Celebrities, reality TV stars, influencers… social networks, and in particular Instagram, reflect a feminine and masculine ideal that is often impossible to achieve. To look like their favorite personalities, young people do not hesitate to turn to the solution that seems to them the most effective: cosmetic surgery.
There is no better business than image business in an age when social media is widely used. Instagram has more than a billion monthly active users worldwide and nearly 21 million users in France. For their part, Snapchat and TikTok are not left out. The first has 22 million monthly active users while the second has 14.9 million. It is on these three social networks that celebrities, bloggers, influencers, youtubers or even reality TV stars post pictures of themselves on a daily basis. highlighting. Generous chest, XXL hips, very thin waist, full mouth, thin nose, plump cheekbones, these are now the beauty criteria of a large number of millennials (15-34 year olds), influenced by what they see on Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok.
In 2019, during its congress bringing together more than 10,000 surgeons and professionals in the sector, the IMCAS (International Master Course of Aging Skin) unveiled figures attesting to an evolution of the surgical procedures performed. , but also customers. For the first time, 18-34 year olds use cosmetic surgery more than 50-60 year olds. They thus become the second age group to use cosmetic surgery, just behind the 35-50 age group. If before the facelift and Botox® injections were among the acts most performed by aesthetic doctors, today this is no longer the case. “ The most requested operations are hyaluronic acid injections to plump the mouth, and lipofillings or BBL [Brazilian Butt Lift] for the buttocks », Explains plastic surgeon Christelle Santini to the newspaper The world. The latter practice, which consists of taking belly fat and injecting it into the buttocks, has increased significantly in recent years. Kim Kardashian West – 241 million subscribers on Instagram -, Kendall Jenner – 179 million subscribers on Instagram-, Cardi B – 103 million subscribers on Instagram -, Nabilla Vergara – 6.7 million of subscribers on Instagram – or even Maëva Ghennam – 3.2 million subscribers on Instagram – are now the new references of these young people who want to perform acts of cosmetic surgery to be like them.
Social networks, a filter paradise
On Instagram, photos of women and men who have had surgery to achieve their own ideal – and no one can judge them for that – follow one another. Photo editing is also widely used to post a photo on this social network, without this being indicated. In a magazine report Seven to Eight on TF1, Maïssane, influencer with 485,000 subscribers on Instagram, reveals that she uses photo editing software on a daily basis before posting a snapshot on her account.
My routine is to photoshop my head. I can photoshop absolutely any area of my body.
The sight of all these bodies and faces, having been altered in one way or another, creates a disconnect in young people between their real appearance and the image they have of them. Then arrives dysmorphia. This mental disorder affects more and more people. When a person has dysmorphia, they are convinced that they have a physical defect that is not really there and then focus on it. This disorder is not to be confused with dysmorphophobia which is the fear of having a physical defect in the future.
But it’s not just the social media stars to blame. Instagram filters that anyone can use change the shape of the face, the color of the eyes or the size of the nose when it is not the appearance of the skin and reflect a distorted self-image. ” We are talking about Snapchat syndrome. [Les jeunes] take a photo with Snapchat, they use the filters and they come to us asking us to look like their filters »Analysis for Seven to Eight the plastic surgeon Laurence Benouaiche.
Attention to drifts
The role of cosmetic surgeons is therefore important. They often have to try to make young people listen to reason who want a breast that is far too generous for their morphology, full lips which would not be in adequacy with the harmony of their face for example or who accumulate cosmetic surgeries. ” We spend a lot of time explaining to them that it is dangerous, that it should not be done. Some of them omit that they have ever had injections and will continue. Sometimes they exceed the necessary security conditions », Tells on Europe 1 Aurélie Fabié-Boulard, surgeon and co-founder of the French Society of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
On social networks, accessing information about surgical procedures has never been easier. Surgeons do not hesitate to appear with celebrities on social networks to promote their clinic as well as the surgical act they have just performed.. For their part, influencers praise them in their stories. A win-win exchange since in general, thanks to the very large number of people who follow them, operations and less invasive acts are offered to them against the visibility they offer to cosmetic surgeons and their clinic. More and more unscrupulous Instagram accounts have also opened and promise hyaluronic acid injections for less.. But these low prices actually hide practitioners who practice illegally.
But beware, this professional drift concerns a small number of aesthetic surgeons. In the normal process of making an appointment for a surgical act, whatever it is, the professional must ensure the motivation of his patient, but also that his request can be made. without putting it in danger. If all the criteria are met, he.she can then proceed to the act of medicine or cosmetic surgery, whether it is simple injections of hyaluronic acid or the latest fashionable surgery, lipofilling.
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