Social Media Addiction Among Individuals Who Underwent Rhinoplasty: Myth or Reality?

Social media addiction is currently a common problem worldwide. Studies have suggested that individuals who underwent rhinoplasty are susceptible to the aforementioned condition, but no evidence-based research has been conducted to derive a definitive conclusion to this issue. This study was aimed at comparing the self-esteem, body perception, and social media use of individuals with and without a history of rhinoplasty. The study was conducted at two treatment centers. Rhinoplasty patients were selected from those who sought treatment in the private clinic of one of the researchers, whereas the control cohort participants were chosen from among employees of a university hospital. After the implementation of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 100 patients and 102 healthy unmatched control subjects were enrolled in the research. The collected sociodemographic data covered age, gender, years of education, and type of social media use. Social media addiction was measured using the social media addiction scale, self-esteem was ascertained with the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and body perception was assessed using the body perception scale. The independent samples -test was conducted twice to compare the mean scores of the participants, and mediation analysis was carried out to determine the effects of body image and self-esteem scores on social media addiction scores. Two-sided -values were calculated, and differences were considered significant at the 0.1, 0.05, and 0.001 levels. The groups obtained similar body image and self-esteem scores, but the difference in the social media addiction scores of the rhinoplasty patients and control participants was statistically significant at the 0.05 level, with the former having higher addiction scores. On the basis of the cutoff for social media addiction, 8 and 10 participants from the rhinoplasty and control groups, respectively, exhibited signs of dependency on Web-based social networks and similar innovations. The self-esteem scores (X) and body image scores (M) predicted the social media addiction scores (Y). The coefficient of the body image scores was statistically significant, but that of the self-esteem scores was not. The X + M → Y model indicated statistically significant effects. We compared the social media usage of rhinoplasty patients and control participants. Our findings indicated no evidentiary support for the view of rhinoplasty patients as social media addicts and suggested that such a perception is a form of stigmatization.