TOgoodbye beauty filters on Instagram: mental health thanks. Everyone’s life will benefit from it, but especially that of the youngest. Unkempt, with wrinkles in place, dark circles clearly visible. Age and reality return to tell their story on social media after the stop of Instagram filters. A great advantage for everyone’s mental health, but especially for the youngest. From January 14th Half has disabled the Spark section, the third-party platform that in seven years has allowed content creators to upload over 2 million filters to Instagram and Facebook. The decision came after TikTok’s decision to ban beauty filters for underage users at the end of November.
Welcome back real and real faces: away with faces without wrinkles, very thin bodies and sculpted abs, expressionless and disturbing alien looks. A reflection that also concerns mental health. According to experts, this measure could have a positive impact on mental health, easing the pressure towards inaccessible ideals of perfection and excessively idealized beauty. Here is the opinion of EMDR psychotherapist Elisa Stefanati and of aesthetic doctor, the Dr. Laura Mazzotta.
Goodbye filters from January 14th
As announced by the company, from January 14, 2025, Instagram says goodbye to filters created by users or third parties through dedicated tools. This is a drastic reduction: around 2 million filters used more or less daily are now disappearing only the “official” ones created by Meta remain, which are 140.
Filters and social anxiety, a disaster so far
The restrictions would seem to concern only beauty filters created by users using augmented reality and artificial intelligence to drastically change physical appearance and increase beauty in a hyper-realistic way. So are we moving towards saying goodbye to wrinkle-free faces, skinny bodies and sculpted abs? The measure has sparked a wide debate. As he writesAnsa agency“The move can be interpreted as a push towards exclusive use of the company’s products but it also comes after the opening of a broad debate on the criticism of these tools accused of create standards that fuel depression and anxiety among young people“.
Stop beauty filters on Instagram: here’s why mental health is grateful (Getty Images)
Unattainable standards of beauty
«In a society centered on unattainable standards of beauty, in which the search for perfection seems to be a priority, people and especially the boys they are driven to find strategies of any kind just to look more beautiful and get the most likes. Many teenagers – explains Dr. Elisa Stefanati, EMDR Psychotherapist – spend hours taking photos and selfies which, before being published, are rigorously manipulated and processed with specific programs and filters to eliminate every defect».
Filters, a known mental health risk
«Everyone can look perfect thanks to social filters. Even the web’s most loved stars have been infected by this craze, but for kids, who often live according to the number of likes received, the phenomenon can prove to be very dangerous. The risk is that by seeing sculpted abs, full lips and a face free of wrinkles, encountering dark circles or pimples – in front of the real mirror and not modified by the App – could trigger dysfunctional dynamics in terms of mental health » warns Stefanati.
The message of the search for perfection must be revised
«Beauty filters risk validating the message that only a face free of pimples, wrinkles, dark circles, small hairs, redness or scars, therefore a face free of imperfections, is socially accepted and acceptable. What is the price to pay? Universally accepting unhealthy narcissistic standards, a model of mental functioning that imposes any version of oneself with some defects as intolerable. But also theobsession with the search for a perfect body/face. And this can easily correlate with the risk of slipping into depressive states, dissatisfaction towards one’s physical appearance”, specifies Dr. Stefanati.
Out-of-control filtering and defect correction
Hence the skincare craze at 12 years old, the compulsive purchase online and otherwise of creams, anti-wrinkle serums, masks, excessive and out-of-control beauty treatments in adolescence. Taking care of yourself, correcting pimples or dark circles at 14 is one thing, but at this age the obsession with eliminating defects and “wrinkles” is a symptom that must attract attention.
«It is indeed impossible to compete with an image made perfect by a filter – continues Dr. Stefanati – because it hasn’t nothing to do with real faces and real bodies. Therefore, such a measure could have a positive impact on mental health, aiming at ease the pressure towards inaccessible ideals of perfection.
Excessive filters: watch out for Dysmorphophobia
«The excess of photo retouching, and also aesthetic medicine interventions (when they are excessive), can represent a possible sign of insecurity which leads to a disorder called body dysmorphia, characterized by the use of surgical interventions not justified by medical necessity», he warns the psychotherapist.
The person is pushed into the intervention to improve and acquire greater self-confidence, but after the intervention the satisfaction and positive emotions have a minimal duration and the negative emotions return to take over together with the desire for another intervention, which will not be the last.”
Adolescence, the age at risk
«Adolescence is a crucial point in which the body begins to change and the desire also arises to choose what to improve in order to like oneself and be liked more. It is important not to underestimate the unease behind this need, to try to understand what could push the adolescent to resort to cosmetic surgery early. Adolescence brings with it all the problems regarding self-esteem, the desire to please others, first relationships and the difficulties in accepting oneself”, concludes Dr. Stefanati.
How far does the desire to like yourself go?
«We must take into account how young people today are subjected, from an early age, to the pressure of the media and social models that spread a precise idea of beauty, inspired by thinness and image control.
Each of us – explains Dr. Laura Mazzotta, expert in Aesthetic Medicine at Aesthe Medica in Ferrara – can have insecurities regarding our aesthetic or physical side, which can have a negative impact on our mood or emotional balance in daily life.
After the filters, excessive aesthetic medicine
«Through the application of filters, photo retouching, and an excess of aesthetic medicine interventions, one has the sensation and possibility of improving the quality of life by acting on the aesthetic points that are perceived as weak and which consequently create discomfort in the relationship with oneself themselves.
Performance anxiety?
If implemented as an intervention aimed at improving personal well-being, the use of these expedients can represent a personal possibility that works and helps in one’s well-being. However, in some cases, behind the use of aesthetic medicine there are intrinsic motivations that push the person to act non-rationally and implement interventions that no longer have the person’s well-being as their basic motivation”, explains Dr. Laura Mazzotta.
The emphasis on appearance
«We live in a society that places an almost obsessive emphasis on external appearance. From advertising to social media, beauty is constantly shown, celebrated and, sometimes, imposed as an essential value.
All this creates a considerable social pressurepushing many people, and often young people, to want to adhere to ideal aesthetic standards, to feel accepted and respected. The role of social media has amplified this phenomenonintroducing a “culture of comparison” in which everyone is continually asked to expose their life and appearance. This unequal comparison can generate insecurities, pushing people to perceive their defects (real or presumed) as more evident, exclusionary and insurmountable”, concludes Dr. Mazzotta.
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