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Getting closer to your virtual image has become a real drug for some (illustration image). Getty Images

Having a "perfect" face or body is now within everyone's reach with the proliferation of applications for "smartphones" for retouching "selfies" and other self-portraits. A tyranny of filters that turns into an obsession among some Internet users attracted by plastic surgery to look like a fantasized virtual image.

With the advent of digital, “ photo filters have become a real drug, ” concludes a medical study published by the American Library of Medicine. This addiction to retouching software would promote dysmorphophobia, that is to say an obsessive compulsive disorder which causes certain individuals to perceive certain parts of their bodies as misshapen. The problem is said to affect 2% of the world's population.

Adolescents, the first victims of the tyranny of beauty

" The first victims are adolescents, in perpetual quest for approval of their selfies on social networks ", explains Patrick Clervoy, psychiatrist doctor in Toulon and author of the book The powers of the mind on the body , editions Odile Jacob . “ We see people totally captive of the image that the selfie will send back to them. On the internet, young people want, for example, to be the absolute copy of Ken, Barbie's companion. Some go even further in this approach as there is a surgical offer to meet them. On the other hand, you already have reactions, for example, people who practice bodybuilding, whose physical efforts, tell us " it is I who decides to sculpt my body by practicing a sport ". I find that it is already much healthier than going for extreme surgery like elf ears, forked tongues, reworked cheekbones, or others . ”

Fewer faults, more likes

There are many applications for mobile image editing. All are inspired, moreover, by software from the firm Adobe, Photoshop, not to name it, turning anyone into a movie star on a computer. On smartphones , the Instagram platform has democratized this mania for beautifying portraits, soon to be copied by other applications like BeautyPlus, Perfect Me, or InstaBeauty.

The field of video on the Internet is not immune to the phenomenon either. Tik Tok, for example, the social network for exchanging short videos , developed by the Chinese company ByteDance, offers its 500 million subscribers worldwide, apps that erase the flaws of your face. In this case, artificial intelligence programs are used by recalculating facial features in real time. Know that this tyranny of appearance on social networks makes fun of your inner beauty. Self-esteem, it should be noted, that no selfie or cosmetic surgeon in the world is yet capable of modifying.