Social Media and Its Effects on Plastic Surgery

Jan M. Dolalas                                                                        March 2, 2017

I have a question, have you ever taken a selfie, looked at it for 5 minutes and started wishing you had a decent nose, smaller forehead or slimmer face or flawless skin? Sort of like Liza Soberano’s or Kylie Jenner’s mirror selfies. Yes, I can relate, in fact, we all have those moments. Next, who here has thought of undergoing plastic surgery or lasers to get rid of stubborn fats? If I have to be true, I thought of it. In fact, in 2014 almost 640,000 cosmetic surgical procedure patients were minors, aging 13-19 and this is from a Western statistic we’re not yet even including Asia, especially India and Korea, experts believed this figure has climbed from 2014 to present. We all recognize that our immediate society affects our standard of beauty, but I argue that social media is a big part of it too.

Social media and celebrities with the help of our “Face-ist” society, has set some pretty high standards when it comes to beauty. This phenomena, according to Dr. Richard Ellenbogen is directly related to the surgery of public figures, celebrities, and the acceptance of cosmetic procedures on social media. In the past, plastic surgeries were held on a secret by celebrities, claiming it is from a healthy diet and exercise or genes, but in today’s culture, normalizing plastic surgery has had some repercussions to the younger age group with social media as its medium.

Today social media is about being seen, judged or appreciated anywhere, so it is not surprising that the frequency of Social Media likes and followers fuel our vanity. Countless studies about the correlation of Social Media followers and likes to Self-Esteem and Body Image will tell you that social media activity may be driving an uptick in plastic surgery requests, in fact, in one study, browsing through our friend’s life’s success can trigger us into releasing chemicals resulting in feelings of envy, misery and even loneliness. You know the feeling of “#bitter” when you saw your friend happy with her new boyfriend on their trip to Batangas, and your friend looking fit in that black two-piece? Yes, yes, that's the one.

Especially when then-17-year-old Kylie Jenner admitted to getting lip fillers it not only caused shock to avid fans of the Kardashian-Jenner Empire, but it also furthermore normalized plastic surgery for teenagers. The “Kylie Jenner lip challenge” trended for months, as haters and lovers of the young public figure, tried to look like her, causing them pain, swelling, and bruising resulting from these suction techniques.

In 2013, a finding was deemed unique to surgeons and researchers as they saw a 31% increase in plastic surgery requests as a product of how people want to present themselves in social media supporting their personal brand and culture. In the Philippines, with the influence of other Asian countries, we want to get fairer, whiter skin, along with a petite figure and slim face.