We all like the sensation that originates from uploading a picture of ourselves looking particularly fly and after that seeing the likes roll in for the following three hours, but could the act of taking selfies in fact be addictive?
According to a research by Drs. Mark Griffiths as well as Janarthanan Balakrishnan released in The International Journal of Mental Health and also Addiction, perhaps. What’s more, there’s a medical term for individuals who feel specifically urged to take them: selfitis.
The medical professionals, that are connected with Nottingham Trent University as well as the Thiagarajar School of Management, respectively, researched and also evaluated the selfie-taking behaviors of a sample of 400 people in India (the country with the most Facebook users on the planet), as well as ended that not just is selfitis a genuine thing, yet there’s a scale to it also.
If you’re wanting to place your vanity on a range, here goes: Borderline selfitis is identified by taking at the very least 3 selfies a day however not publishing them, acute selfitis is specified by taking three selfies a day and also uploading them, while chronic selfitis suggests taking selfies regularly throughout the day as well as posting at the very least six of them to social media sites. By those criteria, it’s safe to state pretty much any kind of influencer or social media individuality can be stated to have at least intense selfitis. Not that we’re ones to court.
«Typically, those with the problem experience an absence of confidence and are looking for to ‘fit in’ with those around them, and also might show signs similar to various other possibly addictive practices,» Dr. Balakrishnan told The Telegraph. «Now the existence of the problem shows up to have actually been verified, it is really hoped that more research will be performed to understand more about how and also why individuals develop this possibly obsessive practices, as well as what can be done to aid individuals that are one of the most impacted.»
The term ‘selfitis’ really started as a joke in 2014, when a spoof newspaper article reported the American Psychiatric Association was taking into consideration identifying it as a condition. Now, it seems the term as well as the supposed ‘Selfitis Behaviour Scale’ are being taken seriously by some in the medical community. As well as given just how much time a number of us spend admiring ourselves via our apple iphone electronic cameras, it’s not hard to see why the term has actually taken on a feeling of legitimacy.
Not every person is encouraged. Mark Salter, an agent for the Royal College of Psychiatrists informed The Telegraph: «There is a tendency to try and classify an entire variety of complicated as well as complex human behaviors with a single word. That is unsafe because it can offer something fact where it really has none.»
Whether or not you believe in selfitis, if you’re interested where you might fall on the scale, there’s a 20-question test (available below) that can supposedly inform you.