The Psychology of Selfies

Did you know that there’s actually a bit of psychology behind the random, apparently casual meaning of taking and posting selfies on social media? Yes there’s actually more than mere narcissism, in taking a selfie.


According to Rutledge (2017), taking selfies actually serves as means of empowerment to people and also aids in increasing one’s meaningfulness in life. By taking selfies, people are able to take a trip back to memorable times in their lives. This trip allows for the fostering of emotions which can be shared with the people they love.



References
Rutledge, P. (2017). Interview: Positive psychology of selfies – empowerment not narcissism. The Media Psychology Blog. Retrieved from http://mprcenter.org/blog/2017/04/interview-positive-psychology-of-selfies-empowerment-not-narcissism/

Comments

  1. Unknown22 April 2017 at 10:10

    Taking selfies actually do aid in an individuals psychology if you really come to think of it. It gives the person taking the selfie a chance to view themselves from an outsider prospective. This in itself can say alot to an individual in terms of their ability to make changes to their personality and so.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Online vs. Offline Personalities

Have you ever met someone on a social network, who seemed really awesome, fun, interactive and heavily extroverted, then to discover the complete opposite when you meet them in an offline (real-life) setting? It has definitely happened to me and I couldn’t help but wonder why. I think one explanation behind this seemingly complex phenomenon lies with one’s comfort in an online setting. It’s quite easy to just be 100% confident because he/she is not actually standing in front of someone, and has time to think to respond. He/she may not necessarily have distinct offline and online personalities, rather just an appearance of that because of issues related to self-confidence and self-esteem. Another possible explanation could be that one is projecting the personality type he/she would like to have. It is so much easier to enact that personality online because this person is hidden; body language can’t be read, facial expression can’t be seen and intonation can’t be discriminated.
Read more

Technology & Human Interaction

In last week’s posts I explored the ways in which technology is being used to enhance the field of psychology and specific online therapeutic tools. This week’s focus will be on technology’s effects on human interaction. I know it may seem a bit cliché because this topic has been extensively explored, nevertheless it will be briefly discussed. Technology has indeed increased human interaction because there are now more opportunities to connect with others. What is suffering however, is the actual quality of these interactions and relationships. It is quite normal to have 1,000+ friends on Facebook these days, and one would think that someone with that number of friends definitely interacts frequently, which may in fact be the case. But what is the quality of these interactions? Just think about it: how many close friends do people really have and engage in meaningful face-to-face interactions with? Exactly – not that many. Research shows that regardless of the number of people
Read more

The Psychology of Online Dating

In societies today, many persons have adapted to ‘online living’ in practically every aspect of life, including dating. Although some still enjoy meeting their special him or her in a face-to-face setting, meeting someone online and then building a relationship from there is becoming more and more common and accepted in recent times. So what really motivates us to utilize online dating? Firstly, according to evolutionary psychologists, physical attractiveness plays a huge role. Because pictures can be easily altered and edited via programs and applications on computers and mobile phones, many persons portray splendid images online. Physical beauty is a sign of health and fertility and so onlookers are usually attracted to these traits as, again according to evolutionary psychologists, we as humans are preoccupied with survival and reproduction (Spira, 2016). In addition, lying and deception seem to be quite prevalent in online dating. People who are on these dating sites see o
Read more