When clinics started to reopen last summer, Shadi Kourosh, a dermatologist, noticed a worrying trend: a rise in appearance-related appointments. She says that while it seemed like other things would be the top of her mind at such a time, many people were concerned about their appearance.
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Kourosh is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School of dermatology. She soon found out that other doctors in her field, and those who are related to plastic surgery, had also noticed similar phenomena. When she asked her patients about what drove them to seek treatment, many of them mentioned videoconferencing. They were swept into a world where Zoom calls and Teams meetings are common, and they found that staring at their faces all day on a screen was ruining their self-image.
People became obsessed with their skin's texture and color during the age of Zoom. They were looking for cosmetic procedures, from Botox and Fillers to nose jobs and facelifts. Kourosh and his colleagues interviewed doctors and surgeons to determine if videoconferencing was contributing to body dysmorphic disorder. It was called Zoom dysmorphia.
With the spread of vaccinations seemingly easing the pandemic, research by Kouroshs at Harvard shows that Zoom dysmorphia won't go away. Surveys of over 7,000 people suggest that the psychological scars from the coronavirus will remain with us for some time.
Kourosh says that plastic surgeons and dermatologists saw a rise of patients calling them with unrealistic and unnatural demands long before Covid. Snapchat dysmorphia was first coined to describe the increasing number of people who desired to appear like they had been through a face-altering Snapchat filter.
A patient might bring photos from magazines or clipped images of celebrities to a cosmetic surgeon's office before this. Psychologists discovered that people who looked in the mirror at themselves became more self-conscious even before social media.
Zoom dysmorphia, however, is a different kind of disorder. Zoom dysmorphia is different from Snapchat. Instead of people being aware that Snapchat filters are affecting their appearance, video conferencing can distort our appearance in ways that we may not realize. Kourosh and coauthors pointed out in their original paper.
She claims that front-facing cameras can distort your image in a way similar to a funhouse mirror. They make eyes appear smaller and noses seem bigger. The lens is often closer to you than someone would stand in real life. This magnifies the effect. The most flattering angle is to look down at your smartphone or laptop camera. This is why selfie sticks are so popular.
You are also used to looking at your reflection in the mirror when you're relaxed. Constant video-conferencing can lead to unneeded cosmetic procedures, particularly in young adults, who are more exposed to social media and videoconferencing throughout the pandemic.
International media picked up the term Zoom dysmorphia and Kourosh received a flood of emails from people whose words resonated with it. The new study, due to be published in International Journal of Womens Dermatology in September, found that 71% of the 7,000 respondents were anxious about their return to in-person activities. Nearly 64% had received mental health support.
