We all take selfies and while some of us take more than others, they’re kind of a part of life these days. When it comes to scrolling on Facebook or things of that sort, you can’t really avoid seeing selfies, can you?
I recently came across an article posted by Cleveland Clinic that went over a study about posting selfies that really got me thinking about the topic as a whole. While obsessive selfie-taking and posting could be negative overall, what does taking selfies, in general, say about us? Well within this article a study is broken down that came from researchers in both India and the UK who looked at students and their selfie-taking habits. It was found that there are quite a few ‘motivators’ behind taking these kinds of pictures which make a lot of sense.
Some people take selfies looking for attention but others do it to preserve a memory or even to merely conform with their friends. Not everything is as you’d expect it to be when it comes to this kind of thing. Selfie taking overall seems to have a lot to do with our brains. We like the stimulus it offers us and well, we all want to show people the best moments of our lives, right?
All of this having been said, taking them all the time could be a bad thing, Cleveland Clinic wrote as follows on the topic:
Focusing too much on ourselves tends to make bad feelings worse,” Dr. Bea says. Sometimes we will take measures to try to counteract those bad feelings — and those measures are not always healthy.
“When that self-awareness becomes intense, we’re often chanting about what’s wrong with us — it’s a place we go to experience low mood states such as anxiety and tension. It all comes from how we interact with thoughts, and many times, thoughts about ourselves or our futures,” he says.
Another study highlights the importance of selfies in some people’s lives. The distorting effect that occurs when we take selfies at a close range is prompting an uptick in people seeking plastic surgery simply to look better in photos on social media platforms.
Selfies and the number of selfies we take/post could reveal our intentions. It could show that we want other people to see us more or that we are trying to just keep up. Those who post selfies more often than others are often thought to be more attention-seeking than others but overall when there is a proper balance things aren’t really negative or positive, they just are in general.
If you really look at your history in posting selfies breaking down what it says about you isn’t as hard as you might expect it to be. I for one look at my somewhat often posting and believe it’s clear I am wanting to somewhat improve my own mood and also boost my own confidence. That being said, there will always be people in this world who take things the wrong way but we can’t let those people rule our lives.
Psychology Today wrote as follows on this topic:
The trick with selfies may be to look at why you’re taking them—and what they do for you. Posting affirming selfies can be empowering. They can help readjust the industry standard of the beauty ideal. But they can also help reinforce the idea that what matters most in this world is how things, and people, look. For Sarabeth, the problem she noticed first, before she even noticed her increasing fixation with her own appearance and that of her family, was the fact that she was so busy controlling her image that she’d often miss the moment in real life. Capturing something on camera took priority over reacting to something in person. “Documenting the experience took precedence over living it,” she said. “And finally I realized, well, how can I expect others to pay attention to what’s happening in my life when I can’t even say the same for myself?”
What do you think about all of this? I for one think it brings up some interesting questions. Why do you post selfies?