Have you ever taken a selfie and wondered why your schnoz looks so damn big in it? Well it turns out there’s a perfectly good reason for it, and it’s not because you’ve actually got an enormous sneezer.
According to a survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, over half of plastic surgeons in the US were approached by people who wanted to look better in selfies last year, which seems like a pretty drastic reason to cop some surgery, but it’s clear our smartphones now play an increasingly large role in how we perceive ourselves.
Boris Paskhover, a facial plastic surgeon from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School told The Verge he wanted to “prove why selfies don’t look like the real person, why they’re distorted”.
“They take out their phone and they say, ‘Look at this picture, look how big my nose looks,’” he said.
After teaming up with a computer scientist to create a model of the average human bonce, they calculated that a selfie taken at a distance of 12 inches away makes your beak look about 30 per cent wider for blokes, and 29 per cent wider for women.
Creative director at The Verge, James Bareham, says most smartphones have cameras with wide-angle lenses, which make objects look closer to the camera. As you’ve probably guessed, this can make your snoot look like a humongous protruding monster, rather than the very normal nose you actually have.
To avoid the inflated snout look, all you have to do is take the photo from farther away, so maybe a selfie stick isn’t such a bad idea if this is something that bothers you. Either that or find a mate with heaps long arms, whatever works for you.
But hey, the main thing to remember here is that your snotlocker is just bloody fine, so don’t stress about it.
