The Selfie
Why Your Child Making Duckfaces is Actually Bad for Them
Parents Be Wary
With how our world is heavily involved with Internet age, your children might also be obsessed with social media, and with, more than likely, the Selfie.
As a result, your children may become affected by this combination of taking selfies and social media; in other words, selfie culture.
Selfie culture can make some individuals feel self-conscious about how they look, lower their self-esteem, or even the opposite; make them narcissistic, obsessed with themselves.
Selfies: The New Personality Test?
In a study done by Lin Qiu, found in the book Computer in Human Behaviour, she tests 107 students by having them fill out a survey and having her and her team analyze the selfies of the students. Doing so, she concludes that people in their selfies can have 4 different attributes.
A Conducted Study
For a study, we went around the campus of VCU and asked a multiple number of students to take a regular selfie of themselves on our phones. We would then analyze their posture, facial expressions, and positioning of how they held the phone when they took the selfie. Below are the four students we chose for our analysis.
***To protect their identity, we guaranteed them that we would change their names to make sure no one would be sure who they were.***
Lisa
This is Lisa, a 1st year student that we asked to take a selfie for our study. As seen in the photo, Lisa covers part of her face while taking her selfie. According to the study by Lin Qiu, covering part of her body is a sign of being self-conscious, or showing signs of conscientiousness, as she tries to be private about revealing her whole face.
Martha
This is Martha, another freshman student we asked to be part of our study. As you can see, Martha shows no emotion at all, has a bland, and seemingly angry looking face. According to Lin Qiu's study, Martha shows signs of neuroticism, which means she could be somewhat emotionally unstable.
Gregory
This is Gregory, a sophomore here at VCU. In this photo, he has his eyes closed while making a duckface. He took multiple photos on our phone and wanted this photo as the one we present of him. According to the study, Gregory shows signs of extreme neuroticism, indicating that since he does not make regular faces, he could be suffering from anxiety, fear, moodiness, worry, envy, frustration, jealousy, and/or loneliness.
Stewart
This is Stewart, a grad student learning here in VCU. Unlike the three above, Stewart does attempt to show some positive emotion in his selfie, while not really trying his best at it. His camera is positioned lower than the other previous students'. With these attributes, we can conclude that Stewart shows signs of agreeableness and openness, which means Stewart is more friendly and being more uplifting in life. More people should be like Stewart.
The Signs of Self-Esteem Issues Online
Young people who follow their friends, family, and idols on social media will typically see one of them take selfies. Some of these individuals may feel like they should post a selfie as well, and if they are not happy with how they look in the photo, they will edit it. Simply put, they only wish to look better in a digital realm, mainly made up of people you do not know or will never meet. Below are a few examples, some with the photo before edited, and then after:
The Importance of Idols in the Digital Age
Celebrities are a huge factor in how our children and young adults act. These are people that inspire young adults, and these youths look up to them. When you take Kim Kardashian into consideration however... you might want to think about someone who would be a better influence in your young adult's life. The self-proclaimed "Selfie Queen" released a commercial for the Super Bowl just earlier this year, in Association with T-Mobile to promote their data coverage plan. I apologize for what you are about to see.
For all parent's with Kids Making Duckfaces 24/7
To conclude, I hope I was able to help those who need help being aware of the dangers of the selfie culture and the attributes it could have on today's young adults. Speak to your child, ask them how many selfies they have taken today, and if they say they have taken a couple hundred, see a doctor/physician as soon as possible. And make sure they look just as normal as Stewart does!