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Ever since mobile phones had built-in cameras, the selfie craze has swept the world. Although this habit can hardly be considered a mental disorder, but excessive addiction to photographing yourself is not so harmless.
1. “Selfism” is not yet a disease
It all started with an innocent joke: a parody news site with a Philippine domain reported that the American Psychological Association had allegedly declared the selfie hobby a mental disorder. The sensation spread at the speed of light: thousands, and even millions of people believed the frank “duck”. In fact, the so-called “selfitism” is not yet included in the official list of mental illnesses. However, the habit of often photographing yourself is not so harmless.
2. Selfies are indirectly linked to narcissism and psychopathy
A recent Ohio State University study found that men who post selfies too often show clear signs of narcissism and psychopathy. At the same time, it cannot be unequivocally stated that they are all destructive personalities. The conclusion only means that they have more pronounced antisocial inclinations.
At the same time, it was noted that survey participants who edit selfies before publication scored more points on the scale “narcissism and inflated self-conceit”. Respondents prone to psychopathy post photos as they are.
Are you wondering how many men process their photos before posting them online? So far, only UK data is available. According to an Opinium poll, 34% of Britons retouch every photo they take. What about women? Only 13%. This is important information, since the subjects of the United Kingdom have a special attitude towards selfies.
3. Selfies and the British
The SelfieCity project analyzed the pages of Instagram users living in Bangkok, Sao Paulo, New York, Moscow and Berlin, and found that women take selfies much more often than men. However, among young people in the UK, there is a different trend. Guys post twice as many selfies on social networks as girls, and the motives of the stronger and the weaker sex are different.
British men hope to attract as many fans as possible in this way, or at least make the former jealous. Women are driven by the desire to share with friends the details of their lives or to keep the memory of some event.
4. Selfies and Russians
Russian guys don’t like selfies. In any case, they own only 18% of Moscow self-portraits – the lowest percentage among the inhabitants of the five megacities. Another characteristic feature is that Russians rarely smile when posing for their own photo shoots.
5. Selfie and dysmorphophobia
Dr. David Weil, consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Clinic, believes that self-mania indicates symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder (excessive concern with one’s appearance, expressed in the desire to look perfect). “Since phones have built-in cameras, two out of three patients with this diagnosis show an obsessive desire to constantly take selfies and post them on social networks.” There is no other scientific evidence to support or refute this claim.
Source: psychology.com