{"id":130336,"date":"2025-02-04T17:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T22:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=130336"},"modified":"2025-04-18T13:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T17:29:30","slug":"study-reveals-social-media-usage-impacts-the-desire-to-undergo-cosmetic-procedures","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/medicine\/articles\/2025\/study-reveals-social-media-usage-impacts-the-desire-to-undergo-cosmetic-procedures\/","title":{"rendered":"Study Reveals Social Media Usage Impacts the Desire to Undergo Cosmetic Procedures"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudy Reveals Social Media Usage Impacts the Desire to Undergo Cosmetic Procedures\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

A particularly troubling consequence of an increase in social media usage is the effect it has on body perception and self-esteem.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n
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Social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram are pivotal in perpetuating \u201cselfie\u201d culture, whereby an individual takes and shares a photo of themselves. Globally, social media usage has been increasing, with at least 3.5 billion users on social media in 2019. As of 2018, the average adult was spending 6.3 hours per day on an internet-connected device. A particularly troubling consequence of an increase in social media usage is the effect it has on body perception and self-esteem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The angle of the \u201cselfie\u201d photographs taken for social media often distorts facial features in a way that leads to dissatisfaction. Medical professionals have reported a phenomenon of \u201csnapchat dysmorphia,\u201d whereby patients seeking cosmetic procedures attempt to emulate filtered and edited versions of themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology <\/em>found that time spent on social media and the use of photo-editing applications correlates with a person\u2019s desire to undergo cosmetic procedures, and likely has led to the increase in cosmetic visits seen during the pandemic. They also found patients who followed and engaged with celebrities and influencers on social media, as well as following and engaging with plastic surgery, dermatology, or other accounts showing the results of cosmetic procedures on social media, were significantly more influenced to have a cosmetic procedure done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile there was an increase in cosmetic focus during the pandemic, until now there has not been data highlighting a clear link or factors that made patients more or less likely to participate in cosmetic treatments,\u201d explained corresponding author Neelam Vashi, MD, associate professor of dermatology and director of the Boston University Cosmetic and Laser Center at Boston Medical Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Vashi, this study indicates that practitioners should discuss social media usage with their patients to better understand the desire to undergo cosmetic procedures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Particularly troubling consequences of increased social media usage are effects on body perception and self-esteem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12906,"featured_media":130337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"research","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"Research"},"tags":[94],"bu-publication":[366],"medicine-article-category":[],"medicine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[381],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/130336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12906"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/130336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133344,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/130336\/revisions\/133344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-article-category?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-topic?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=130336"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=130336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}