Taking selfies has become the norm. With smartphones in their hands, you can see people taking selfies everywhere, be it at restaurants, in malls, in public places or even at home.
While some take photos to keep a record of memories, others want to take selfies all the time. This obsession with taking selfies is a genuine mental disorder called ‘Selfitis’.
According to the study, the disorder can be categorised into three forms.
People from first level of ‘selfitis’, borderline cases, usually take selfies at least three times a day, but do not post them on social media.
In the next acute phase, people start posting these selfies on social media.
In the final chronic stage of ‘selfitis’, people feel an uncontrollable urge to take selfies all the time and post them on social media at least six times a day.
Researchers found that typical ‘selfitis’ sufferers were attention seekers, often lacking in self confidence, who were hoping to boost their social standing and feel part of a group by constantly posting images of themselves.
How to test if you’re suffering from selfitis
Researchers have developed 20 statements that can be used to determine how severely you’re suffering from ‘selfitis’.
To know how addicted you are to taking selfies, rate the following statements from one to five, where five means strongly agree and one is strongly disagree. The higher the score, the higher the probability of you suffering from ‘selfitis’.
- Taking selfies gives me a good feeling to better enjoy my environment.
- Sharing my selfies creates healthy competition with my friends and colleagues.
- I gain a lot of attention by sharing my selfies on social media.
- I am able to reduce my stress level by taking selfies.
- I feel confident when I take a selfie.
- I gain more acceptance among my peer group when I take selfies and share them on social media.
- I am able to express myself more in my environment through selfies.
- Taking different selfie poses helps increase my social status.
- I feel more popular when I post my selfies on social media.
- Taking more selfies improves my mood and makes me feel happy.
- I become more positive about myself when I take selfies.
- I become a strong member of my peer group through selfie postings.
- Taking selfies provides better memories about the occasion and the experience.
- I post frequent selfies to get more “likes” and comments on social media.
- By posting selfies, I expect my friends to appraise me.
- Taking selfies instantly modifies my mood.
- I take more selfies and look at them privately to increase my confidence.
- When I do not take selfies, I feel detached from my peer group.
- I take selfies as trophies for future memories.
- I use photo-editing tools to enhance my selfie to look better than others.
