Why Selfie fascinates us ? Is it the new form of communication ?

Selfie has come out to be the primal way of showing our presence to  the virtual world. We communicate to our friends on facebook, twitter about the events we participated, places we visited , people we met etc, all these picture are like look at me this is my personality. It has become a visual method for survival and  self promotion. The more likes on facebook is like more acceptance from people on your identity.  And then there are those people who hate to put their display pictures , they like to stay away from all social media chaos. They are like the outcasted people from internet.


There is a remarkable observation which i would like to share with you, its about the relation  showing   the similarities between the selfie and pre-historic cave paintings and drawings. We know that early man used cave paintings and drawings for the communication before language made it prescence. This is something which we have it in our genes from ages. Its the artistic eye which resides in all of us. All of us are creative in one or other way we have our own way of visualizing a problem , situation and presence. 

The social media sites  like facebook, instagram and tumblr shows the power of visuals and virtual popularity, People are following each other, they are friends with each other on these sites without saying a single word. All joined to create and share their life through visuals. The more you are popular on these social media sites the more is your popularity. People consider you as an influential personality.  Some even try to get fake followers to showcase their popularity.

We have become an artist with a cellphone camera, helping the world know understand our life through visuals. What we think, what we envision is all we want to project through our selfies. Look at the pictures of popular monuments like Eiffel Tower or Tajmahal, Everyone want to take a selfie at popular places to mark their presence. The most funnything happened when we went to see wild animals in Bandipur forest, Most of the tourists were clicking the picture of Animals , taking far off selfies rather seeing and enjoying the moment. We have a notion that we captured the moment for ever and joy comes by seeing the picture but that never happens. You know what when we were born are are never taught to see the way we are taught to speak. Isn't it strange ?

Is it Dysmorphic disorder ?

Some studies say its a mental disorder where there is a craving for taking selfies otherwise they get aggressive and anxious. There are news articles which says that selfies are contributing to the accidental deaths.

A foreign university is doing research and given term selfitis being very contagious

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking ‘selfies’ is a mental disorder.

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

College and even school students are mad for it and are creating a virtual world where they take selfies around luxury cars pools and post an edited version on social media.Sometimes when they are sad or happy they look at those pictures and feel better. Furthermore selfie is a digital evolution of exploring ourselves.

There are chances that few of them who take self images are suffering from body dysmorphic disorder.This disorder is an occupation in the mind either imagined or real that there is a defect in the body in terms of appearance n the person wants to cover it up in the photographs or otherwise. Its obsessive n has grave implications

Why Selfies are so popular?

We use them to document our lives , We use them to explore our emotions , We use them to encode our memories.

Self esteem, Belonging Meaningful Existence and control are the four psycological needs a human has.

Different selfies can fullfill these needs, We snap selfies when we are feeling good, stressed or happy .These includes personal accomplishment selfies , fashion selfies,best friend selfies or selfies which captures a special moment of our life. It projects a meaningful existence of our own identity. That feeling that you matters and your life matters something and that’s called meaningful existence. we also edits these selfies using user friendly image editors.

From the psychologists perspective we are trying to tell the world about our identity on who we are , We need recognition from the people on our social circle who rarely know us. Its an era when one can have lot of strangers in our online social communities. We try to construct our identity.

Use selfie to document your own life and your digital history will be just as exciting as any book or any movie show. Take selfies at places where you like them, Healthy selfies are ART

(The article is compiled  from different internet sources by Bipin Sasi who is a seasoned writer and technologist . He can be reached at bipin514@gmail.com for any suggestions or feedback. )