Social media now provides users with a steady stream of images that are edited to fit with the new slim thick ideal. We’re constantly staring at our phones and looking at these images and it creates a normalizing effect. It’s constant comparison, mostly of the bad kind.

There are multiple t...

Another type of comparison occurs when the social media user compares their online, edited self to their real-life body. Online editing software has evolved beyond removing red-eye or whitening teeth. Users can now make their bodies look thinner, plump lips, or remove acne.

The editing tool...

Social scientists are finding users are not just editing settings on social media. Users, especially women, are editing their bodies and faces. And this practice has led to a new standard of beauty.

Problematically, social scientists say this standard of beauty is nearly impossible to obtai...

Studies are seeing a connection between the editing tools and plastic surgery, a trend practitioners call “Snapchat dysmorphia.” 

One study of plastic surgery patients found social media users who edit their photos were 

"Slim thick" is the new body ideal.

Celebrities Kim Kardashian and Nikki Minaj represent this standard — slender face and arms, large breasts, flat stomach, ample hips and a "beach-ball" butt.

Only a small percentage of women’s bodies are going to be able to achieve ...