Dakarai Wintons

Running head: LET ME TAKE A SELFIE 1

Let me take a selfie: The meaning behind selfies

Dakarai Wintons

Florida International University

Let me take a selfie: The meaning behind selfies

Social media has become the virtual equivalent of the gathering places of the past, facilitated by the very fact that everyone can share this virtual world at any place they are at whether it be home, school, or even work. Social media is not only defined as “sharing” but also “archiving” not only a showcase, but also a singular album, where you would be able to admire yourself in various memories otherwise known as selfies. The purpose of this paper is that we hypothesize that if participants are exposed to selfie photos, then they will believe that an Instagram user 1.) updates their profile picture more frequently, 2.) make posts to their social media account more often, and 3.) displays themselves as self-absorbed, selfish, narcissistic, and egotistical, in comparison to participants that are exposed to group or professional photos, though these latter two conditions should not differ from each other in their Instagram user ratings. Social media sites, such as Facebook, Snapchat, and the most well-known Instagram, have been the epitome of selfies. Selfies have been used, especially within the youth community, as a form of self-presentation, in which individuals not only posts selfies based on their appearance, but also showing their personality and their character for others to see. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and with selfies, it said a lot about that individual.

According to an article, prior research suggests that individuals uses social network sites for things such as; social interaction, self-expression, information seeking and relaxation (Kim, Sohn & Choi, 2011). What defines a selfie? The term is used for individuals to take pictures of themselves to show who their own identity and their personality. Selfies have become the focal point and one of the biggest reasons as to why individuals uses social network sites. Social network sites, like Snapchat and Instagram, has allowed individuals to use that form of expression to present themselves more rapidly. Despite selfies being a picture, it can display different types of behaviors. Narcissism is one behavior that is typically the behavior that comes to mind when associating it with the term selfie. Narcissism refers to a personality of an individual’s self-view of themselves, especially concerning their physical appearance and popularity. According to an article, narcissistic individuals are more likely to present self-promotional content (Carpenter, 2012). Holtzman and Strube (2010) also noted that physical attractiveness is the underlying cause of narcissits’ self-focus and public display. The effect of satisfactory of oneself appears to be stronger towards individuals who posts more on the social media sites. Showing narcissistic and egoistical behavior can influence individuals with taking more selfies and posting more often than if they were in a group or a professional setting.

Narcissism promotes self-love and taking selfies could be a strong indicator that the individual displays narcissistic and self-absorbed type of behavior; that they only care about their physical appearance and always showing themselves off to become the envy of others that view their selfies. In the article, ox and Rooney used data from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 men between 18 and 40 years old. Participants completed personality questionnaires assessing the dark triad and self-objectification. They were asked how many selfies they had taken and posted on social media in the last week, as well as how many other photos they had posted and how much time they spent on social media sites. They were also asked to rate how often they used various methods to make themselves look better in pictures, such as cropping, filtering, and re-touching. Results showed that both narcissism and self-objectification were associated with spending more time on social network sites, and with more photo-editing. Thus, posting numerous selfies was related to both higher narcissism and psychopathy. This also further indicates that posting selfies on social media constantly is a good strategy for narcissists to improve their self-views (Fox, J., & Rooney, M. C. ,2015).

Narcissism is not the only known behavior that has been displayed in individuals who take selfies, studies have shown that self-esteem is another behavior that can be the cause of individuals posting numerous selfies on social media sites. Self-esteem is an important factor when it comes to youth community and when it comes to social media. Often, many view others who posts numerous selfies and interpret them as being conceited or only caring about themselves. Many people often associate individuals that posts many selfies, receiving many likes and comments, as a way of wanting attention from others because they feel they are important and should have all the attention. But believe it or not, individuals who posts selfies often are more than likely having problems with low self-esteem. According to the selfie phenomenon article, individuals who posts more frequently of themselves do not think to highly of themselves and therefore; these individuals posts selfies on social media to gain others approval. The more positivity the person receives from their selfie posts, the more they will continuously post selfies on social media. This can cause the individual to have a reinforcement type behavior, to where they will constantly post selfies to always receive positive feedback of themselves. Individuals that displays low self-esteem behavior, is often depressed about themselves after viewing other people’s selfies. They feel that their lives are a lot less interesting and that they are not important. However, if they continually receive positive feedback of their selfies, they would be put in a famous-like mind state.

Some studies explain that self-awareness negatively affects self-esteem. This is because taking selfies could possibly lower one’s self-esteem. However, studies have assumed that self-esteem may also likely increase one’s self-esteem after sharing numerous selfies. In the article, when people attempt to share their own selfies on social media, it becomes easier for them to self-present themselves in their selfies. For individuals with a low self-esteem, taking as many selfies can create a mask of that person. For those individuals, it hides their fear and vulnerability that others may not be able to see through their selfie posts.

Overall, in conjunction with my hypothesis stated earlier, I feel that the research that was presented proved that my hypothesis is substantial. It seems that based on studies that were tested, individuals that posts selfies more frequently on social media, are likely to display behaviors of narcissism and change their profiles quite frequently as well. However, I do feel that from the research, I also found that individuals that posts often do not always display narcissistic behavior. Self-esteem is a behavioral factor to consider when looking at individuals posts on social media. Instead of only showing how self-absorbed and proud the individuals are with themselves, they can also show how insecure they are, and how much they rely on social media to give them positive feedback of themselves.

In conclusion, although my hypothesis seemed to be substantial, I felt that there is not enough for it to be considered testable because selfies can display all types of different behaviors not only negative behaviors, but positive as well. Also, I felt that the type of character that is displayed from that individual on social media can vary. Frequently posting on their social media does not solely subject them to being narcissistic or having low self-esteem, it can be looked in a positive light, showing that the individual is just confident and happy with their lives and themselves, that they want to share that with everyone else. Depending on the individual, selfies can be looked at as being positive or negative aspects to social media.