Facebook and Instagram are just some of the online platforms where we can post our pictures or what we now commonly call as "Selfies". Nowadays, the moment we try to log in to our social media accounts, our Facebook or Instagram feeds are usually filled with other people's selfies.
Some of which are from our friends posting their trip, being out for the night or enjoying something, and others, well, just simply proud parents. It seemingly feels like we are living in a virtual age where there's an endless stream of various moments enviable or not.
As per CBS News, a new study from Penn State thoroughly examines this endless stream of selfies on social media. It was found that it is likely to be associated to lower levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction.
In one of his interviews, Ruoxu Wang, the study co-author and a Penn State graduate student in mass communications, said that a lot of research that has previously been conducted on various social media networking sites considers the motivation for posting and liking the content. However, Wang claims that they are now on the process of looking at the impacts of viewing behavior.
CNN reports that the study named as "Let me take a Selfie" aims to analyze the effects of looking at others' selfies rather than taking them. Looking at the survey responses, the researchers found that for those people who are actively lurking in social media had lower opinions about themselves. When people look at other people's picture, experts have found that they have a tendency to develop the feeling of inferiority, which has also been explained through what experts call as the "upward social comparison theory".
Research findings suggest that the mere act of frequently looking at other people's selfies may actually trigger one's jealousy making them have a lower self-esteem and satisfaction in life. Hence, at the end of the day, it still depends on you on how you perceive a selfie and how you would let it have an affect you.
