What is Zoom Dysmorphia
Covid-19 changed everyone’s lives to a point no one could have foreseen. But, after more than a year of online meetings and social events, there are new consequences. One of them is Zoom Dysmorphia.
Zoom Dysmosphia is the feeling of dissatisfaction arising from seeing our own face or body while looking at ourselves on a screen. It happens when an individual gets fixated on their perceived imperfections, to the point of becoming obsessed with them. The outcome can be as harmful as to disturb the whole daily life of an individual.
Images and Self-Perception
In our modern world, most people are somewhat accustomed to looking at themselves on a screen. However, unless you are in show business or an Instagramer, you are probably not very much used to it either. Three to five minutes a day staring at yourself in photographs or a mirror might seem like a lot. Still, it is not enough to become thoroughly familiar with your face. And we need to add that this is leaving aside the fact that mirrored forms are inverted.
This strangeness with our own face or body is very similar to listening to ourselves on a voice recording. It feels strange to us because we usually hear our voice from within our head, thus very different from how others perceive it, from an external perspective. Paradoxically, most of us do not know ourselves as well as other people know us. Add all of this to the all-too-human self-criticism, and you unleash Zoom Dysmorphia.
The Impact of Zoom Dysmorphia on People
Since Covid-19 started, people have been looking at themselves more often than ever before. The greater amount of time spent by a significant percentage of the population looking at themselves, along with the rise of aesthetic surgeries, seems legitimate enough to establish a correlation between both phenomena. As a result, the term ‘Zoom Dysmorphia’ was actually coined just a few months after Covid started, soon becoming a trending topic.
This could only have been so if most people already had a notion about it. Since then, complex scientific data has been gathered to confirm such suspicion. According to the US International Journal of Women’s Dermatology more than half the medical experts surveyed reported a 50%+ increase in aesthetic consultations since lockdown started. In contrast, the BBC reported a 70%+ increase.
How much of this is due to isolation, Covid-related stress, loneliness, and other consequences of the pandemic are very much up to speculation. However, many patients have directly cited Zoom and Video-Calls as the main source of distress. There is no doubt that image alteration by computer and phone cameras can seriously surprise viewers with distorted images of themselves, so much so that their whole self-perception may severely change.
Hair Transplantation in Turkey: a Solution for Patients Who Suffer Zoom Dysmorphia
According to MCAN Health’s doctors’ statements, excessive time spent on virtual Zoom meetings might lead specific individuals to develop self-critical comparisons to other participants. It can be due to a whole set of reasons, but it might not be as damaging as one may think. After all, beauty, truth, happiness, and meaning are the deepest seekings of human existence and have remained so for thousands of years. It is perfectly fine to want to feel better about oneself, and look younger or more handsome. This is the conclusion many men are planning to have a hair transplant in Turkey to fix their baldness problems.
Why Do Patients Still Prefer Turkey Over Their Home Countries for Plastic and Hair Transplant Procedures?
Tens of thousands of patients from all over the world keep on choosing Turkey as their medical tourism destination over their home countries for three main and compelling reasons:
– Price: it is less expensive, half the European price or more -and it includes a patient’s stay at 4 or 5 stars hotels for up to a whole week-.
– Quality: Turkish hospitals are full of top-notch doctors and surgeons, with outstanding facilities that do not envy their European or American counterparts.
– Discover a new country and city: Patients get the chance to experience the wonders of Istanbul, one of the biggest and most cosmopolitan cities in the world, full of art, culture, history, and delicious gastronomy.
Sounds convincing enough to tens of thousands every year.
