The year 2003 marked the birth of the Myspace mirror pic. Seven years later, a new monster was born. The release of the iPhone 4 with a front-facing camera unintentionally spawned a new term that would brand our generation and turn us all into accidental narcissists: selfie.
A study conducted by University of Michigan researchers Elliot Panek, Yioryos Nardis and Sara Konrath concluded that narcissistic young adults use social media in different ways to boost their own egos and control others’ perception, citing Facebook and Twitter as the main culprits. But what website revolves more around ego and perception than Instagram?
According to digital marketing website Expanded Ramblings, 40 million photos are uploaded to Instagram everyday, and recent statistics show that the website boasts 150 million active users. Out of the 16 billion photos on Instagram’s database, more than 127 million are square-cropped photos of selfies from purposely flattering angles labeled with “#me.”
“Narcissism begins in a vicious cycle: I post content because my followers like them > I must be important / interesting / unique / special > getting likes feels good > I post more content,” said Michael Garcia, a California filmmaker and Instagram user. “It feeds on the notion that one is holier than thou. ‘I am interesting. Pay attention to me.’”
If your profile is public, anyone in the world can “like” your photo, and there is no limit to how many “likes” you can garner. It’s a basic formula: the more photos posted, the more attention is received. “I myself get caught up in it,” said Chanel Bonin, a seventeen-year-old college freshman whose Instagram account boasts over nine thousand followers due to average users and celebrities mistaking her account for the fashion brand of the same name. Chanel’s selfies gain anywhere from one hundred to over four hundred likes. “I get anxious when I post a new photo to see if it gets as many likes that one of mine would usually get. I’ll sit on my phone constantly refreshing the page every couple minutes to see how well it does.”
Entertainers and athletes are no longer the stars of social media. Thirteen-year-old Nick Toppel, an aspiring model from South Florida, has over two hundred thousand followers on his Instagram page–five times more than actor Jason Biggs and 10 times more than Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison. Toppel has over one thousand photos, the majority of them being close-ups of his face.
Here’s where the concept of narcissism comes into play. If an ordinary child or teen can garner a larger following than a popular entertainer or athlete, it dawns on them–they must be special. Krista Shelvay, a budding writer and cosplayer, uses her accounts to promote her work. Still, her following isn’t nearly as strong as the selfie gods that plague Instagram’s “explore” tab. “If someone has 5000 followers and about 500 likes per picture, I assume there’s something they have that I lack,” Shelvay said.
It’s easy to lose your identity. The want for more attention can cause the average user to tailor their posts based on what their followers respond to. How many times have you deleted a photo because it didn’t get as many “likes” or comments as another or wondered why your face isn’t as popular as your dog or a grande frappuccino? It’s not hard to lose sight of the point of an application like Instagram and dive headfirst into the sea of vanity and forget to come up for air. It’s meant to be a “fun” and “fast, beautiful way to share your life with friends and family,” as Instagram’s website explains. But even the term “share” is taken to a higher degree. “I sit back and witness people documenting all aspects of their lives on Instagram instead of actually being in the moment,” said artist and Instagram user Samantha Franco. “The nagging feeling of needing to share has been implanted in our generation just as innately as the need to eat or sleep. It’s a disease that is stealing our precious time on this Earth.”
But what’s wrong with a little selfie obsession? Narcissism is a personality disorder. If your self-esteem is based around the ideals of strangers, your mental health is at stake. A generation of narcissists means a generation of people who lack personal values and are uninterested in interacting with others, as they view them as lower or inferior. It takes time away from what matters: school, work, your personal craft or passion. The more time you spend carefully capturing photos according to the preference of your audience, the less time you actually have for yourself. You neglect your inner-self, the heart and soul beneath the aesthetics.
We’re forgetting the purpose of social media platforms like Instagram. The point is to stay connected with friends and family through image captures, not keep a gallery filled with filtered photos of your face. For some of us, selfies become a habit. Put down your phone. Go outside. Forget about it for a little while, then pick it back when you truly feel you have something worthwhile to share other than your face. Life is more than a filtered photo, and you are so much more than your Instagram account.
Lauren Milici can be reached at lauren.milici@spartans.ut.edu
I think you have the causality backwards. An app on your phone doesn’t cause you to have a disorder. You have the disorder first, then you become addicted to the sharing app.
Hate the new age of “selfies”… How many selfies do you have Lauren?
Very nice article! I wonder what the long term effects of this new “Share” mentality will be. Once more great article.