editing. We’ve had to deal with the temptation to compare ourselves to edited advertisements for a long time now. What’s relatively new is the temptation to compare our natural selves to our own edited faces (Haines, 2021).
Add dopamine to that experience and you’ve got a cocktail of a problem just waiting to explode. When we apply filters to ourselves, upload content, then get a lot of likes on it, our brain experiences a release of the “feel good chemical” dopamine that makes us want to repeat the action again (Haines, 2021). But that sinks us deeper and deeper into the hole of presenting a false self to the world, and possibly beginning to believe that who we REALLY are, the way we REALLY look, isn’t attractive or valuable on it’s own.
Social media filters can be fun but please use them mindfully because ‘filter’ is just another word for a mask.
References:
Haines, A. (2021). From ‘Instagram face’ to ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’: How beauty filters are changing the way we see ourselves. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/annahaines/2021/04/27/from-instagram-face-to-snapchat-dysmorphia-how-beauty-filters-are-changing-the-way-we-see-ourselves/?sh=7235da764eff.
Is there really such a thing as Snapchat dysmorphia? (2020). Newport Academy. Retrieved from https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/empowering-teens/snapchat-dysmorphia/.
Challenges/Points:
Filter Dysmorphia is an obsession with perceived flaws in one’s face or body.
We used to compare ourselves to the heavily edited photos of others, now we compare ourselves to heavily edited photos of ourselves.
Filters can be fun but it’s important to remember that they have the power to make us start to feel discontent with our own bodies the way they really are.
Questions:
Do you use filters in your social media posts?
If you use a lot of beauty or facial related filters, why do you?
Ask yourself what you believe right now about your body. Is it good? Is it beautiful? Strong? Healthy? Try to commit to going for one month without using any filters. Do you experience a change in the way you think about your body when you do?
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