Attention:

Social networks have recently spread a false information : the APA, it was said, had included a disorder called “Selfitis” which referred to the obsession to take self-pictures with the mobile phone. Although it is true that there are people who are too obsessed with wanting to show a good image of themselves on the networks, the truth is that by the American Psychiatric Association there has been no mention of this alleged disorder .

In order to be able to do pedagogy on this issue, we have compiled the article “bulo” which has been the object of so much attention and controversy.

Have you ever wondered what your profile picture on Facebook , Twitter, Instagram means? What’s the point of uploading all those self-portraits on your social networks every day?

From people with a normal life to celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Kelly Brooks, Lana del Rey and Kim Kardashian upload photos daily and self-portraits of their daily lives. Many will think these self-portraits are meaningless, but according to the American Psychiatric Association (better known by its acronym APA ) during their annual meeting, Held in Chicago in 2014, people who compulsively take selfies may suffer from a mental disorder called “Selfitis”, and according to APA this compulsive act of taking self-portraits occurs because of a lack of self-esteem and to fill a void in intimacy.

Research on Selfitis

In 2013, Nadav Hochman, Lev Manovich and Jay Chow analyzed two million photos from the social network Instagram , which were collected in five different cities around the world. The analysis of these photos yielded relevant information, such as the fact that female persons in the age range of 23-25 years are the most selected . Another curious fact is that women in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo are the ones who smile the most and turn their heads an average of 16.9 degrees when taking a self-portrait, when the average in all countries is no more than 12 degrees. As we can see, it was an exhaustive study almost to the point of absurdity.

But this does not mean that men are exempt from suffering from this disorder, as there is a good percentage of men who compulsively take this type of self-portrait.

Research by psychologists has yielded other revealing data about Selfitis.For example, it was found that the more selfies a person takes and spreads through social networks, the more damaged their relationship with friends on social networks tends to be. Therefore, we can conclude that people who believe that by taking dozens and dozens of selfies and uploading them to social networks they will achieve more popularity and friendships, are wrong .

How do you identify a person with Selfitis?

Diagnosing a person with Selfitis does not just involve taking a Selfie. The fact that you take a self-portrait from time to time is not a sign that you have a disease.For us to be able to talk about Selfitis, the amount of selfies must be significant during the day, p ero the compulsion to share such photos on their social networks is also taken into account .

A person with Selfitis can take more than three self-portraits per day and share the same photo more than twice on different social networks such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The fact that they copy poses of people who have had a lot of social impact in their photos is also an identification of the disorder, and they may become anxious and depressed if their Selfie did not get the like expected.

The phases of Selfitis

According to the APA , there are 3 stages or phases of Selfitis which are the following:

  • Selfitis borderline : a person can only drink a minimum of three selfies a day, but without sharing them on social networks.
  • Acute selfitis : the subject takes self-portraits at least three times a day, and then shares each of them on social networks.
  • Chronic selfitis : occurs when a person feels an uncontrollable urge to take selfies all day long, as well as to share such photos on social networks more than six times a day.

Treatment for Selfies Obsession

The annual meeting of the APA concluded that the best possible treatment for Selfitis is through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

A problem that should make us think

The underlying problem we observe with the obsession with selfies is not exactly the smartphone fever, but the image culture . What does it reveal to us that a teenager spends hours taking pictures of himself and then shows them on social networks? In many cases, it can indicate poor self-esteem and the need to feel accepted by others.

In this sense, Selfitis is the tip of the iceberg of a problem that is not strictly psychopathological but is related to the values that prevail in our society, a society in which aesthetics and personal relationships take on a central role in the self-image of the adolescent. Taking out selfies does not necessarily mean that there is a psychological problem behind it , but in some cases it can be an unmistakable symptom that something is not quite right.