How Instagram Kills Your Sex Life - Dr Debra Soh

TL;DR

Social media distorts attraction by conditioning people to idealized influencer images, leaving men less interested in real partners and women feeling less desirable.

Key Points

• 1.Instagram conditions men to lose sexual interest in real partners. A study cited by Dr. Debra Soh found roughly 1 in 10 men loses interest in having sex with his partner after viewing influencers online.
• 2.Women feel less sexually desirable after using social media. The comparison effect of constantly seeing idealized images causes women — especially adolescent girls who engage in 'upward comparison' — to feel unattractive and less competitive.
• 3.A real-world anecdote illustrates the distortion Instagram creates. A 19-year-old man found a date genuinely wonderful in person but became turned off after viewing her low-quality Instagram, showing he had been conditioned to judge attractiveness through curated social profiles.
• 4.Social media fuels a plastic surgery trend among young girls. Dr. Soh notes she wrote a chapter on this: the constant bombardment of idealized images makes girls feel they need cosmetic procedures just to be found attractive or compete for partners.