Last fall, Instagram banned filters that let users see what they might look like with a little nip and tuck — or a major face-lift.
It’s not hard to see why people thought the digital effects were sketchy — one of the filters was literally called FixMe. It mimicked how a surgeon might draw lines on a person’s face before they go under the knife.
Instagram removed the filters out of concern that they promoted poor body-image stereotypes.
But that hasn’t stopped people from getting a little work done
CNN found that people are still seeking out plastic surgery inspired by their social-media feeds. Patients used to ask for the nose or the chin of a certain celebrity — now they’re asking to look like filter-perfect versions of themselves.
Health experts call the trend “Snapchat Dysmorphia” — it’s related to a condition known as body dysmorphic disorder, which affects 1 in 50 Americans.
The trend is fueling a plastic-surgery boom
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons says ~$16.5B was spent on plastic surgery last year — a record high.
Much of that growth involves minimally invasive procedures like Botox treatments and soft-tissue fillers. There were >5m of those procedures in 2000, compared with 16m in 2018.