14 DAY TRIAL // Social media has breached the distances between us making communication easier but, at the same time, it seems to have caused a huge dent in our self-esteem. The number of cases of men and women asking for plastic surgery because they don't like their photos on Facebook and other channels is on the rise.
The figures have it: more people visit the plastic surgeon to ask for the Facebook facelift, “the surgery for the iPhone generation,” ABC News writes in a recent piece.
Most people feel like they need a stronger jaw, while others believe a facelift would do wonders for them in new photos.
Triana Lavey, a 37-year-old television producer got both, after becoming downright depressed because she didn't like how she looked – but only after she saw herself on Facebook.
Depending on the social networking website and Skype for work, cutting back on the time she spent in front of the computer wasn't an option, so all she could do was to go under the knife, she explains for the aforementioned media outlet.
“I have been self-conscious about my chin, and it's all stemming from these Facebook photos,” she says.
“I think that social media has really changed so much about how we look at ourselves and judge ourselves. Ten years ago, I don't think I even noticed that I had a weak chin,” she adds.
She went to a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and was told that, if she fixed her chin, she would also have to get a facelift and rhinoplasty. She agreed.
“I am blessed; I can afford it. I feel really lucky. I have worked my [backside] off, and I feel like if I can afford it, if it's something I can do to feel good and feel confident, why not? It's 2012,” Lavey says.
Still, she insists that it shouldn't be taken lightly or it may backfire.
“Plastic surgery should be a last-ditch effort. It should be after you work out, after you diet,” she explains.
ABC News notes that the American Society of Plastic Surgeons has announced a 71 percent rise in chin augmentations over the course of a single year. Clearly, Lavey isn't alone.