The selfie - the most loved and hated thing in America since Justin Bieber. The amazing act of taking a picture of
yourself to post on some social media site has been adopted by so many individuals
that even Pope Francis took a selfie to send out to his loyal social media
followers. I’ve always had a feeling
that there was something inherently evil about selfies. It was as if Lucifer himself had created this
trend to consistently annoy those who can’t believe that someone would be so
wrapped up in themselves that would decide to “bless” the social world with yet
another picture of them. It’s almost as
bad as people who send you a picture of their family for Christmas. I’m always thinking who started this and why
did they think it was a good idea. "Merry
Christmas. Here’s a gift". "Oh. Is this a
gift card that I can use at a restaurant for my family?" "Goodness no. It’s a picture of my
family again." "Oh great." Who really thinks this is a good gift?! At any rate, that's another topic for another time. I knew in my
heart of heart that selfies were bad, and now through scientific research, this has been proven. The top three scientifically proven reasons selfies are bad are
SELFIES DECREASE AN INDIVIDUALS ABILITY TO FEEL CLOSE TO OTHERS
If you think about the first reason, it kind of makes
sense. If most of the pictures that
individuals post on their social media site are just pictures of themselves,
one has to think where are all their friends?
In the past, before selfies became the hottest thing since Stacy Dash in
Clueless (I love Stacy Dash by the way), people wouldn’t post pictures of
anything and would be forced to go interact with more people so they would actually
have something to post to prove to others they indeed had interesting lives.
Now, with the acceptance of the selfie, people can just incessantly post
picture of themselves doing the most mundane things (Ken buying a donut from Dunkin Donuts, Ken
eating said donut, Ken throwing the second half of the donut away because he feels
guilty and wants to make sure he's right for the summer). Now that they have this crutch
to lean on, individuals who take more selfies are less apt to have the ability
to socially interact well with others. Don’t take my word for it, however. In a study done by four professors from three
business schools in Europe, they took a survey of 508 Facebook users with an
average age of 24 to rank how close they feel to their friends, co-workers, and
relatives. What they found was there was
a large correlation between the individuals who ranked low on their feelings
of intimacy towards others and how many selfies were posted on their Facebook
account. Interesting stuff, huh?
SELFIES CAN BECOME ADDICTIVE
Second, selfies for many are a validation of who they are as
a person and can become a dangerous
addiction. For some, when they post a
picture of themselves online and get a certain number of likes, it gives them a
boost of confidence of who they are and how beautiful they are. Their entire focus is on how good they look
and how good others think they look. This
is especially dangerous for some teenagers who often struggle with their
image. When they begin to post selfies
and get a lot of likes, it can give an extra boost of confidence to make them
feel comfortable in their own skin. The
adverse side of this, however, is that often when individuals don’t get the
number of likes they think they deserve, it has the negative affect and hurts
their pride somewhat, so they have to continue to post self and get likes for
that extra boost of confidence they need for the day. This can become more and more damaging as the
self-addiction becomes so enthralled in that person’s life that they cannot
stop posting pictures of themselves to receive this validation and if they don’t
get it, they may not be able to function correctly for that day. They are constantly searching for that right
pic that will get the likes that will give them that needed boost of serotonin for the day. To get a sense of
how far this obsession could go, just look up Danny Bowman. He is a British
teenager who was so obsessed with capturing the perfect selfie that he would
roughly spend 10 hours per day taking up to 200 selfies trying to get the perfect
shot. As this addiction became more
intense, he lost 30 lbs, dropped out of school, and did not leave his house for
six months as he tried to take the perfect selfie. He actually took it so far as trying to
commit suicide because he couldn’t do it and was luckily saved by his mom. He
is currently go through rehab to treat this addiction.
SELFIES ACTUALLY CAN DECREASE ONE'S SELF-ESTEEM
The last point, and perhaps the most disturbing trend about
our selfie nation is that ironically the more selfies you take of only yourself, the more you feel worst and worst about yourself. This is very
comparable to how individuals who are always looking in the mirror are the most
self-conscious about their looks.
Because they are not 100 percent sure of their individual beauty, they
are constantly checking it to make sure it is there. These people often also have a skewed view of
the importance of looks and often hold it in too high regard for themselves and
for others. In a scientific study conducted by the Psychiatry
of London in which they had two groups (one with what is known as Body
Dismorphic Disorder and one group without it), it was proven that not only did
the BDD sufferers experience increased anxiety and depression about their looks
after prolonged engagement in the mirror (10 minutes to be exact), but the non-BDD participants did as
well. The more and more individuals are
obsessed with taking the perfect selfie, the more they will subconsciously lose
confidence and self-esteem in their natural beauty, something that is sad because
we are all beautiful in our own way.
So, in conclusion, while I hate selfies with a passion and
think they were created to piss sensible people off, don’t just take my word for it. Science has
proven that selfies can be bad for a number of reasons. And even though it is cool
to post a pic of you buying, eating, and throwing that donut away, you’ll do
yourself a much better favor by just telling us about it on twitter. #dunkindonuts
#donutnation #theyhavethebestcoffeeontheplanet
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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