Link Between Depression and a Person’s View of Their Aesthetics

Are you looking for a link between depression and a person’s view of their aesthetics? Indeed, this maybe something our forebears didn’t have much about which to worry. However, we are not saying our forbearers did not care about their looks.

For millennia, people have been concerned about how they look, and more importantly, how they look to other people. For instance, the ancient Egyptians used cosmetics made from the gum of frankincense to conceal wrinkles. Also, Africans would chew the same to improve their breath smell (Wikipedia, 2020).

In these ancient times, and up to relatively recently, our interactions were physical encounters. Certainly, all meetings took place face-to-face. Also, for most people, such social encounters would be on an individual basis or in relatively small groups (Anderson & Rainie, 2020). 

However, today, with social media’s omnipresence, social encounters are no longer remain within a circle of a few friends (Drexler, 2013). Consequently, nowadays, everyone can judge someone else’s appearance. Indeed, thousands of people that you’ve never met can judge your appearance. Moreover, the majority of these you will never meet, and quite a few you would never want to meet!

Therefore, social media has seemingly warped the way people view themselves and others. Consequently, it leaves many people feeling miserable with the way they see themselves. Sadly, for some, this means falling into bouts of depression (Hern, 2018). 

Aesthetics and How People See Themselves

Aesthetics is the study of beauty and taste. More importantly, in the context of this blog, how people evaluate and interpret things(Scruton, 2020). In the world before social media, a person would generally receive positive comments on their appearance from friends, family, or others that cared about that person’s feelings. It would have been an infrequent occasion, and indeed deemed socially unacceptable, to make a negative comment about someone’s appearance to their face (Judi, 2019). 

However, people’s aesthetics are fair game for internet trolls and social media bullies (Baraniuk, 2016). The result is an increase in depression cases as a result of negative appearance perceptions (Hern, 2018).

But it is not just active attacks that lead to cases of people becoming depressed. The proliferation of ‘beauty’ filters that enhance photographs, often to the point of being ridiculous (Evans, 2020), causes (generally young) people to experience angst and depression about not reaching a certain level of ‘beauty’.

Indeed, what is worse, in many ways, are those who use such filters blatantly to ‘get under the skin’ of others. For instance, a recent social media post by (celebrity?) Khloé Kardashian appeared to be a deliberate attempt to make others feel bad about their looks (Lilly, 2020).

Summary

With so much emphasis on how you look, but also how good you look through a filter, it is little wonder that there is a link between depression and a person’s view of their aesthetics.

Nevertheless, if you think a non-surgical cosmetic treatment could help you feel better about self, please feel free to contact us for a consultation. (a link for consultation).

Anderson, J., & Rainie, L. (2020, August 17). Stories From Experts About the Impact of Digital Life. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/03/the-positives-of-digital-life/

Baraniuk, C. (2016, March 21). What is the best way to stop internet trolls? BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20160318-what-is-the-best-way-to-stop-internet-trolls

Drexler, P. (2013, October 17). Your Social Life Is Not Your Social Media. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201310/your-social-life-is-not-your-social-media

Evans, G. (2020, August 10). Joe Rogan shares bizarre picture of himself to prove that ‘satanic’ filters are ‘distorting beauty’. indy100. https://www.indy100.com/article/joe-rogan-instagram-filters-woman-9663181

Hern, A. (2018, September 17). Instagram is supposed to be friendly. So why is it making people so miserable? The Guardian. https://theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/17/instagram-is-supposed-to-be-friendly-so-why-is-it-making-people-so-miserable

Judi , A. (2019, September 27). Dealing with negative comments about appearance. Heart Your Body. https://www.heartyourbody.co.uk/dealing-with-negative-comments-about-appearance/

Lilly, A. (2020, August 28). Khloe Kardashian’s new face and Photoshop fail. Who. https://www.who.com.au/khloe-kardashian-face-photoshop-fail

Scruton, R. Aesthetics. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/aestheticsWikipedia. (2020, October 5). History of cosmetics. Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cosmetics