Selfies and Social Media Essay Example

Today, taking selfies has become a common activity, majorly among young adults and teenagers. From a psychological perspective, selfie-taking is more than just taking a photograph and posting in social media but is a self-oriented action that allows the user to establish their individuality and self-importance which could also be associated with personality traits such as narcissism. On the other hand, depending on the way the selfie is taken and posted I n social media, they render various explanations (such as psychopathy, self-objection, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) particularly about the individual posting them. For example, both self-objection and narcissism could be associated with spending more time on social media and involve more in editing the taken selfies. As for posting numerous selfies, it could be related to both higher narcissism and psychopathy along with controlling many other types of photos posted by the individuals. The primary focus of this study is based on the hypothesis that participants that are exposed to selfie photos are likely to believe that an Instagram user updates their profile picture frequently, posts to their social media accounts more often, and may seem more selfish, narcissistic, self-absorbed, and egotistical, compared to other counterparts exposed to professional or group pictures. However, it is possible that individuals post selfies to garner attention whenever they have low self-esteem, compared to those with high self-esteem that do not post in their social media accounts as often.

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Over the past decade, the tremendous growth in the photo sharing on social networking sites has derived the development of a new phenomenon involving taking of selfies and sharing them on social media (social networking sites). In most of the cases, it is as a means of self-presentation as a result of the different trends with the popularity of taking selfies among other selfie tools (such as photo editing applications, selfie sticks, and media platforms like Instagram and snapchat). Majorly, social networking sites (SNSs) users utilize selfies to display individual personalities, preferences, and lifestyle as well (Sung, Lee, Kim, and Choi, 2016). According to Sung et al. (2016), there are various motivations behind posting oneself with the involvement of personality and individual differences. In their research, Sung et al. (2016) identified that the primary motives for posting the selfies on social networking sites were: communication, archiving, entertainment, and attention seeking. As a result of the motivations, the selfies taken would showcase an individual's values and interests, positive reactions, and other forms of feedback received from social connections (such as likes and shares) which may serve as testaments to the social validation central to the user's self-affirmations. The selfies are aimed by individuals as a means to pursue self-validation goals. With this occurrence, it drives to the issue concerning the role of narcissism in explaining the selfie posting behavior concerning seeking attention, communication entertainment, and archiving motivations. Thus, it is outright clear that higher levels of narcissism are associated with stronger selfie behavior motivated by the urge to seek attention.

Similarly, Weiser (2015) performed a study to examine the association between narcissism, an individual personality trait characterized by selfie posting behavior and attempts to seek validation from other SNSs users along with the frequency of posting the selfies. According to Weiser, narcissism and its facets, i.e., Grandiose exhibitionism (GE), leadership or authority (LA), exploitativeness or entitlement (EE) have a significance in the prediction of selfie posting frequency. Posting of selfies behavior creates and represents an avenue through which narcissistic needs are expressed through social media, for instance, an occurrence where narcissistic individual think of themselves are attractive hence may consider posting a way of garnering attention and social validation. From the study, Weiser summarizes that posting selfies is not a motivationally vacuous occurrence; but instead, it is a form of self-validation and expression that delivers psychological and social meaning. Thus, this could sum up the prediction that users post selfies to gain attention and for self-validation; for example, in cases of low self-esteem.

Self-esteem plays a significant role in defining an individual's personality especially in the use of social media for social validation and self-expression. There is an involvement of self-esteem in moderating the various cases and experiences of narcissism and posting of selfies. Self-esteem derives the various topics individual indulge as they interact with social networking sites in an attempt to seek validation. The narcissist subtypes (LA, GE, and EE) deliver an explanation of the significance of variance when predicting the posting of selfies on social media pointing out that of the three facets of narcissism, on GE narcissism is a significant predictor of selfies posting. Also, there is a lack of relationship between EE narcissism and posting on selfies on social networking sites while LA narcissism negatively predicts the posting of selfies (March & McBean, 2018; Weiser, 2015). According to March and McBean, self-esteem is a significant factor when predicting the frequency of selfie posting on social media deriving that, individuals with lower levels of self-esteem post more selfies on social media compared to there counterparts with higher self-esteem.

Correspondingly, there is a significant inter-relation between the posting of selfies on social networking sites and social sensitivity pointing out that the effects of selfies on self-esteem. According to a study by Shin, Kim, Im, and Chong (2017), they examine the impact of selfies on social sensitivity and self-esteem based on the social comparison theory. In consideration to social sensitivity and selfies sharing, it is evident that individual could become more socially sensitive after taking and posting selfies on social media through posts and comments; however, sharing the selfie on social media has a positive effect on the individual level of social sensitivity. On the other hand, selfies impact self-esteem whereby, merely taking a selfie and not posting it could render a decrease in self-esteem rather than posting. Also, individual in a condition requiring them to post their selfies on social media could have a smaller drop in self-esteem than those in a situation needing them to merely save the selfie (Shin et al., 2017).

Conclusion

From the various details derived from different studies concerning selfies and social media, it is evident that there is a close relation as the world is evolving. Individuals are indulging more into social media with the development of various social networking sites (Chae, 2017). Through this, it has facilitated the possibilities and development of numerous psychological events that are of concerns. In pursuing the hypothesis, concerning the occurrence that individuals exposed to selfies are likely to update their profile picture, post on their social networking sites, and the issue of narcissism I will consider various methods as per my prediction. The prediction revolves around the notion that social media users post selfies to acquire attention particularly those with low self-esteem, compared to others with high self-esteem.

References

Chae, J. (2017). Virtual makeover: Selfie-taking and social media use increase selfie-editing frequency through social comparison. Computers in Human Behavior, 66, 370-376. Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.007

March, E., & McBean, T. (2018). New evidence shows self-esteem moderates the relationship between narcissism and selfies. Personality and Individual Differences, 130, 107-111. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2018.03.053

Shin, Y., Kim, M., Im, C., & Chong, S. C. (2017). Selfie and self: The effect of selfies on self-esteem and social sensitivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 139-145. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.004

Sung, Y., Lee, J. A., Kim, E., & Choi, S. M. (2016). Why we post selfies: Understanding motivations for posting pictures of oneself. Personality and Individual Differences, 97, 260-265. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.032

Weiser, E. B. (2015). # Me: Narcissism and its facets as predictors of selfie-posting frequency. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 477-481. Doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2015.07.007