No doubt soon the word “selfie” will be included in every dictionary, although a few years ago none of us would even know what a selfie might be. What is it about selfies that annoys some people?
Well, let’s admit it, the problem is not the phenomenon itself (although I am happy psychologist have finally defined it as a mental disorder). The issue is the people we usually see in them – you know, those duck faced girls or gym bunnies showing off their bodies. Are you one of them? Then get real! There are too few people (just you, your mom and granny, perhaps) who are genuinely interested in how “stunning” you looked this morning. Nevertheless, some freaks keep taking their pictures throughout the day just to display them on Facebook to see how many “likes” they will receive. If you are not a celebrity, then why are you turning into an online attention whore? Oh, and the sickest part of any selfie is the place it is taken. As a rule it’s a bathroom. I am sorry guys but I usually use my bathroom to take a shit, not a picture!
According to psychologists, selfies are damaging for a few reasons, one of them being the fact that people who are obsessed with taking selfies lack self-confidence and most often in their real life are considered unattractive. In order to boost their ego people display photos of themselves in revealing clothing. To prove the destructive nature of selfies experts carried out research. They created a number of Facebook accounts with pictures of girls in various types of clothing. A group of participants had to rate the pictures by 3 categories: physical aspect, social attractiveness, and task competence. On a scale from 1 to 7, the highest score in all three categories was gained by pictures with casually dressed girls (jeans and tops). Girls in revealing clothes were rated as less attractive physically, even fewer participants found them socially successful. Also, the pictures with girls in low-cut dresses and mini-skirts got the lowest score in the task competence category – too few participants would rate them as smart and trustworthy enough to get a task done.
Researcher Elizabeth Daniels concluded that the reason why girls display their semi-nude pictures is that they do not feel strong enough to resist all the pressure coming from the society. Nowadays to look sexy is more important than to have an interesting personality. We are judged by our “covers” and there are not too many of those willing to look inside our minds and souls to see who and what we really are.
Selfies (as well as any other online pictures) are viewed by men and women alike. Life coach Kelly Rudolph who teaches women to look at themselves from a different angle, states that although males find young girls’ revealing pictures sexually inviting, they can make peers experience insecurity, disconnection, or threat. “Such pictures are interpreted as “competitive” by other less confident women,” says the expert. On the other hand, more secure personalities feel disconnected from the sexy girls they view in the picture. They find such girls to be too insecure to become their friends. Trying so hard to make people like your appearance is rated as “shallow” and immature. Besides, mental abilities of girls in sexy clothing are also underestimated. Rudolph also pointed out that another recent study showed that women rate pictures of girls in red clothing as the most sexually aggressive.
The only thing we should hope and wish for is the selfie craze to go out of fashion in the nearest future. Sooner or later young girls will turn to grown-up ladies, learn to respect themselves and hopefully understand that their personalities are far more important. Being independent and professionally successful is more rewarding and challenging than counting the number of “likes” their latest selfies received.
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