Of the huge range of plastic surgeries available to the paying customer, from eye-lifts, to calf implants, to butt lifts, apparently chin implants are the fastest-growing cosmetic surgery in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal reports the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says the number of mentoplasty surgeries rose 71% last year, and that the number of implants is split equally between men and women.

If you’re wondering “why?” as I’m sure you are (I mean, how riveting is plastic surgery news from WSJ?) Malcolm Z. Roth, ASPS’s president, proposes the growth of video-chat technology may be one reason. “They may notice that their jaw line is not as sharp as they want to be,” he says.

We dont’ know of any study that backs up this claim, but it’s an interesting hypothesis. It’s hard to pinpoint why, but many faces look pretty good in photos and decent in mirrors, but surprisingly unattractive on video. Maybe that’s because of chins.

Social media, with all its photo sharing and Facebook tagging of course has the side effect of making people feel insecure. But video chat is next level. Video chatting is like hearing a recording of your voice played back to you—shocking, and never in a good way.

So I guess it makes sense that frequent video-chatters, which based on commercials is mostly long distance lovers and absentee fathers, would make great candidates for chin implants.

(via)