Can Selfie Addiction be Considered as a Mental Illness?
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This is selfie technology! Everyone likes taking selfies and posting them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Is there a need to worry about this booming trend? Because psychiatrists have connected selfies to narcissism and mental illness. Puzzle finds out all about the dependancy of selfies.
TAGGED UNDER: Internet Addiction
‘Selfie’ [noun. A picture taken of oneself with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media] was declared the ‘2013 word of the Year’ by Oxford Dictionaries. The year 2014 became the name because of the ‘Year of the Selfie’ on Twitter.
Selfies have become a cultural fashion. Everyone, from celebrities and presidents to commonplace humans, has this craze. Selfie’s furor has gushed even in the amusement world, and there’s an American collection named ‘Selfie’ and an album of the same name. So many institutes have started providing selfie courses that teach the art of perfecting self-portraiture. Is it only a fad, or does this have dangerous concerns?
Let me take a Selfie!!!
Be it celebrities flaunting their grand lifestyles of ordinary people, capturing moments, and sharing on social networking sites, selfies are greater than fashion! I visited a brand-new region and took a selfie. Mesmerized with a five big-name lavatory? Grab a selfie! Getting bugged? The Selfie is on its way. In reality, did you take a bath? It’s a perfect time to click a selfie and put it up on your bookmarked website!
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We can also giggle at our buddies posting their photographs with posts each hour, change their DPS suddenly, or lower over our favorite celebrities being obsessed with clicking selfies. However, the recent studies linking selfies to mental sickness can’t be left out.
In extreme words, something that commences with only a click has deeper, excessive problems if ascertained.
How does my Selfie look?
Psychologists think that a mere addiction to taking pics of oneself till the ‘image best’ second may be a sign of narcissism. These overly self-obsessed social media addicts are in perpetual need of appreciation. They may be depressed, traumatized, tormented by loneliness, or self-loving those who quest for attention to fill the emotional void of their lives created by extended exposure to social media.
Feeling the desire to be observed and favored is a human tendency. Capturing a selfie in a positive pose at a certain place is one of the simplest approaches to attracting interest. The hidden caption behind such selfies is, “Please apprehend me, my looks, my skills, recognize how I spend my life. And, if you won’t, I might discover a higher location to share them.”
Studies have also linked selfie dependency to low esteem. A Boston-based psychologist opined that taking various selfies demonstrates low confidence in that character.
Another psychologist from London stated that this isn’t always just an addiction but a symptom of frame dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Research completed using the VoucherCloud app discovered that around 60% of children (everyday selfie-takers) have a sense of low esteem behind their smiles.
Selfie Addiction in News
Danny Bowman, a 19-year-antique teenager, supposing-ly Britain’s first selfie addict, has been in the news for some time. His selfie dependency made him spend 10 hours an afternoon clicking as many as two hundred pictures on his telephone.
Danny said his urge to get a perfect selfie made him suicidal. He misplaced his friends; he turned thrown off his faculty; he misplaced his health, all ‘of the purpose of this addiction. The most effective factor he cared about was searching for perfect, which made him lose two stones and finally get a perfect snap. He was sensitive to the grievance and felt miserable if he’d get terrible feedback about his body or photograph, making him take an extra variety of selfies.
Doctors opined that this is an extreme case of OCD and body dysmorphic disease, in which the patient feels tension concerning his looks. Danny’s been dealt with and is there to help human beings tormented by equal trauma. But this was an incredibly tough section of his existence.
Danny’s father said, “There is a massive lack of knowledge about the risks social networking and cell technology can pose if a younger character already has any insecurities – which maximum do.”
David Veal (a representative psychiatrist who changed into coping with Danny’s case) told The Sunday Mirror, “Two out of 3 of all of the patients who come to see me with body dysmorphic ailment since the rise of digicam phones have a compulsion to, again and again, take selfies.”
Another study using Ohio State University says that guys who take and percentage quite a few selfies on websites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have psychopathic trends like a lack of empathy.
There was additionally a buzz that the APA (American Psychiatric Association) has waved a confirming flag to selfies inflicting mental contamination. They have named this sickness selfies, which has three levels: borderline selfies (clicking photos of oneself at least three times, however no longer posting on social media), acute selfies (taking selfies at least thrice an afternoon and posting all on networking websites), and chronic selfies (an uncontrollable urge to click selfies and put them up). However, this was observed to be a hoax, but it has its set of after-consequences.
Selfie Addiction Help
People’s routine of clicking selfies is a cry for help. Psychologists have advised a manner: to preserve a selfie journal. All you need to do is note down everything it’s for your mind while you’re about to take a selfie.
Analyze if that is a way to satisfy your want for social recognition or to cope with mood swings and tension. If you feel you are on your way to getting addicted, please take a pause. Talk to someone you know. Consult a psychologist or a counselor. Give a spoil in your smartphone and reduce your visits to picture-uploading websites.