Oh selfies. Some people love them, some people hate them. But I think we can all agree on one thing. There are a lot of people out there that abuse the privilege and need to stop taking them. Interesting new studies are starting to come out in regards to selfies. One study links selfies to narcissism and psychopathy. So maybe those selfies aren’t so harmless after all. In an Ohio State University study, men who posted more photos of themselves online scored higher in measures of narcissism and psychopathy. The researchers asked 800 men between the ages of 18 and 40 to fill out an online questionnaire. The questionnaire asked the men about their photo posting habits on social media. The survey had questions about how often they posted photos of themselves on social media, and about whether and how they edited photos before posting. The subjects were also asked to fill out standard questionnaires measuring anti-social behaviors and self-objectification (the tendency to overly focus on one’s appearance). The researchers found that posting more photos was correlated with both narcissism and psychopathy. Editing photos, however, was only associated with narcissism, and not psychopathy. Narcissism measures inflated self-image (often motivated by underlying insecurity), while psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and impulsive behavior. “That makes sense because psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity,” the study’s lead author, Jesse Fox, said in a statement. “They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don’t want to spend time editing.” Next time you notice your friend is taking too many selfies, you may want to consider the fact that they are either a narcissist or a psychopath. I can’t say if any of the following people fall into those categories. But I do know that they need to have their phones taken away forever.
1. Hospital room procedure, totally inappropriately timed selfie.
2. Airplane disaster selfie. Why does he look so amused?
3. Making mama proud, jailhouse selfie.
4. I hope that was a training exercise fire selfie.
5. Funeral home bathroom selfie. And 85 people liked that?
6. Possible crash and burn selfie. They must have known it would be alright.
7. Jerk selfie. You can tell she has a lot of empathy for others.
8. Inappropriate selfie. Notice the hashtags.
9. Knocked up selfie. Perfect background.
10. Robber selfie.
11. Hospital selfie.
12. Just happy to not be one of the people stuck on the elevator selfie.
13. Cat fight selfie.
14. Poor me selfie.
15. Getting a ticket selfie.
16. Someone is getting arrested selfie.
17. Made it onto the field selfie.
18. I’m graveside and being totally inappropriate selfie.
19. My teacher is in labor selfie.
20. Unaware selfie.
21. Ball to the head selfie.
22. There is a train coming selfie.
23. Ready for surgery selfie.
24. Going to scare someone to death selfie.
25. How to piss off a cop selfie.
26. I need attention selfie.
27. Is this guy for real selfie.
28. Father of the year selfie.
29. Running with the bulls selfie.
30. Something blew up selfie.
31. People’s property is burning and I am taking a picture selfie.
32. I’m emo selfie.
33. Hospital/inspirational/slight duckface selfie.
Even though the usage of #selfie first appeared on Flickr in 2004, it took almost a decade to reach the masses. The word “selfie” was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2013. On August 28th, 2013 a teen on a pilgrimage took a selfie with Pope Francis and it was deemed the first “Papal Selfie.” Do you think the celebrities that take the most are psychopaths, or just really good at self-promotion? Perhaps a little bit of both.