For Great Looks on Social Network Sites People Going to Plastic Surgeons

Doctors are seeing increase in requests for particular types of surgery which is friendly for video or for uploading picture on the website

People who are active on social networking sites are forced to a certain extent to live in a fictitious world, because most of them have this tendency of being friends with aesthetically hot people. And this creates pressure especially amongst the youngsters to start bothering about their look.  Not only this, with advanced applications that provide people with the facility to have video chats, people reassess the way they look in the pictures on video.

Thus, social networking sites seem to be pushing people into the arms of plastic surgeons. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, there's been a dramatic rise in the number of cosmetic procedures performed over the last 15 years. 

Surgeons have seen rise in cosmetic surgeries like facelifts and nose jobs. One surgeon from California, Robert K Sigal, has developed a specific procedure related to the issue called a 'FaceTime Facelift', to accommodate patients unhappy with close-up views of their appearance on social networking sites.

Dr. Adam Schaffner, a renowned New York plastic surgeon said, "People will come in and say, 'I saw myself in the mirror, but I didn't really notice it until I saw myself on Facebook or on my iPhone or iPad.' When you look in the mirror you're seeing the mirror image of yourself. But when you see yourself on social media, you're seeing yourself the way the world sees you."

Dr Sigal said, "People don't come in asking for a FaceTime Facelift per say, what they'll say is, "I don't like the way I look when I'm video-chatting. I seem full and heavy under the neck.'

In such cases even tools like Photoshop fail to be of good us. The social media driven conceit is driving plastic surgeons to cater to the growing market. Dr Schaffner performs surgery called as "Lifestyle Life," a minimally invasive procedure to tighten up the face.

A report published in February by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that cosmetic surgeries were up 2 percent year-over-year in 2011, despite the floundering economy, with a 5 percent rise in facelifts and a 71 percent increase in chin augmentations, the two most Facebook-friendly surgeries.

Erik Deckers, author of the book 'Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself', said, "Plastic surgery isn't necessary, but I can see their thinking. I think a good picture is important in developing your brand. We want to project the very best image we can. Ultimately, social media has become our résumé. But if you've got something on the photo that you don't want showing up, Photoshop is still much cheaper than plastic surgery. I'd like to think that it's not that important, that we don't judge people based only on their appearance but rather that social media gives us a chance to look at people as a whole: what are their thoughts, interests-we can find all that. If that's all being killed because of a photo, then maybe that's the kind of person you don't want to be associated with."