Are you a Selfie Addict?

PC:Marin/freedigitalphotos.net

One of the most common things that teens and young adults are into these days is taking selfies. It’s is kinda fun! All that’s needed is a click, and your picture is up in social media for everyone to see, like, and comment. While it's all fun taking selfies and recieving cool compliments over your looks, it's important to understand the difference between being a selfie-taker and being a selfie-addict. The later does it obsessively, and often spend hours taking photos that doesn’t show any defect or flaws in appearance.

Often ‘selfie addicts' are judged as victims of ‘Body dismorphic disorder’—a psychopathological condition wherein the afflicted individual is concerned with body image, shows excessive concern about his body, and  is preoccupied with a perceived defect of his/her physical appearance. But this is not always the case! I had a facebook friend, an impish girl of 19, who was a stereotypical selfie addict. She used to update her profile picture every now and then, and out of 150 pics that she had in her profile at that time, 145 were her selfies! First, I thought it’s just a girly thing and quite a common trend among girls of her age, but one day during a casual chat, my notion changed! I had told her, “You should have become a model…you really got that swag”. Hearing that, She was kinda flattered, and asked me if I’d like to see some of her personal photos. I too was tempted, and replied with a big “yesssss". Then she started sending her sexy, semi nude pics one by one— in shorts, low waist jeans, miniskirts that exposed her butts, and even in panties and thongs. I knew what was coming! I knew if I regularly reinforce her exhibitionistic behavior, one day she’ll start clicking her nude pics, and upload it all over internet, and get herself into trouble!

The girl didn’t seem to have any self-esteem issues(I can say out of my experience I have as a psychologist)—she was beautiful, poised and confident in her pics. So I inferred it cannot be body dysmorphia. I thinks it has got much to do with paraphilic exhibitionism—again a psychological condition, characterized by an unnatural sexual gratification achieved through exposing one’s private parts to strangers!

Selfie addicts are judged in different ways by different people. Some say it’s a sign of arrogance while others consider it to be a urge of exhibitionism(especially when the selfies are sexually explicit like in the case of that facebook girl). Selfies can also be a superficial display of a person’s existing self-esteem issues which springs out of the feeling that they’re not good enough. When the later is taken to the extremes, then only the victim can be said to be suffering from body dysmorphia.

It’s really difficult to determine whether a person taking a lot of selfies suffer from selfie addiction or not, and even if he does what’s the psychological reason lying behind it. If you’ve liked celebrity pages on facebook like that of Rihana, nicki minaj, sunny leone etc, you much be noticing how they post their brand new selfies every now and then. Are they selfie addicts? Strangely, No !They are normal selfie takers who does it for publicity of their brand. So whether you’re a normal selfie taker or an abnormal one comes down to the simple notion of judging psychological disorders: if your behavior is causing problems in your life or in the life of others, then that can be a cry for help; otherwise you’re perfectly normal no matter how much selfies you take!