News
Josh Withey
Dec 15, 2017
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People who are obsessed with taking selfies may have a genuine mental health condition known as "selfitis," that's according to a new research published in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.
Despite the word 'selfitis' originally being made up for a fake news article, researchers from Nottingham Trent University and the Thiagarajar School of Management in Madurai, India decided to investigate if the concept of selfie addiction could exist in the modern day world of smartphones and tablets.
After examining 400 people from India researchers have 'validated the existence' of the phenomena and have even created a "Selfitis Behaviour Scale" to help identify people with the condition.
This scale, which ranges from borderline to chronic selfie addition, asks participants to rank whether they agree with statements including:
I am able to reduce my stress level by taking selfies.
And:
By posting selfies, I expect my friends to appraise me.
The research states:
As with internet addiction, the concepts of selfitis and selfie addiction started as a hoax, but recent research including the present paper has begun to empirically validate its existence.
Author Dr Mark Griffiths also argues that this paper could prove "potentially useful in understanding such human-computer interaction across mobile electronic devices".
To see how you rank on the scale we've put together this very basic quiz using 10 of the the statements from the study.
After you read the statement, rank yourself from strongly disagreeing (1) to strong agreeing (5).
Can't see the quiz? Click here.
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