Some of us take selfies, lots of them: going out, eating, dressing up, meeting friends, any nonevent is an excuse for a selfie. Some others find this obsession irritating and pour their scorn over the habit of taking pictures all the time; something they see as vanity and a preoccupation with one's own self. Is taking too many selfies just a harmless obsession or an actual disorder – do you have selfitis?
In 2014, a satirical article spoke of a new condition called selfitis; where a person was obsessive about taking selfies. The article had claimed that this behavior was deemed a mental disorder which was not actually a fact. However, later reports suggested that while this may not be a disorder as classified by the American Psychiatric Association, it is still a condition with specific symptoms and obsessive behaviors.
Symptoms may be seen in people who may take hundreds of selfies a day and then post at least some of them on social media. Take the example of Junaid who takes 200 selfies a day and then carefully times when to post them on social media to get the maximum ‘likes’. If he gets fewer than 600 he deletes the post. He admits that he has had work done on his face because of pressure to look a certain way.
Danny Bowman is believed to be Britain’s first selfie addict. He became suicidal when he was unable to take that elusive perfect selfie. He would typically spend up to ten hours a day and take up 200 pictures to capture the perfect selfie. He dropped out of school, lost his friends, and stayed indoors for six months in this bizarre quest. He then became depressed and attempted suicide.
Why do people take selfies? According to researchers, people take selfies to get attention, enhance self confidence, improve their mood, engage with people around and gain their acceptance. The behavior also has to do with being socially competitive: showing off one's gadgets, home, possessions and level of affluence, one’s social circle, travels and status and more.
Researchers at Nottingham Trent University and Thiagarajar School of Management in India delved into the selfie phenomenon.
The researchers devised The Selfitis Behaviour Scale that ranged from borderline (taking selfies at least thrice a day but not posting them on social media) to acute (taking and posting selfies at lease thrice a day) and chronic (uncontrollable urge to take and post selfies over six times a day).
The study participants were from India because India has the largest number of Facebook users. India also has the largest number of selfie deaths.
In fact there is a whole new range of technology related phobias and disorders. Nomophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by the fear of being without one’s phone. It is the irrational fear of being unable to use one's phone because of signal loss or battery drain, of panicking when they cannot find their phone. Ringxiety is another anxiety disorder where people imagine that their phone is ringing or vibrating when it actually isn’t. Cyberchondria is a portmanteau of the words cyber and hypochondria and indicates those who are overly concerned about their health based on material they find online; convinced that they have diseases that they actually do not.
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