Selfie that KILL!

Do you take selfie?

If the answer is yes, then your tendency exposing yourself to death is increase significantly.

Why? I will tell you later. Let’s first define what selfie is. 

According to Oxford English Dictionary, selfie is—

“A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.”

I bet everyone have took selfie before, except myself.

……..

(A moment of awkward silent.)

Erm.....

Well joke aside, the real question is—why?

A selfie is the documentation of a passing moment, not a larger expression. By contrast, selfies communicate a transitory message at a single moment in time. We are more concerned with the context, the “what’s going on” than the projection of identity. Selfies are intimate because they represent a personal experience that is also social, taken for the express purpose of sharing. This gives selfies a level of self-conscious authenticity. 

Like most digital self-publishing, selfie-ing is easy.  All you need is a camera phone and a Facebook page or Instagram app.  This makes it ripe for exploration and identity experimentation, particularly among ages where identity formation and emancipation are key developmental tasks as well as for those who are still interested in looking at themselves. Both of these may contribute to why user demographics skew young.

So there is nothing wrong with taking a selfie, right?

But, the thing is……

Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self-indulgence or attention-seeking social dependence that raises the specter of either narcissism or low self-esteem. 

A teenager became so obsessed with taking the perfect selfie he tried to kill himself when he failed to do it. Danny Bowman, 19, spent 10 HOURS a day taking up to 200 snaps of himself on his iPhone. He dropped out of school, didn’t leave his house in six months, lost two stone trying to make himself look better for the camera and became aggressive with his parents when they tried to stop him. Finally, in a drastic attempt to escape his obsession, Danny took an overdose – but was saved by his mum.

“Danny’s case is particularly extreme,” said Dr David Veal who’s clinic has weaned the teen off his iPhone. “But this is a serious problem. It’s not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health one which has an extremely high suicide rate.”

The selfie craze has swept social media over the past five years, with stars, ­politicians and even Pope Francis posting shots online. Last year, the Oxford English Dictionary named it word of the year after research showed its frequency of use had soared 17,000 per cent in 12 months.

Danny says: “People would comment on them, but children can be cruel. One told me my nose was too big for my face and another picked on my skin. I started taking more and more to try to get the approval of my friends.

Ultimately, online manifestations of narcissism may be little more than a self-presentational strategy to compensate for a very low and fragile self-esteem. Yet when these efforts are reinforced and rewarded by others, they perpetuate the distortion of reality and consolidate narcissistic delusions.

According to psychiatrist Dr David Veal: "Two out of three of all the patients who come to see me with Body Dysmorphic Disorder since the rise of camera phones have a compulsion to repeatedly take selfies.

"Cognitive behavioural therapy is used to help a patient to recognize the reasons for his or her compulsive behaviour and then to learn how to moderate it," he told the Sunday Mirror.

Hence, taking selfie is closely related with self-indulgence, narcissism, and social media addiction.

Finally, a little revelation—more people have died by taking selfies in 2015 than by shark attacks. There have been twelve recorded selfie deaths in 2015 so far, compared to eight people dying because of shark attacks.

Statistically speaking, selfie is scarier than shark.

Take selfie at your own risk!

Reference:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/selfie-addict-took-two-hundred-3273819

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201307/making-sense-selfies

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/selfies-linked-narcissism-addiction-mental-illness-say-scientists-1441480

Best regard from,

Lim Chun Voon

(47362)