From a pandemic to a plastic surgery

From a pandemic to a plastic surgery

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​a. Choose the correct answers to these questions. Then, read the text and check your prediction

• ​1. During the pandemic, when people attended online meetings from home, they were less worried / more worried about their appearance.​

• ​2. When people returned to the office, the demand for cosmetic procedures slowed down / didn’t slow down.

• 3. A majority / minority of people in a survey said they were worried about going back to face-to-face meetings after the pandemi

​Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional, never worried too much about how she looked. But when her job went online, she started dreading Microsoft Teams meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger and her top lip looked thinner than she’d ever noticed in the mirror. “I’ve always thought I was attractive, and people would always compliment my looks in person,” she says. “But on video, nobody was saying how nice it was to see my pretty face.”

​In June, 2021, Jane got her lips filled. She was so pleased with the results, she plans to repeat the process every year. As the pandemic forced people into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia”. After months of remote meetings and social gatherings – and seeing their own faces on screen – more and more people started noticing what they thought were physical flaws.

​Shadi Kourosh, a dermatologist, coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments in summer, 2020, when she noticed a huge increase in consultations for cosmetic procedures. She co-authored a study on the trend, which was published in November, 2020. “With all the other problems we had, it was surprising to me how anxious people were about their appearance,” Kourosh says.

Perhaps even more surprising: Kourosh says that now, with the return to in-person interaction, consultation requests for cosmetic procedures aren’t slowing down. In a followup study, Kourosh and her colleagues found that 71% of surveyed individuals were anxious about going back to in-person events, and three in ten had plans to invest in their looks because of it. While these figures may not only be caused by Zoom, it’s clear that video conferencing made people less secure.

For some, video conferencing made existing problems worse. Sam, a 28-year-old data analyst, says he’s had negative thoughts about his body since his mid-20s. “I began constantly stopping at mirrors.” Sam finally decided to have a nose job. “I was pleased with the results for a few months but later, the dysmorphia re-emerged, and I found a new flaw in the same facial feature,” he says. “I’m now on the waiting list for a therapist to help me with my body dysmorphia.”

Distressed by the way he looked in Zoom meetings, 25-year-old Chad from London, had plastic surgery in Turkey in March. The ten-hour operation, which included liposuction, led to a 90lb weight loss. But he also lost a dangerous amount of blood during the operation, and he’s had to have two blood transfusions since.

While he says he feels more confident in calls with colleagues and clients – and his mental health has improved due to his weight loss – he says he’d do things differently if he had the chance. “I don’t think I would have done this if I hadn’t been looking at myself all the time,” he says. “Zoom drove me to risk my life for the perfect body.”

Jane has mixed feelings. Her job will be online for the foreseeable future, and because she feels less attractive on screen than in real life, she’s considering a nose job to improve her confidence. But resolving her anxiety about her physical appearance causes its own kind of insecurity, she says.

“It feels childish as a 40-year-old woman to think about my looks like a teenager because there are bigger problems in the world.”

© Guardian News and Media 2021

First published in The Guardian 03/10/2021

Find the following words in the text.

1. a verb meaning be very worried about something that might happen or is going to happen (1)

​

​2. a verb meaning say something nice to or about someone (1)

​Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional, never worried too much about how she looked. But when her job went online, she started dreading Microsoft Teams meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger and her top lip looked thinner than she’d ever noticed in the mirror. “I’ve always thought I was attractive, and people would always compliment my looks in person,” she says. “But on video, nobody was saying how nice it was to see my pretty face.”

Find the following words in the text.

3. a noun meaning a mark or fault that spoils something and makes it less beautiful or perfect (2)

​In June, 2021, Jane got her lips filled. She was so pleased with the results, she plans to repeat the process every year. As the pandemic forced people into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia”. After months of remote meetings and social gatherings – and seeing their own faces on screen – more and more people started noticing what they thought were physical flaws.

Find the following words in the text.

4. a verb meaning use a word or phrase that no one has used before (3)

​Shadi Kourosh, a dermatologist, coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments in summer, 2020, when she noticed a huge increase in consultations for cosmetic procedures. She co-authored a study on the trend, which was published in November, 2020. “With all the other problems we had, it was surprising to me how anxious people were about their appearance,” Kourosh says.

Find the following words in the text.

5. a noun meaning a meeting with a doctor to get advice or discuss a problem (4)

Perhaps even more surprising: Kourosh says that now, with the return to in-person interaction, consultation requests for cosmetic procedures aren’t slowing down. In a followup study, Kourosh and her colleagues found that 71% of surveyed individuals were anxious about going back to in-person events, and three in ten had plans to invest in their looks because of it. While these figures may not only be caused by Zoom, it’s clear that video conferencing made people less secure.

Find the following words in the text.

6. a verb meaning appear again (5)

For some, video conferencing made existing problems worse. Sam, a 28-year-old data analyst, says he’s had negative thoughts about his body since his mid-20s. “I began constantly stopping at mirrors.” Sam finally decided to have a nose job. “I was pleased with the results for a few months but later, the dysmorphia re-emerged, and I found a new flaw in the same facial feature,” he says. “I’m now on the waiting list for a therapist to help me with my body dysmorphia.”

Find the following words in the text.

7. an adjective meaning very unhappy, worried, or upset (6)

​

8. a noun meaning a medical operation to remove fat from a part of someone’s body (6)

Distressed by the way he looked in Zoom meetings, 25-year-old Chad from London, had plastic surgery in Turkey in March. The ten-hour operation, which included liposuction, led to a 90lb weight loss. But he also lost a dangerous amount of blood during the operation, and he’s had to have two blood transfusions since.

Find the following words in the text.

9. a four-word phrase meaning for as far in the future as can be determined, based on what is known now (8)

​

10. a noun meaning a worried feeling you have because you think something bad might happen (8)

Distressed by the way he looked in Zoom meetings, 25-year-old Chad from London, had plastic surgery in Turkey in March. The ten-hour operation, which included liposuction, led to a 90lb weight loss. But he also lost a dangerous amount of blood during the operation, and he’s had to have two blood transfusions since.

Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the article? Correct any that are false.

• ​Jane enjoyed online meetings.

• ​She plans to have her lips filled every year

• ​“Zoom dysmorphia” is a feeling that you have physical flaws when you see yourself online.

• ​Requests for cosmetic procedures have decreased since people returned to in-person meetings.

• ​More than 70% of people in a survey said they were unhappy about going back to in-person meetings.

• ​For some people, video conferencing made existing problems worse.

• ​Chad had plastic surgery in Turkey because he didn’t like his appearance in Zoom meetings.

• ​He put on weight as a result of the operation.

• ​Jane no longer works online.

• ​She thinks worrying about looks is the biggest problem in the world.