Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. May is Mental Health Awareness month,
Speaker 1: the month where we raise consciousness about mental health issues
Speaker 1: and the month where we thank our therapists for giving
Speaker 1: us a fake name when they make fun of us
Speaker 1: to their friends. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are doing worse than ever because it turns
Speaker 1: out that the technology keeping us connected is also making
Speaker 1: us feel like shits. With the stress of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: body image issues have been on the rise. Percent of women,
Speaker 1: twenty six percent of men said COVID nineteen negatively affected
Speaker 1: how attractive they felt. The countless hours spent on zoom
Speaker 1: or video calls is causing more and more Americans to
Speaker 1: be insecure about their parents. Video conferencing presents a constant, unedited,
Speaker 1: unfiltered look at ourselves that can be unsettling, and those
Speaker 1: front basing cameras were all using aren't doing us any favors.
Speaker 1: Things like the nose could actually appear larger and wider,
Speaker 1: and the eyes could have far smaller. Not only is
Speaker 1: a person confronting their own reflection with much greater intensity
Speaker 1: and frequency than they ever had before, but they were
Speaker 1: staring at a distorted reflection This is all part of
Speaker 1: an alarming new trend coined zoom dysmorphia. Yes, zoom dysmorphia.
Speaker 1: It's when you realize that it's not just everyone else
Speaker 1: who looks terrible on zoom, and that's really not cool.
Speaker 1: You know, Zoom shouldn't make you feel bad about your looks.
Speaker 1: It should make you feel bad about your dirty ass
Speaker 1: living room. But you have to remember, people, this is
Speaker 1: a new phenomenon that we're dealing with. Humans didn't evolve
Speaker 1: to see their own faces all the time. That's not normal.
Speaker 1: I mean, except for twins. I guess they don't count
Speaker 1: their freaks. It's like another one of you, what I
Speaker 1: think about it. For most of human history, if you
Speaker 1: wanted to know what you look like, you had to
Speaker 1: get your friend to smash up some blueberry and rub
Speaker 1: it on a cave wall. You look like this. Damn
Speaker 1: really hold a spear like that. Now. The good news
Speaker 1: is that it's likely we'll all be using zoom a
Speaker 1: lot less in the near future. But unfortunately, there's another
Speaker 1: technology that also makes us feel bad about ourselves, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about photo filters. Yes, they've helped mankind realize it's
Speaker 1: dream of puking rainbows. But some of the most popular
Speaker 1: filters just help you look more attractive, which may sound harmless,
Speaker 1: but it could be anything but. Cutting edge apps and
Speaker 1: social media filters are allowing ordinary people to enhance their
Speaker 1: online photos to impossible perfection. In some cases, it's sparking
Speaker 1: a concerning phenomena. With apps like Phase Twoe, you have
Speaker 1: the power to completely transform yourself. Bigger eyes, skinnier nose
Speaker 1: and jawline, smaller butt or flatter belly, whiter teeth, smoother skin.
Speaker 1: You can do it right on your phone. When I
Speaker 1: take a selfie, I always use filters. I wish I
Speaker 1: could look like my filter itself in real life. This
Speaker 1: obsession with pusonal appearance that selfie culture encourages may have
Speaker 1: darker implications for mental health. A study in the Journal
Speaker 1: of the American Medical Association says filtered pictures can take
Speaker 1: a toll on self esteem, body image, and even lead
Speaker 1: to body dysmorphic disorder. I do feel like we're losing
Speaker 1: touch with what reality looks like. We're already getting there
Speaker 1: to the point where we're expecting people to look as
Speaker 1: unhuman as possible. Yeah, photo editing folters set unrealistic expectations
Speaker 1: for beauty, the same way fruit ninja sets up unrealistic
Speaker 1: expectations of how easy it is to slice floating fruit.
Speaker 1: And once you have this foltered version of yourself in
Speaker 1: your head, you become dissatisfied with what you really look like.
Speaker 1: So in essence, we're basically catfishing ourselves. But if these
Speaker 1: editing apps can turn adults into quivering blobs of insecurity,
Speaker 1: just imagine what they're doing to kids. Psychologists warn these
Speaker 1: photo filters can be particularly troubling for teens and young
Speaker 1: people who are still developing their sense of self. Girls
Speaker 1: in one survey say they compare the way they look
Speaker 1: to other people on social media instand like I follow
Speaker 1: people like Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner, and they all
Speaker 1: have this time measure like body image that everyone is
Speaker 1: expecting from this generation. Young girls on social media have
Speaker 1: a negative body perception, with one in seven girls reporting
Speaker 1: being unhappy with the way they look at the end
Speaker 1: of elementary school, and that number almost doubling to nearly
Speaker 1: one in three by age fourteen. Of young girls are
Speaker 1: using photo retouching apps. To change the way they look
Speaker 1: before posting pictures, and those with high scores for manipulating
Speaker 1: their photos were associated with high scores for body related
Speaker 1: at eating concerns. Any of you ever questioned your body
Speaker 1: because of what you see on social media? Shaye Man,
Speaker 1: This is a vicious cycle for teenagers. Social media makes
Speaker 1: them unhappy with how they look, so then they use
Speaker 1: full to which perpetuate the unrealistic expectations for themselves and others.
Speaker 1: Plus they're teenagers, so they're doing all of this while
Speaker 1: they're driving, which puts everyone at risk, and all the
Speaker 1: insecurity this creates is harmful for teenagers because I know
Speaker 1: it's hard to tune all of this out, but teams
Speaker 1: shouldn't be obsessing over this stuff. Like I honestly wish
Speaker 1: I could sit all teenagers down and say, hey, don't
Speaker 1: worry about how you look. The planet's going to die
Speaker 1: out before you're thirty. It doesn't matter. Now. It's bad
Speaker 1: enough when people wish they had the perfect Instagram look
Speaker 1: in real life. What's worse is when they actually try
Speaker 1: to make it happen. The more people look at doctored
Speaker 1: up images, the more likely they are to actually start
Speaker 1: seeking out cosmetic procedures at younger ages. These cosmetic procedures
Speaker 1: are becoming so popular with teens, plastic surgeons have coined
Speaker 1: a new syndrome for it, Snapchat dysmorphia, and the number
Speaker 1: of kids getting Niptuck's may astound you. And nearly two
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty thousand teens cosmetic procedures. Kids as young
Speaker 1: as thirteen are getting them. Doctors seeing an influx of
Speaker 1: people of all ages, turning the plastic surgery to look
Speaker 1: more like they're filter of plastic surgeons reported their patients
Speaker 1: wanted to go under the knife because of dissatisfaction with
Speaker 1: their social media profile. Said their patients wanted to look
Speaker 1: better in selfies. Absolutely, it's becoming more and more common
Speaker 1: when people will show me images on their Instagram or
Speaker 1: even something that posted on Facebook and or this is
Speaker 1: really how I want to look. Just last week, I
Speaker 1: had a patient come in and asked me for more
Speaker 1: of an anime I and she couldn't figure out why
Speaker 1: it's not possible. Okay, man, this is really disturbing. Thirteen
Speaker 1: year old in particular should not be getting plastic surgery.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you're thirteen, your physical appearance is already
Speaker 1: naturally changing faces don't do is like long term plastic surgery.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what I looked like when I
Speaker 1: was thirteen. You gotta let that ship play out. Honestly, though,
Speaker 1: I don't the teenagers. I blame the parents and the
Speaker 1: plastic surgeons. I mean, how are you gonna let them
Speaker 1: do this to themselves? They can't even buy cigarettes, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna let them buy a new face, Lanny. This
Speaker 1: is getting out of hand, which is why there's now
Speaker 1: a movement not just against filters, but all the ways
Speaker 1: that people have been distorting reality on social media. Many
Speaker 1: influencers have started speaking up on this issue, admitting that
Speaker 1: they've presented altered images in the past and are opening
Speaker 1: up the conversation. Some are even posting raw, totally unedited
Speaker 1: photos of themselves and breaking down how people on your
Speaker 1: Instagram feed may be manipulating their angles and lighting to
Speaker 1: get that quote unquote perfect selfie. There are many celebrities
Speaker 1: exposing the dangerous of digital distortion. They are posting images
Speaker 1: of themselves unedited, unfiltered online and this is a great
Speaker 1: example to young girls. Pop star Lizzo made a big
Speaker 1: splash when she posted a selfie in the nude and unretouched.
Speaker 1: There's there's no shame anymore, and I just kind of
Speaker 1: post myself. It's like, you take me as I am.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to learn me. British MP Luke Evans
Speaker 1: has proposed the Digitally Altered Body Image Bill, which would
Speaker 1: require advertisers and publishers to display a logo whenever a
Speaker 1: person's face or body has been digitally enhanced. Okay, first
Speaker 1: of all, I love the idea of putting disclaimers on
Speaker 1: photos of people who have been digitally altered. I love it,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I don't think we should stop there. We
Speaker 1: need to do this for everything that's been digitally out,
Speaker 1: like food ads. Those are the worst. Every fast food
Speaker 1: burger looks great on TV, but then when I order it,
Speaker 1: it looks like it fell asleep in a hot tub.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad that we're finally learning the truth about
Speaker 1: what celebrities look like. You know, personally, I'm waiting for
Speaker 1: SpongeBob to join this movement. I mean, no way, that
Speaker 1: guy is that square? Naturally, have you've seen that? It's
Speaker 1: not even maybe he's not real. Don't know, how would
Speaker 1: you have a TV Show. Now, I'm not naive enough
Speaker 1: to think that society is going to stop creating unrealistic
Speaker 1: beauty standards anytime soon, all right, But what I do
Speaker 1: hope that we can better educate our kids and ourselves
Speaker 1: that our own natural bodies are beautiful. Mean, except for
Speaker 1: that flap of old people's skin we have on our elbows.
Speaker 1: Like that ship is gross. O'Tay who you are? It
Speaker 1: looks like a mid on bull seck, But everything else
Speaker 1: is beautiful. But because this movement could take a while,
Speaker 1: we hear The Daily Show decided to come up with
Speaker 1: a filter of our own that might help our social
Speaker 1: media filters giving you body image issues. Are you depressed
Speaker 1: you don't look as good as your filter, then good news.
Speaker 1: You'll never have to worry about living up to your
Speaker 1: filter again. With Rudify, it's a brand new filter that
Speaker 1: turns your face into Rudy Giuliani. You'll never be happier
Speaker 1: with how you look in real life. And obviously this
Speaker 1: wouldn't be effective if you could turn it off, So
Speaker 1: Rudify overrides all other filters, and just to be safe,
Speaker 1: Rudify retroactively applies itself to every face and every photo
Speaker 1: in your phone. The best part is the filter is permanent,
Speaker 1: just like Rudy himself. You can never get rid of it. Rudify,
Speaker 1: you'll be overflowing with self esteem. Warning. Use of this
Speaker 1: filter by Rudy Guliani will rupture the fabric of space
Speaker 1: and time. Wat's the Daily Show weeknights at eleven tenth
Speaker 1: Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on
Speaker 1: Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast