Visual social media platforms and cell phone makers offer applications and tools that allow teenage users the abilities to manipulate thelr appearances. Users can alter their appearances by adding physical features such as beauty marks and freckles or by removing those very
same features and others such as a birth mark or a blemish. What message are these makers sending? What type of thinking are they
promoting? v. teens argue that these tools and applications are used for fun, research conducted by three leading universities
found that these tools hinder teen productivity and lower their self-esteem.
in an article written by two prominent
psychologists, software that allows people to alter their appearances send the message that something is wrong with an individual's
original appearance. They went on to add that these applications and tools can lead to illnesses that impact people's physical and social
well-being