Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Sunday, Aug 24, 2025

‘I believe it’s a mental health issue’: the rise of Zoom dysmorphia

‘I believe it’s a mental health issue’: the rise of Zoom dysmorphia

Time spent on the ‘funhouse mirror’ of video conferencing calls has resulted in a distortion of our self image
The effects of staring at ourselves for hours at a time during video conference calls has resulted in a breakdown of how we perceive our own self image.

The phenomenon has been nicknamed “Zoom dysmorphia” by the dermatologist and Harvard Medical School professor Dr Shadi Kourosh, who has noticed an increase in appointment requests for appearance-related issues during the pandemic.

“I was concerned that the time spent on these cameras was negatively affecting people’s perceptions of their appearance,” she says. Kourosh likens the video conference via phone camera to a “funhouse mirror” because, she says: “[People] are not looking at a true reflection of themselves. They don’t realise it is a distorted mirror.” She says factors such as the angle and how close we are to the camera mask how we really look.

At the start of the pandemic, Kourosh noticed a strange pattern in the types of consultations she was getting. “People were clamouring to get into cosmetic surgeries during a time when people were being encouraged to not take any unnecessary medical risks,” she says. “The preoccupation with how people felt they looked was unusual.”

She noted there had been a spike in specific requests for nose jobs and smoothing out forehead wrinkles. And the more Kourosh looked into it the more she wondered in what ways these could be connected to time spent video conferencing. “People were complaining about sagging skin in the lower face and neck. We wondered if that was because people were holding their smartphones at odd angles when they were looking down,” she says. In March of this year, British plastic surgeons reported a 70% increase in consultations.

Kourosh and her team looked more deeply into how cameras on computers and the front-facing type on phones, can distort images. “When you take a photograph at close range you are more at danger of distorting the image,” she explains. “With a front-facing camera, we found that image distortion is worse the closer we are and we tend to take selfies and sit at our laptops at close range.”

And while Snapchat dysmorphia (selfie filters leading to a rise in botox usage) has existed since 2015 and is connected to so-called “alien face” (big eyes, abnormally raised cheek bones), Zoom dysmorphia is different in a key way. “[With snapchat dysmorphia] patients would come in to the see the cosmetic consultant with a photo of themselves that would be heavily filtered, [yet] there’s an awareness on the patient’s behalf that there’s some dysmorphia going on,” says Kourosh. “But with Zoom dysmorphia it’s unconscious. People don’t know about the distortion that is happening with their cameras.”

She says lockdown created a “perfect storm” of self-image issues. “As well as looking at themselves for video-conferencing calls, people were living in isolation, spending their spare time looking at heavily distorted images of other people on social media. I believe it’s a mental health issue.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
High-Stakes Trump-Putin Summit on Ukraine Underway in Alaska
Iranian Protection Offers Chinese Vehicle Shipments a Cost Advantage over Japanese and Korean Makers
Saudi Arabia accelerates renewables to curb domestic oil use
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez announce engagement
Asia-Pacific dominates world’s busiest flight routes, with South Korea’s Jeju–Seoul corridor leading global rankings
Private Welsh island with 19th-century fort listed for sale at over £3 million
Sam Altman challenges Elon Musk with plans for Neuralink rival
Australia to Recognize the State of Palestine at UN Assembly
The Collapse of the Programmer Dream: AI Experts Now the Real High-Earners
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
×