Delphine Schiltz 06:24, January 16, 2023
A smooth complexion, an exceptionally white smile, perfect lips... The proliferation of filters on social networks can permanently disrupt the perception of some teenagers in their image.
If some young people take a step back from the filters, others find it difficult to assume themselves naturally.
These retouching machines can cause real discomfort.
They make beautiful cheekbones, refine the face and waist, whiten the teeth.
There are many editing apps on social media.
Lola, 15, uses them little.
She sometimes plays with luminosity filters to achieve a better complexion and uses a concealer pen to remove her pimples.
"I don't understand why some people change so much. Retouch a little, yes, but not entirely," she says.
But although she has hindsight, the filter can do damage.
We call it dysmorphobia, the obsession with a slight or even non-existent physical defect, which we perceive in an excessive way.
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"If I was asked to stop, I would not publish any more photos"
"When I look at myself through a filter, I tell myself that I am super beautiful. When you come back to reality, I would say that you are disappointed in yourself. My eyebrows are not perfect, my lips have a problem I have a pimple there, my skin tone is less beautiful than I thought… We see each other and we say to ourselves: but why don't I have a filter on me all the time?", says the teenager.
For her, there is no question of publishing selfies without retouching: "if I was asked to stop overnight, I would no longer publish any photos", she admits.
"For fear of judgment from others and meanness in the comments…You never know."
A banal dysmorphophobia in adolescence…
Depreciating or rejecting certain parts of your body is normal, says Doctor Dominique-Adèle Cassuto.
“Teenagers are in full construction and they are in a period of banal and transient dysmorphophobia,” she explains.
"It's natural not to understand, not to like certain parts of your body because it changes very quickly and you want to look a bit like everyone else. You leave your child's body to go in a body that we don't know. It's a bit of the unknown".
However, the nutritionist, also author of a book for teenagers, does not want to demonize TikTok, Instagram and Co.
"I find that social networks make teenagers do a lot of extraordinary things. It's an open mind. Thanks to them, they learn to cook, garden, travel,...".
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… that still needs to be monitored and supported
But, it is still necessary to monitor this factory of complexes, estimates Doctor Cassuto who brought social networks into his consultations, "because I realized that I was missing out on a large part of the lives of my patients. , if I wasn't interested in it," she says.
According to her, this dysmorphophobia “can last a few hours, a few days… And then, it can last longer. What is annoying is when it continues into adulthood and causes eating disorders”, explains the specialist.
To protect against this, the doctor recommends stopping notifications, explaining the bubble effect of social networks.
But also, "to go and see parody accounts that show the back of the filters", advises Doctor Cassuto.
Dysmorphophobia affects nearly 2% of the world's population.