This is no joke anymore. The craze for selfies has gradually crept into our lives, thanks or no thanks to Ellen Degeneres who got us all crazy about it since the last held Oscar.
But did the group selfie kind of photos start with Obama and Ellen?
Of course not. Group photos have existed right from the era of inventory of photography. Gradually, it faded as most people take group selfies only during official occasions, weddings but of course, most of those selfies lack fun attitudes like that of Obama and Ellen. But that’s as far as US is concerned.
Here in Nigeria, selfies never really faded in its totality. Aside taken for official reasons, we have them at weddings, parties and they sometimes come with fun attitudes.
So, what made Ellen’s selfie so popular? That’s not far from the fact that it was packed full of favourite Hollywood faces coupled with the fun attitude embedded in it which went viral online immediately it was posted.
But, it’s now been noticed that almost everyone has started to follow the selfie path. Both in the US, here in Nigeria and all over the world. Celebs no longer feel shy to gather for group fun photos which I term dry anyway because they look like trying to imitate Ellen.
Meanwhile, there’s a twist to the selfie. According to psychologists, selfie addiction may be dangerous.
Reports show that “It seems that some people simply can’t stop turning the camera their way for that perfect social media photo, and now psychologists say taking selfies can turn into an addiction for people already affected by certain psychological disorders.”
“That certainly seems to apply to Danny Bowman. The 19-year-old Englishman, who had been diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, developed a selfie addiction in which he took up to 200 photos of himself a day, Mirror News reported. He even became suicidal.”
“Danny’s case is particularly extreme,” Psychiatrist Dr. David Veale, whose clinic helped treat the teenager, told Mirror News. “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.”
Selfie addiction may not be new since addiction to forms of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram exist. Researchers even have developed a psychological scale based on six basic criteria to measure risk for Facebook addiction.
And researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found in 2013 that college-aged and middle-aged adults who scored higher for certain narcissistic traits posted more frequently on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
“With modern technology, it can actually be quite severe,” this kind of thing can happen to anyone.
So are you already addicted to selfies? Check to see whether yours is normal or you might just be suffering from a disorder.