"This study arguably validates the concept of selfitis and provides benchmark data for other researchers to investigate the concept more thoroughly and in different contexts.

The concept of selfie-taking might evolve over time as technology advances, but the six identified factors that appear to underlie selfitis in the present study are potentially useful in understanding such human-computer interaction across mobile electronic devices.

The physiologists found that those who suffer from Selfitis were generally attention seekers who lacked self esteem. Such individuals would use selfies and photo-sharing platforms to bolster their social standing, and to make it seem as if they were part of a wider community.

It's no secret that people are taking more pictures than ever before. The ubiquity of smartphones means that we always have a camera at hand, to pick up and start snapping with at a moment's notice. It used to be that we only took pictures for special occasions; now we take them whenever we feel like it. But when it comes to photography, there's one subject that's almost impossible to ignore: the selfie.

Selfies are pretty ubiquitous these days. Everyone has taken at least one by now. Just consider the fact that every 10 seconds, approximately 1,000 selfies are posted to Instagram. That's the equivalent of more than two million rolls of film. However, new scientific evidence seems to suggest that our collective selfie addiction has actually left us confused. Apparently, the way we take selfies is inadvertently is distorting our own image of what our faces look like, and lowering our self-esteem.

This month, in a study published in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, Boris Paskhover, assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, found that more than 40 per cent of surveyed cosmetic surgeons reported that their patients asked for surgery to correct facial features that they thought looked bad in selfies. However, when shown our own reflection in a mirror, often these "deformities" appeared to vanish suddenly. What's going on? Where has this perception come from?

The biggest gripe appeared to be the size and shape of people's noses. This is because our nose is much closer to the camera lens than the rest of our facial features, and thus looks bigger, broader and longer than it actually is in reality. Think about the way that an object in the foreground of a picture seems to be bigger than objects in the background if you want to understand this phenomenon. The widening effect is often just a simple case of forced perspective; the closer the lens is to the face, the more our selfie becomes an exaggerated caricature of our actual profile.

To prove that this phenomenon was bona fide, the researchers harvested data from national ergonomic databases. They determined the measurements of facial width, nose width, and numbers for facial geometry, and then calculated how these numbers appeared to outwardly change when viewed at different distances and from different angles. Paskhover learned that, when viewed close up, our noses measured around 30 per cent wider in a photograph taken from 12 inches away than one from five feet.

In a recent Reuters interview, Dr Paskhover stated: "Patients under the age of 40 take out their phones and tell me they don’t like how they look. They literally show me a selfie of themselves and complain about their noses. I have to explain that I understand they’re not happy but what they’re seeing is distorted ... At that standard portrait distance of five feet, everything evens off. That’s a classic portrait distance, which is fascinating. Photographers have known this for decades ... Kids need to know that is not what you look like: you look great, don’t worry about that. The selfie is kind of like a fun-house mirror."

This evidence seems to correlate with data provided by graduate student researchers working out of Penn State University. There, the eggheads surveyed 255 of their fellow classmates about their selfie-snapping habits and learned that people who routinely viewed other people's selfies had lower opinions of themselves. The "upward social comparison theory" explains that we use social media as a tool of comparison; it's like the Nasdaq report for our social shares, how we measure up in terms of success, sociality and agreeableness. When we see other people's selfies, and they feature niftier camerawork and better use of filters, we can end up feeling ugly when we compare ourselves to them. Whether you're taking them or viewing them, it seems like they're promoting unrealistic standards.

Credit: Getty

But the good news is that selfies aren't all bad. In fact, certain research has shown that posting selfies can often raise your self-esteem. For instance, the popular Instagram hastag #HealthySelfie has encouraged people to document their fitness regimen by chronicling their dieting and exercise plans through selfies. That way, people can chart their personal development and growth, and gain encouragement from others.

So there you have it. Selfies can cause issues for people, but they're not inherently bad. It's all about how you respond to them. If you keep a positive outlook then selfies can actually give you a confidence boost. So, by all means, keep taking them, but don't forget to look in a mirror from time to time. You never know, the face you see smiling back at you might be a lot better looking than you gave it credit for.

Featured illustration by Egarcigu

A woman born with a rare genetic disorder has hit back at trolls who told her she was "too ugly" to upload her pictures to social media - but sharing a selfie every single day for a year.

Melissa Blake was born with Freeman Sheldon syndrome, a rare genetic bone and muscular disorder that the NHS says affects the appearance of the mouth, face, hands, and feet.

"In Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, the muscle fibres do not form properly so development is interrupted," the medical body explains.

The writer and activist from Illinois took to Twitter in September of last year to reveal that several trolls had told her that she "should be banned from posting photos" of herself because she is "too ugly".

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Melissa's immediate response? To post three selfies at the same time.

And this is a tradition that the 39-year-old has continued throughout the year.

In an ed-op piece for Refinery29, Blake explained: "For the last year, I’ve followed the same routine every night before I go to sleep: I get out my phone, scroll through my photos, and post a selfie on social media."

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In doing so, Blake says the ritual has brought her "comfort and happiness", and also taught her "plenty of lessons".

However, the habit was not born "from a place of comfort and happiness", as Melissa explains, it came about purely to defy internet trolls.

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Blake writes:

"As a woman writer with a genetic bone and muscular disorder, who is also very active on the internet, I’m used to being called names like ‘blobfish’ and ‘whale,’ but there was one comment I just couldn’t shake.

"Someone said that I should be banned from posting photos of myself because I’m too ugly.

"The more I thought about it, the more I knew I wanted to respond in some way. Not directly to the person, but as a general statement."

Over the next 366 days (as 2020 was a leap year), Melissa shared a selfie with the world, alongside the hashtag #MyBestSelfie.

In some of the captions, she would discuss her disability in further detail and the effects it has on her day-to-day life, in others, she'd simply share a sweet message with her ever-growing fanbase.

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"But there was one thing they all had in common," Melissa writes, "each selfie truly reflected my personality and who I was. Each was a celebration, and each carried a message."

Admittedly hesitant to how her selfies would be received, Blake was determined to "be seen" as a disabled woman, and uploaded each one "unapologetically".

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Blake states that "so much of our culture is shaped and dictated by beauty standards", and that "our society makes it clear that disabilities are not considered beautiful or valuable."

But with each passing day and with every selfie uploaded, Melissa says she started to feel "more comfortable in [her] own body and discovered a freedom [she'd] never really felt before as a disabled woman."

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Over the course of the year, other disabled people started sharing their own stories with Melissa - many of whom saying how they "identified" with her words.

Melissa writes:

"I’ve often felt very alone as a disabled person and for the first time, I was seeing the disability community taking our rightful place at society’s table.

"Finally, I was seeing people like me - people who weren’t ashamed of who they are - and it was one of the most glorious things I’ve ever experienced."

Blake concluded her article by stating that she has wondered if she should stop posting selfies, but is constantly reminded that the "selfies are for every single disabled person who continues to fight every single day".

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Overall, Blake says that doing something so small - such as sharing a selfie on social media -can still have a huge impact on the world.

A truly incredible message from a truly incredible woman - and we hope Melissa continues to share her selfies!

To read Melissa's full article, click HERE.

Snapchat and Instagram filters help us present our best face to the world. But can we really call it ours? They smooth our skin, ridding us of any imperfections and redness, while giving us fuller lips and bigger eyes; all of which fall in line with western beauty standards. And as anyone who regularly scrolls through their social media feeds will attest to - filters, be it a flower crown or animal faced - are everywhere, used by celebrities and ordinary folk alike.

Before the digital era, altered photographs were traditionally reserved for models and celebrities in advertisements or magazines. Now, anyone can enhance their features in an attempt to resemble Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner - or any woman that is currently heralded as the paragon of female attractiveness. There is much discussion about how this could be negatively impacting our self-esteem, and even leading to issues such as body dysmorphic disorder.

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According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, body dysmorphia is a body image disorder "characterised by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one’s appearance".

And Dr Matthew Schulman, a board-certified plastic surgeon based in New York, has said that patients are even bringing filtered selfies to their plastic surgeons as inspiration for what they're looking to achieve. One doctor went so far to refer to this phenomenon as "Snapchat Dysmorphia".
Certainly, while patients used to ask for Angelina Jolie's lips or Cameron Diaz's nose, they're now showing their plastic surgeons their filtered Instagram posts. "Everybody basically is using a filter on their own and they’re either taking that next step to bring it to me saying, ‘Hey, this is what I want to look like," Schulman said. "Not everyone is going that far, but in their head, that’s what they want to look like and then they’re coming to me and saying I want smoother skin, I want my eyes to be opened up, I want my lips to be fuller. You kind of have those two groups of people."
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One of the filters that Schulman sees most are the ones that smooth and blur the skin."People are using that as an example of what they want their skin to look like, which basically means they want to get rid of irregular pigmentation and they want to soften fine lines and wrinkles," he continued.

Some have even argued that Snapchat and Instagram filters might be making us forget what we actually look like. Professor of psychology at Northwestern University, Renee Engeln, asserted: "There’s an issue with losing perspective on what you actually look like, and it’s not something we talk about much".

"It’s not enough [to] compare yourself to these perfected images of models, but now you’ve got this daily comparison of your real self to this intentional or unintentional fake self that you present on social media. It’s just one more way to feel like your falling short every day".
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Engeln sums up cogently, albeit rather depressingly, "You are never going to meet this culture’s beauty standard. If we all started meeting the standard, the standard would just be changed."