Literature Study on Selfie Syndrome- The Disease of New Era

Submitted by Vaishnavi

USN- 4MT18MBA89

Submitted to Prof. K Abhaya Kumar

Senior Assistant Professor

Department of MBA

As Other Assessment for Subject Research Methods

Subject Code: 18MBA23

Date of Submission: 11/03/2019

Signature of the Student Signature of the

Faculty
 Selfie Syndrome- The Disease of New Era

Introduction:

A Selfie is a self-portrait type image, typically taken with a Smartphone which may be held
in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social networking
services such as Face book, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.

The Sony Ericsson Z1010 mobile phone, released in late 2003, introduced the concept of
a front-facing camera which could be used for Selfies and video calls. These cameras became
common on mobile devices, such as the iPhone 4 (2010).

In 2011, the Instagram photo-sharing and social networking service introduced auto filters,
allowing users to easily alter their photos. In 2013, the word Selfie was added to the Oxford
English Dictionary.

Over a period of time, technological advancement has given us new addiction disorders-
computer addiction disorder and internet addiction disorders. Smartphone has included in our
daily life without which we cannot survive. All Smartphone’s today are equipped with high
resolution camera, which we call it as "selfie" camera. It is coupled with posting the selfie
photographs on social networking sites. This has led to a chain of reactions leading to a
complex addiction disorder which is called as "Selfie addiction disorder/Selfie syndrome."

The term Selfitis was first coined in 2014 to describe obsessive selfie-taking in a spoof news
story which suggested the American Psychiatric Association was classifying it as a disorder.
‘Selfitis’ is a genuine mental condition and people who feel compelled to continually post
pictures of themselves on social media. APA had established three levels of selfitis:
Borderline selfitis, Acute selfitis, Chronic selfitis. In 2014, there were a handful of separate
media reports reporting that "selfie addiction" had been recognized by psychologists and
psychiatrists as a genuine mental disorder.

In 2017, Kela and colleagues examined the medical effects of excessive selfie-taking. In a
survey of 250 Indian students aged between 18-25years (56 percent females), it was reported
that 30 % reported lower back ache, 15% suffered stress, 20 % suffered from cervical
spondylitis, 25%suffered from headache and 10% suffered from selfie elbow a tendonitis
condition.

Literature Review:

1) Sai Krishna G, Komal Krishna T (2016): with the development of mobile technology in
recent years, the process of taking selfie has been easier than past. They examined over a
period of time, technological advancement has given a new addiction disorders. In their write
up they have spoken about the impact of selfies on self esteem levels and how selfies boost
self confidence of individuals. This affects the socio-psychological characteristics of people.
There is no scientific management of selfie. Only some kind of behavioural theory or
counselling may help.

2) Wade NJ (2014): Photographs taken of oneself have become known as ‘selfies’ and term
received “word of the year” by Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. However it has a history
that stretches back to the very beginning of photography. The first photographic selfie is said
to have been taken by American Amateur Photographer in 1839.

3) Vats M (2015): Recently new rapidly emerging information technology syndrome

4) Satish Saroshe, Ruchita Banseria, Sanjay Dixit, Anand Patidar (2016): This study
suggests that there is a relationship between selfie posting behaviour and narcissism. The
objective was to assess the occurrence of selfitis or selfie syndrome in young adults aged 19-
26 years and to analyse their traits and behaviour. Their study duration was up to 3 months
and with 100 students of 2 colleges in Indore City. Open questionnaire were used for the
study. 11% people accepted that they take selfies daily. Overall 29% people have done crazy
things to look nice in a selfie. Almost half the people included in the research feel like ‘taking
selfies might become an addiction.’
5) Sanchita Singh, K M Tripathi: The study suggests that some variables like narcissism,
hyperactivity are positively related with selfie tendency. On the other hand selfie image has
negative correlation with selfie. The purpose of this study was to offer initial examination of
personality factors which are inclined towards taking selfies. Here participants were 50
students from a Government school of Haryana aged 12-18 years. Here the questionnaire was
issued. As the focus was on school students, general differences in post of selfies couldn’t be
adequately explored. The roles of gender, race, and culture in social media behaviour are to
be considered in more samples.

6) Dr. Pankaj B. Shah (2015): First and foremost question which arises is ‘does selfies fit in
the criteria of addiction?’ After searching Cochrane database, there arose no relevant
scientific study on selfies. All most all Smartphone users have landed up for a selfie at some
point of the time. Here the phenomenon of using phones is not regular. There’s a possibility
that selfie addiction disorder may be associated with many other psychiatric or mental
disorder. It’s almost impossible to have a decent smart phone without selfie camera.
Scientific community has to come together for this new addiction and loads of research is
required before it affects large population and before it tops the list of Global Burden of
Diseases.

7) Nishtha Thakur, Dr. Achla Dagdu Gaikwad (2018): Selfie have now emerged as a
major trend and smart phone manufacturers are seeing that they provide good front cameras
in the phone and technology is adapting the social trend of self portraits to rule the world.
This study aims to find out the selfie taking behaviour and its impact on the health of the late
adolescents. 120 samples were selected from a University at Gurugram using convenience
sampling technique. They used quantitative research and exploratory research design. The
result showed that there is relationship between taking selfies and social health of late
adolescents.

8) Attila Szabo (2018): Selfie posting on social media is a modern phenomenon. This is a
report on sport selfies, which is a distinct category among many human endeavours. The
objective was to determine the characteristics of sport selfies and to scrutinize if they match a
general trend. After the content analysis of 930 sport selfies, women post more selfies than
men. The sport selfies emerges in 3 nations- Germany, Brazil and Russia. To conclude that
sport selfies might represent a unique category of public exposure and self presentation.

9) Ritu Kela, Nida Khan, Rashi Saraswat, Bisma Amin (2017): Our technology instead of
being beneficial to the society is turning catastogenic with people suffering from the
narcissistic behavioural syndrome. The purpose is to describe how selfie addiction affects
mental health and physical health of human being. The survey was conducted for 250
students from age groups of 18-25 years. Out of the students participated many were
suffering from low back ache followed by head ache. Now selfie addiction is no ore a matter
of laugh, it is becoming the cause of mental disturbances along with physical health problems
resulting in the rise of new disorders.

10) Nitika Shah, Seema Singh (2018): A new trend of selfie has evolved. The term was
coined by Steven Wrighter in September 2002. The goal of this study was to establish
relationship personality traits and selfie addiction and between loneliness and selfie addiction.
The data were collected from 15 participants. The analysis reveals that there is relationship
between neuroticism and selfie addiction and between loneliness and selfie addiction. To
conclude, the present research aimed to explore relationship between Eysenck’s Personality
traits like Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism and Selfie addiction.

11) Priya S, Dr. Latha Venkatesan, Dr. Vijayalakshmi K (2018): India has the largest
number of selfie deaths than any other countries in the world in past 2 years. This is because
selfies give big impact to its user in daily life. Their study aimed at assessing the selfie
addiction among the college students. They conducted the study using descriptive
correlational research design at Tirupattur among 100 students. The people used purposive
sampling technique. 53% of students were identified with moderate addiction, 41% had mild
addiction, 4% were addicted severely and 2% were not addicted. In order to save our youth
from being technology freak and selfie obsessed, several strategies and counselling to be
adopted to come out of addiction and devote time for their studies.

12) Tajuddin JM, Hassan NA, Ahmad R (2015): The existence of media and technology
has changed the world. New media technologies are transforming the media landscape
ushering in a paradigm shift in mass communications. The study examines the impacts of
selfie on University students. Two variables have been used to measure impacts-positive and
negative impacts. Questionnaire was developed and 187 students participated in the study.
The findings disclosed that there are positive and negative impacts of selfie for both genders

13) Syahida Abd Kadir, Nur Zurain Zulfakho (2017): Selfie phenomenon has been
understood in relation to repaid documenting of the self as a socio- cultural revolution about
identity affirmation a social media. The aim of the research is to identify how students are
aware about the selfie phenomenon. This to investigate impact of selfie towards students.
Selfie culture is so popular in social media sites, particularly Twitter, Face book, Instagram
etc. They found that selfie among students are increasing day by day which has good and bad
impact for the students. Students to be alert about the impact of selfie towards their education
and health.

14) Nath Som, Nath Manjusha, Gahlot Anju, Bhagoliwal Ajay (2017): The selfies are
taken to present a flattering image of the person, specially to friends. This study was
undertaken to determine the demographics and psycho-social effect of the selfie users, the
frequency and nature, reasons and impact of the selfies taken. The research was conducted
among 487 medical students of Rama Medical College, Kanpur. 43% were interested in head
and face selfie shot followed by 29% body shot. There is a significant connection between
selfie type and gender. Based on the study, it can be conclusively said that age and gender
affects the number of selfies one clicks.

15) Veena G (2015): The survival of media technology and the internet has transformed the
society and their lifestyle today. This study investigates perception towards capturing selfies
and its effect on students. Research was conducted using a well structured questionnaire. 120
students participated through convenience sampling method. The finding of the study shows
that 71% respondents send the selfie via whatsapp and 72% of them say taking selfie are
deadly. The present study suggested that request to individuals to follow a few safe selfie
rules while capturing pictures.

16) Elizabeth Williams: Recently many of us have become extremely obsessed with taking
selfies for social media. Taking a selfie is far from a human need, but many people would
agree that narcissists need it for their self esteem. Every one of us do it occasionally, but
some people are real ‘selfie masters.’ A different study of testing the correlation between
selfies and narcissism showed different results when it comes to men and women. Taking
selfies is fun, but it’s important that we shouldn’t be obsessed about it.
17) Rutledge P (2013): Like every trend, the behaviour will recede when the excitement and
newness wears off. A selfie is the determination of passing moment, not a larger expression.
Selfies are beyond informal. Selfies frequently trigger perceptions of self indulgence or
attention seeking social dependence that raises the damned if you do so. It also triggers the
narcissism and low self esteem. Like most digital self publishing, selfie-ing is also easy.

18) Coffey H (2018): A study found that between march 2014 and September 2016, 60% of
all deaths are ‘selfie deaths’ where a person dies while trying to take a picture of themselves.
Outside India, a dangerous trend of bear selfies were reported in 2014(USA). It lead to US
Forest Service warning against the dangerous practice. Few listened though and dozens of
snaps were taken with dangerous animals in the background.

19) Rashi Gupta, Ms Pooja (2016): A selfie is a photographic object that indicates the
transmission of human feeling in the form of a relationship. This talks about self confidence
and narcissism. Internet and latest IT technique has revolutionized our lifestyle and made life
fast and easy for communication purpose, but is double edged sword.

20) Lecia Bushak (2015): Selfies are meant to attract attention but they might also give
others an insight into your personality. It examines how selfies can be windows into your
personality. Researchers have denoted that lot of selfies is linked to narcissism, isolation and
even suicide. A person’s selfie corresponded well with their own self-evaluation of their
personality. The students who guessed personality traits based on the selfies weren’t always
as accurate.

21) Courtney Seiter (2015): These days’ humans take almost one trillion photos a year. And
lots of them are selfies or self portraits. She speaks about selfie culture and psychology of
selfies. Looking directly into the camera can help make a direct connection with someone.
The results showed that seeing photos of patients increased empathy among doctors.

22) Jennifer L Bevan (2017): This study examined the perceptions of others taking selfies in
public comparing those using selfie sticks while taking selfies. The results of an online
survey that asked individuals to randomly one of these methods of taking selfies. These
finding are considered in relation to public perceptions of selfies.
23) Christopher T Barry, Hannah Doucette, Della C Loflin, Nicola Rivera Hudson,
Laccy L Herrington (2015): According to popular new accounts, the selfie is to be have
debuted its present form in 2004. However not all the attention on selfies has been negative.
To understand the relationship between self esteem, narcissism with selfies. It considers
different categories and different dimensions of narcissism and self esteem. Participants were
128 students from a public university in South-eastern United States aged from 18-43 years.
98.4% of participants post selfies. Aside from mere posting of selfies, more research is
needed on the dynamic interplay among variety social media behaviour.

24) Reena Shah, Ruchi Tewari (2016): Time magazine nominated selfie as one of the
most used buzz words of 2012. Selfie is not a recent act but it has caught attention due to
negative impacts though there positive impacts as well. Here the qualitative research method
was found most appropriate. There were 11 students under the experiment and their average
age was 23.5 years. The results bring out the quantity of selfie usage and quality of selfie
behaviour of youth. Implications of selfies are not limited to commercial purposes, but also
for reaching implications for developing effective communication strategies for social issues.

25) Sandra Sunitha Lobo, PC Yamini Gowda (2016): Selfies have become popular as a
new medium for self expression and self presentation. The study helps us to know how
adolescent users identify the act of uploading selfies. A qualitative research was followed to
understand the selfie phenomenon. Focus group discussion was done on a sample of 8 willing
selfie users aged 19-20 years. Results showed that selfies are taken on accomplishment of
psychological needs of identity formation, uniqueness and physical attributes to oneself.

26) Eric B Weiser (2015): Sharing selfies on social media has become a popular activity,
assuring questions about its psychological meaning and dispositional relevant motives. The
study was performed to examine the association between narcissism, attempt to seek attention
and posting selfies on social networking sites. There were sample of 1204 men and women
who completed the online survey. Results showed that age did not moderate the predictive
effects of narcissism. And here is not the constraint for posting selfies.
27) Vladan Starcevic, Joel Billieux, Adriano Schimmenti (2018): This article draws the
attention to troublesome tendencies and aims to shed more light on origin and implications.
The trend of problematic behavioural addiction has emerged recently. Instead of labelling an
excessive and dangerous practice of taking selfies are named as selfie addiction. It was called
obsessive taking of selfies. The components of selfitis have practically nothing in common
with behavioural approach.

28) Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol (2016): Taking selfies has become a trend among
teenagers in many countries; concerns have been raised about the negative personality traits
associated with it. The research explores the selfie- associated personal characteristics of
individuals are still scant. The author aims to investigate four characteristics that might
explain why some people like to take selfies more than others. Questionnaire was collected
from 300 samples from a public university in Thailand aged 21-24 years. The overall findings
imply that although selfies provide the opportunity for individuals to enhance self-disclosure,
they can reflect some unhealthy behaviour.

29) Sukhdeep Kaur, SK Maheshwari, Preksha Sharma (2018): The tendency of taking
own pictures using smart phones or tablets have turned into an observable fact of new culture
of youth. This study investigates the narcissistic personality features. 300 college students
were selected by using socio-demographic data sheets. Narcissistic features had a significant
relationship with number of selfies on an average day. Study concluded that majority of the
selfie taking college students had narcissistic symptoms.

30) Balakrishna J, Griffiths M.D. (2018): This study empirically explores the concept and
collected data on the existence of selfitis with respect of three alleged levels. 225 students
from 2 Indian University were pooled and categorized into three condition groups. Present
study explored the factors that underlie selfitis and developed a new psychometric scale. This
research focuses on group interviews for the better understanding of sub components of
selfitis. This study arguably validates the concept of ‘selfitis’ and provides benchmark data
for other researchers to investigate concept more thoroughly and in different contexts.
Conclusion:

Selfies have become a trend in the world today, though it is not necessarily helpful or of any
use. Motives may have been positive in the beginning, perhaps people wanted to find a more
interesting way to share their joy with friends and family. However, as the term 'selfies'
started becoming a popular word and people all over the world started taking them just for the
sake of taking them. The Psychological effects of selfie have been very serious especially for
the teenagers.

As apps and social networking sites started evolving to allow people to take selfies, problems
such as narcissism, sexting and cyber bullying started emerging as well. Tragedies regarding
cyber bullying due to selfies are appearing all over the world. Their self-esteem is just
developed when they see likes and positive feedbacks from their online friends and followers.
Values and social ethics are completely affected. In some case, people go beyond their limit
and do things that are improper to get the attention of other users. There are some selfies that
unpleasant, malicious and irrelevant and it has a great impact on people who would probably
see it.

In conclusion, we believe that selfies do have a rather big influence on society, and it does
more harm than good and does not benefit the society nowadays in any way. Selfie enables
you to express yourself and to update other people on what is happening in your life. It is not
about how people recognize you and how you impress them, it is more on telling what you
really feel in just a single photo. Don’t let this thing control you, instead, use it to develop
yourself and your personality.
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