Psychologists claim that taking three or more selfies a day could be a sign of mental illness.
In 2014, a spoof news article coined the term "selfitis," saying that the American Psychiatric Association was going to start recognising it as a real disorder.
Three years on, two researchers have looked at the term and have decided there could be some truth to it.
Psychologists Mark D. Griffiths and Janarthanan Balakrishnan have published a paper in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, in which they argue that selfitis is a real condition, and can be diagnosed as excessive selfie taking.
They also developed a "Selfitis Behaviour Scale" by surveying the selfie behaviour of 400 participants from India. The scale assesses the severity of the condition, of which there are three levels.
India was chosen for the study as the country has the most selfie-related deaths. Out of 127 selfie-related deaths that have been reported worldwide between March 2014 and September 2016, 76 occurred in India.
(Score: 3, Touché) by nobu_the_bard on Tuesday January 16 2018, @07:04PM (3 children)
Whoops left my phone on burst photo mode and took 200 pictures of myself when I meant to take 4. Well I'll just upload them all and pick the best later w-
Oh hey some guys are here to give me a free white jacket! I'll be back later guys.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 16 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
Before you go, can you tell me . . . is the white jacket being offered by a robot? Are they taking you away in a self driving car? Cool! At least no humans involved in the process from diagnosis to confinement to treatment. Wonderful.
If you don't take selfies, is this a different mental illness indicating some sort of anti-social tendencies?
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 17 2018, @12:43AM
Straight to the soylent processing plant with this one!
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Tuesday January 16 2018, @07:22PM
Well, even if you take no other selfies all month long, that's still an average of over six self-photography incidents per day for January. That seems clinically significant that you would maintain such a high average over a month's time. Your friends here on this site and I are telling you this for your own good, really.
Wait, update, we tossed out the day with the fewest selfies, and the day with the most, and your projected average is now somehow fewer than one per day. Are you sure you're feeling okay?