What are we doing?
Selfies are seemingly the most popular form of photography by teenagers and adults alike. Everywhere you go, people are pouting at their phones. From the ‘look at the ocean in front me’ brag selfie, to the ‘don’t I look sexy in bed’ selfie and from the ‘I look like a dog with this Snapchat filter’ selfie to the ‘look at me in gym gear, I must be so fit’ selfie, everyone is doing it.
Why do we do it?
Before ‘the selfie’, someone else had to take your photo for you (shock horror). Having someone else taking a photo for you takes time, the person you chose to take the photo never seems know how to use a camera, they didn’t take the right picture, so they’re going to have to take it again, to top it off this person took the photo with their thumb covering half of the shot. So we now take photos of ourselves to avoid such irritation and confusion. But why do we want these pictures?
Quite often these pictures – selfies, are used to show off to others. As mentioned previously, there are many types of selfie, but most of these show something off.
Out on a night out with loads of mates? Take a selfie together, and post it everywhere to show people just how many friends you have. Bought some fancy new dress? Take a selfie in it, and post it everywhere to show people just how cool you are and how much money you have to afford such an amazing thing. Gone on an amazing holiday? Take an amazing selfie in showing off that beach/pool/mountain/forest/cityscape, and post it everywhere to show people how much fun you’re having, but that they’re not.
What consequences does it have?
This may not be the first thought running through your mind when you take a selfie, but it’s there all same. As humans, we love making people jealous, it helps fire us with self assurance and boost our self confidence. Everyone has their own insecurities and its always a nice feeling when yours are put to one side as self-confidence instead seeps in.
This jealousy can have effects for both the selfie taker and the audience. For the selfie taker, you can be waiting for likes, for comments or for some sort of assurance that they look good, that it was taken well or simply for the jealousy. Before these assurances appear, the insecurities creep in to the selfie takers mind, making them worry and worry.
For the audience of the selfie, the jealousy itself can have a nasty effect, whilst one person’s self esteem is boosted, the others are being deflated. Thoughts going through the worried person’s mind ‘they’re always with so many people, I don’t have that many friends, does that make me weird?”, “they’re on such a nice holiday, I don’t go to places like that – what do people think of me then?” and “they’ve got 100 likes, but I only have 30, does that mean no one likes me?”.
These thoughts and many others can really play on an audience’s insecurities and very often lower self esteem leading toward mental illnesses such as anxiety, OCD or depression.
Another consequence is the slippery slope of body image. With so many selfies being constantly posted, one can easily get bombarded with the idea of the perfect size. Every single person has a very different shape and is not similar to any single other person. Unfortunately, with mental illnesses such as body dysmorphia (an anxiety disorder that causes a person to have a distorted view of how they look and to spend a lot of time worrying about their appearance) this idea of body image, mixed with the selfie sharing era is not a healthy mix.
Tonnes of adolescents both men and women have lots of issue with this kind of mental illness which can also have a snowballing effect to other illnesses such as eating disorders. In this way we can see how damaging ‘the selfie’ actually is, born from wanting to simply share an image with others, but causing serious harm for many.
Please consider the following resources if you are, or if you have a friend who is suffering:
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