Lifestyle
5 Scientific Selfie Facts That You Should Know. #5 is Most Important!
Did you know there is a secret to the “perfect selfie”? Or that, your favorite selfie pose can say something about your personality?
Snapping a selfie has been part of our modern-day lives. Whether we are at a party having fun with our friends, alone reading our favorite book, dining out in a new restaurant, or having an #OOTD moment or #WokeUpLikeThis perfection, some of us just can’t let the experience go without commemorating the event via selfies.
In fact, the selfie culture has gone really viral and embedded in our consciousness that the term itself has been recognized as Word of the Year back in 2013. However, there are much more to selfies than the simple act of posing for the camera and snapping that picture. Recognizing how selfies and the internet are influencing culture and behavior (some in negative ways), researches have been conducted to get to the bottom of this emerging phenomenon. Here are 5 important selfie facts you must know.
1. There is a ‘formula’ for the perfect selfie!
Do you want to get high amount of likes on your new selfie post? Well you should consider these guidelines discovered by Stanford computer scientist Dr, Andrej Karpathy.
Examples of a "scientifically" good and bad selfie.
The discovery:
For women, taking the perfect selfie should follow “the rule of thirds”. This means, the face should occupy only one-third of the entire picture for proportion, slightly tilted to one side, and is taken at a center or top angle. Applying some filters and borders also increase those virtual thumbs up. For men, sadly there are no guidelines since not a single male selfie picture made it to the analyzed “best selfies”. Which may suggest that male selfies are less appreciated than female selfies.
How the research was conducted:
Dr. Karpathy ran a database or deep neural network of random selfie pictures, divided the lot according to the number of likes those pictures got, and the features and aspects of the selfies. Then, data was analyzed according to which pictures garnered the most number of likes on social media. Next, the patterns and features common to the “most-liked” selfies are correlated. Who knew taking a selfie can involve so much science?
How about selfies and personality, is there a link? Well click the next page to find out!
2. Your Selfies can reveal your personality!
Ever wondered why some people love doing duckfaces on their pictures? Or why they keep on doing the same angle over and over again? Well a person’s favorite pose may be influenced by their personality, as shown by a research conducted by Lin Qiu from the Nanyang Technological Institute of Singapore.
What does your selfie pose say about you?
The discovery:
-Duckfaces are linked to neuroticism and emotional instability
-Lower camera angles and brighter filters are linked to extroversion and openness
-Secrecy in the selfie’s locations are associated with conscientiousness and even paranoia, hinting the value of privacy.
How the research was conducted:
113 study subjects were asked to complete a personality assessment questionnaire. Next, a set of their selfies were obtained and the dominant characteristics of their selfies were noted using imaging techniques. Their personality traits and their predominant selfie poses were then correlated together.
How about men who takes lots of selfies, what’s up with that? Find out on the next page!
3. Men who take a lot of selfies tend to be narcissistic and psychotic!
While there are a bunch of researches saying that generally, selfie-takers have greater chances to developing psychotic tendencies, the strength of association is stronger in men.
Have nothing against this guy, but he just takes waaaay too many selfies. 😉
The discovery:
According to Ohio State University men who are selfie-obsessed and who take time to edit out or photoshop most of their pics display narcissistic, neurotic and psychotic tendencies. They also have self-objectification traits wherein their assessment of self-worth is mostly based on the physical appearance.
P.S. Seems like red flags in dating a guy. So maybe a word of caution is to be wary of selfie-obsessed dudes!
How the research was conducted:
The research looked into 800 male participants between the ages of 18-40. They were asked to fill out an online survey form asking how many selfie pictures they take, do they edit them before posting, and how regular they post and edit pictures. They were also asked to answer a personality assessment test. The results of survey and test are then correlated.
So is this selfie culture an invention of the new generation? Find out on the next page
4. The selfie culture has been around for a very long time!
It just didn’t exist in the form of digital photos uploaded on social media. In essence, the very popular portraits of people back in the Renaissance period are proof of humanity’s obsession with our faces. Not to mention that many known artists at that time were prone to do self-portraits. Rembrandt is one artist with a huge self-portrait obsession, Leonado da Vinci also has allegations of painting himself within the famed Mona Lisa.
So was Rembrandt also the "Father of Duckface?"
The science behind it:
According to Psychologist Dr. Terri Apter of Cambridge University, it’s all a matter of acceptance and image control.
“It’s a kind of self-definition, we all like the idea of being sort of in control of our image and getting attention, being noticed, being part of the culture.”
And lastly, are there negative side effects to taking selfies?
5. Taking too many selfies may be damaging to our real-world connections
So is there a negative side effect? Aside from the psychological traits that develop from too much selfie-taking, we may be damaging our interpersonal relationships too. Since the new generation is developing an egocentric or me-centric personality, forming and maintaining person-to-person relationships have become relatively tougher. We may be connecting to people, acquaintances and “friends” half a world away, but what about real connections in the physical world?
Is your selfie obsession turning to neglect of your loved ones?
The science behind it:
According to psychologists, obsessive selfie-takers may be seen negatively by their peers as “fake” or suggest being an impression maker. It may also lead to decreasing intimacy between friends and lovers.
Perhaps some would defend that they were merely taking pictures to commemorate or remember the event. Perhaps one or two selfies would be enough. But spending all that time perfecting the angles, the appearance, the lighting… well perhaps more moments just pass by wasted, instead of truly being in the moment. So let us all put down our phones and cameras for a while and take time to strengthen our real-life connections.
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