{"id":5409,"date":"2017-04-12T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T15:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=5409"},"modified":"2017-04-12T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T15:24:00","slug":"selfie-culture-isnt-the-root-of-all-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/psychology\/selfie-culture-isnt-the-root-of-all-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Selfie culture isn&#8217;t the root of all evil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The idea that selfies are somehow damaging our mental health is spreading. There is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/our-changing-culture\/201510\/are-mental-health-issues-the-rise\">concern<\/a> that there may be a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apa.org\/news\/press\/releases\/stress\/2014\/stress-report.pdf\">link<\/a> between an apparent recent rise in mental health concerns in millennials and taking, editing and posting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/lifestyle\/health\/selfies-can-damage-your-mental-health-expert-warns-the-young-a3461446.html\">selfies<\/a> online. The Open University\u2019s Lisa Lazard and Rose Capdevila investigate if their popularity isn\u2019t completely negative in this video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Selfies are NOT the root of all evil\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cPPPvU8Fz7M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As a relatively recent phenomenon, most of us are still trying to get our heads around the potential impact of \u201cselfie culture\u201d. So when people aren\u2019t worrying over what selfies say about our psychological well-being, they\u2019re talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/is-social-media-turning-people-into-narcissists-66573\">digital narcissism<\/a> \u2013 particularly when it comes to teenage girls.<\/p>\n<p>We assume that selfies encourage a preoccupation with self image and that this is intensified by editing facilities and filters that allow people to present their best look. The result of this process, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/lifestyle\/health\/selfies-can-damage-your-mental-health-expert-warns-the-young-a3461446.html\">some argue<\/a>, is general unhappiness with our appearance because it makes us focus on what\u2019s bad about how we look \u2013 our flaws, our blemishes, our imperfections.<\/p>\n<p>However, the evidence indicates that the link between selfies and well-being is not straightforward. For instance, the results of psychological research exploring the relationship between selfies and self-esteem are mixed. Some studies have found links between selfie posting and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/social-media-can-damage-body-image-heres-how-to-counteract-it-65717\">lower self-esteem<\/a>, however others have reported a relationship with <a href=\"http:\/\/online.liebertpub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1089\/cyber.2009.0411\">higher self-esteem<\/a>. Still other research has found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0736585315301350\">no link at all<\/a><\/p>\n<p>What these findings do clearly indicate is that selfie posting is a complex activity that can produce different reactions depending on the context of posting and how it is received by the audience.<\/p>\n<h2>What do we know about selfies?<\/h2>\n<p>Taking and posting selfies inevitably draws attention to how we look. While selfie posting is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0191886915300039\">not age or gender specific<\/a>, women \u2013 and particularly young women \u2013 appear in a greater number of photos and are tagged <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0747563216303806\">more frequently<\/a>. More women also say they <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0193397308001408\">untag<\/a> themselves from pictures because they\u2019re not satisfied with how they look.<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not necessarily a symptom of narcissistic selfie culture. Body dissatisfaction among young women has been an issue for decades. It\u2019s not unrelated to the longstanding pressures on women, who are judged against a slim, young and blemish-free ideal. Psychological research has, for some time, argued that our social norms encourage women to embrace these beauty standards by, for example, pursuing a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2oHJCZC\">\u201cnatural look\u201d<\/a> through cosmetic enhancement and dieting.<\/p>\n<p>Our social values promote these body ideals and as such women and young girls are encouraged to believe that their bodies are an ongoing betterment project. They are continually under pressure to \u201cimprove\u201d their <a href=\"http:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1057\/978-1-137-47765-1_1\">appearance<\/a>. It is against this backdrop that selfies have become an everyday, routine activity. Given these social pressures on women it\u2019s easy to assume that filtered selfies or selfie editing is just about \u201cfixing\u201d what women don\u2019t like about the way they look.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5412\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ed33b40a2ef71c3e81584d04ee44408be273ebd719b0114390f7_640_selfie-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"two women taking a selfie\" width=\"407\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ed33b40a2ef71c3e81584d04ee44408be273ebd719b0114390f7_640_selfie-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/ed33b40a2ef71c3e81584d04ee44408be273ebd719b0114390f7_640_selfie.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That might play a role, but selfies are about much more. They are, ultimately, a social phenomenon and a form of social interaction. Online communities will form around liking posts and other supportive behaviour. The levels of explicit approval that can be achieved online are, for most of us, unparalleled in the offline world.<\/p>\n<p>One <a href=\"http:\/\/kora.kpu.ca\/islandora\/object\/kora:39\">study<\/a> found that while young women do invest in producing a good picture of themselves, looking good wasn\u2019t the sole aim of getting a good selfie. According to this study, young women reported that the images they selected for uploading expressed something authentic or \u201creal\u201d about themselves. This desire is further underscored by the prestige associated with being able to tag a selfie with #nofilter to show that it hasn\u2019t been edited with a filter. The same could be said for the attention given to selfie fails \u2013 photos that are seen as too fake.<\/p>\n<p>Posting \u201cgood\u201d photos, using filters or other kinds of editing, is not simply about faking a perfect look online. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0747563215301424\">Researchers<\/a> have found that people reported using filters to make photos look more like themselves \u2013 to correct for distortions produced by photo technologies. That includes apps used by people with dark skin to address the misrepresentation created by photographic technology that was originally designed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/2013\/jan\/25\/racism-colour-photography-exhibition\">favour light skin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Studies have also indicated that young adults generally present a fairly accurate representation of their offline identity on social media. The internet is no longer an anonymous place. Most people in our offline communities are now a part of our online lives so we risk our reputation if we appear as inauthentic or \u201cfake\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Our selves at our best?<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s fair to say that online life often shows us at our best. Digital technologies allow us to take multiple photos of the same thing, apply the filter we most prefer and select our favourite image for upload. Now, more than ever, users have control over the final posted image. Crucially, they can shape how they will ultimately look and hopefully be seen. But how young adults feel about this is complex.<\/p>\n<p>For the vast majority of users, best pictures are not totally disconnected from offline life. What we also know is that we currently live in a world that places great importance on physical beauty, self-improvement and the pressure to always look our best. This is the world in which selfie culture emerged \u2013 selfie culture did not create it.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, we do ourselves a disservice if we censure millennials as na\u00efve and unsophisticated by simplifying the complexity of the social worlds in which they go about their everyday lives.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/rose-capdevila-340404\">Rose Capdevila<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-open-university-748\">The Open University<\/a><\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/lisa-lazard-222761\">Lisa Lazard<\/a>, Lecturer in Psychology, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/the-open-university-748\">The Open University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a>. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/selfie-culture-isnt-the-root-of-all-evil-73581\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The idea that selfies are somehow damaging our mental health is spreading. There is concern that there may be a link between an apparent recent rise in mental health concerns in millennials and taking, editing and posting selfies online. The Open University\u2019s Lisa Lazard and Rose Capdevila investigate if their popularity isn\u2019t completely negative in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[293,625,1718,1849,1988,2470],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-body-image","tag-digital-media","tag-photography","tag-psychology","tag-selfie","tag-young-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}