The omnipresence of social networks in the digital age in which we live has led to many changes. Some of them have been very positive, such as the immediacy of information and direct access to updated content, but others have not had the same effect.

Social networks have contributed to creating a distorted image of oneself. It is what is known as body dysmorphiaa psychological disorder related to the perception of one’s own image that leads to detecting defects in oneself and magnifying them disproportionately.

Instagram and Snapchat, for example, are based on sharing photographs and videos of yourself or your daily life. Both applications have the option to add filters to imagesmodifying them, beautifying them and, in some cases, even changing the actual appearance of the photo completely.

Some change aspects specifically related to photography such as saturation, brightness or lighting. While others They modify the features of the protagonists of the imagesuch as the shape of the face, the color of the skin and eyes, the structure of the nose and cheekbones and even the color of the hair.

The constant use of filters leads to the habit of seeing yourself with them. Thus, a real notion of one’s own image is lost, distorting it and leading to constructing a false version of oneself. Thus, the person we see in the mirror seems unknown because he is not the same person we see in the mirrors. selfies.

This generates psychological problems of insecurity, low self-esteem, depression and anxiety.. Many people feel helpless for not looking like their image with filters and use makeup to try to look as similar as possible. In this way, they not only deny their real image, but actively try to change it.

In some cases, the most extreme, People request cosmetic surgeries or cosmetic treatments to change their faces with the aim of resembling the appearance given to them by the filters. Many surgeons receive photos of these people with filters as a template for what they want to achieve.

The head of the Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery Service at the La Zarzuela University Hospital in Madrid explained in an interview for the newspaper El Mundo that The term Snapchat dysmorphia was coined a few years ago to define a group of people who in some way have an alteration or distortion of their own image.

Now, this has become generalized and extended to other social networks such as TikTok and Instagram, in which one’s image is the protagonist of the content. A disorder that, without a doubt, is very dangerous, since involves behaviors on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum and in some cases leads to avoidance of social interaction.

There are many known cases in which some people undergo hundreds of operations to look like someone in particular, such as the viral case of the Hungarian model Bárbara Luna Sipos, who spent thousands of dollars on operations to look like Barbie.

Now, people no longer aspire to look similar to someone else’s, but rather to look like themselves with filters. Knowing a version that we like more than the real one leads us to try to transmit that image to others. An appearance that, far from being an improved version of our appearance, is rather an impossible version.

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