When was the last time you took a "selfie"? How many "selfies" do you have to take until you feel the satisfaction within you? Do you have an album in your phone that says, "Selfies"? Is your Facebook profile picture a "selfie"? What compels you to take selfies? Well, your answers to these questions could be interesting. We are all guilty of this. You might want to read further.
SELFITIS
...is a new word that describes the obsessions of taking a self photograph and post it on the social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy, according to the American Psychiatric Association. They also categorized this into three: borderline, acute, and chronic.
Scary isn't it?
The APA added that if you take a selfie 3 times a day but do not post it online, you're in the borderline. If you take atleast 3 selfies a day and post it online, you're acute. But if you post six photos a day, you are chronic! (Geez! I didn't know this until last week and decided to share it to you today.)
But ALAS! Selfitis turned out to be a HOAX. This has not been backed up with science yet but it sparked a new research.
But listen to this, "Selfitis" might be a hoax but your obsession to take too much selfies is real and it can take your own life.
The word "selfie" was not even a word before until it was overused by Facebook, Instagram hashtags, Twitter and other forms of social media and finally recognized by the Oxford Dictionaries as the word for the year in 2013. There was a man in the history of millennials who took an exceptionally 200 photos a day, and tried to kill himself when he couldn't snap a perfect selfie of him. It was Danny Brown a 19 year old British guy who spent 10 hours a day just to take a selfie on his iPhone. He dropped out of school and stayed in his room for 6 months try to look better in the camera. He was the first "selfie" addict in Britain.
Yesterday, I watched a heartbreaking video footage on Youtube about a teenager who went to the rooftop of a building to take a selfie. He was standing on the edge of the building and as he puts his arms out to snap a photo, he lose his balance and fell of the edge. He desperately crawl up to the side of the building where there are windows of the rooms but he couldn't pull himself up until his body gave up and fell 9 stories to his death. I can also see some photographs posted on Instagram about people taking extreme selfies on rooftops. I think it has become a trend in community of photography. Some people see them as disturbing but to some people it's actually cool.
(First of all I have Acrophobia so, na uh...not cool to me.) On Facebook, I unfollowed all my friends who took excessive selfies posted on their walls. I know it's their right to do that but I just find it very annoying to see different angles of their faces but they look actually the same. LOL!
A piece of advice
Beauty is a lot more than your appearance. Projecting yourself to others is good but it doesn't make you feel beautiful. Being beautiful is actually appreciating your non-visible features and feel comfortable in your own skin. You don't have to post 10 selfies in a day on Facebook and Instagram just to prove to others how beautiful you are. Let us embrace our inner beauty, our flaws and focus on the positive things that we possess. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY! :)
The social media is indeed a game changer. Yes we feel good when our selfies gained 1,000 likes and 100 comments but that's not how beauty is being measured. It's not the thing that always matters. Stop worrying about your fine lines and big thighs as you grow older but think about how kinder and how gentler you have become for the world. :)