BLOG POST 1: 

Hashtag Selfie: Psychological Facts About Selfie

By: Amadelo Mutyangpili

The duck or cat face, the peace sign pose with a big smile, mirror shot, or even taking a picture while pretending to be asleep.Its easy, many people now have a smartphones with a camera. Just focus your face, find a good angle of your face that you think is for the best shot, then take a picture. Then you will now have a perfect selfie.

Isn't it funny that just taking our own picture in our smartphones can be trending worldwide? In fact, according to Melissa Walker, author of the blog The Good, the bad, and the Unexpected Consequences of Selfie Obsession. More than 31 million photos in Instagram have been hashtagged selfie. The celebrities who are known to be selfie posters are Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. Well, it is clearly stated now that selfie is now part of the culture worldwide.

But do you know according to some Psychologist, selfie have also an effect to our behavior. According to Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D, faculty director of the media psychology program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. She says that selfie allows us to control our image online. So many people nowadays are so much conscious about their image. They just post the best of their selfie shot online. Its like your just showing your ideal image to others. Because the real thing about selfie, we only post the photos online where we look cute, beautiful, handsome or adorable.

Many people are now being social climber nowadays. If they bought a new branded shirts, shoes, bags or even gadgets, if they hang out in a cool place like Starbucks, having vacation at the beach, they took a picture of it. Yes, I know that there is definitely nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's teenagers life. If not, you're not in today in our generation. But the ugly part of this thing is that if we post this online and many people sees it. According to Psychologist Jill Weber, Ph.D says there's a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and Likes you get when you post a selfie, and they aren't based on who you are they're based on what you look like. 

According to Alexandra Sifferlin blog, Why Selfies Matter?., “The way kids think about technology, media and communication is much different than people even 10 years their senior,” she says. “Technology is changing so fast that even small generational gaps are meaningful in how we view ‘normal.’” 

It is also written in the blog of Alexandra Stifferlin that taking selfie shot shows the feeling behind those shots. She stated that it is a way of expressing ourselves. But even small children nowadays are aware of these selfie thing. But they are not aware about the effects of selfie obsessions. That is why Psychologist, Rutledge, gave an advice. She says that parents should guide their children to be aware of what is happening nowadays. Even a small issue can have an effect on every innocent children's mind. Especially some children don't even know what pictures they need to post. They can't figure out what is an image that is not accepted by others, or some pictures that may be violate others, or even sexual pictures that they still don't know and understand what is it about. Even these not that important topic can have an effect on a children's mind. So that's why she gave an advice to parents to guide their children and let them be aware on what is happening especially technologies also changes attitudes. The generations from today has a big difference to the generations from the past. Many things have changed now especially because of the influenced made by the technologies that is keep on improving everyday.

It is not bad to be IN for what's new. That is a good characteristic of us humans, we can adapt changes. Some of us are just going with the flow. But remember, let us always be aware of what's happening today. Yes. Technologies are helping us in our daily lives, but of course, there is a negative side effect on these. And always remember too, Use your resources properly. Too much is not good. Just live your life to the fullest, You Only Live Once. So make yourself happy, grab your smartphones, find a beautiful angle of you, and take a SELFIE shot.