Selfies have become overwhelmingly popular in social media these days. They are not a new idea UrbanDictionary.com officially gave the selfie a definition and spot in its volumes of information in 2005. The website spelled it then selfy. The debate practically everyone is having these days is it self-expression or narcissism? Is this phenomenon normal or is it obsessive? Is teenagers self-image being tarnished creating psychological problems? Or is it really just a form of self-discovery. Maybe the need to document every moment is leading to a portion of us self-doubting and a negative image of ourselves.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, selfie is written to mean “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”. Now that the accessibility to smartphones with cameras and webcams are at it’s highest and social media as well, it’s beginning to have side-effects. The extremism of photoing oneself daily for some transforms to a habit they can’t break. The selfie-addiction is starting to appear and still so new that there isn’t much for statistics. Dr. David Veal a psychiatrist that cared for Danny Bowman a UK teen first to be diagnosed with selfie addiction says, “The common treatment is where a patient gradually learns to go for longer periods of time without satisfying the urge to take a photograph, along with therapy to address the root cause of the problem.” Bowman has also been treated for  OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. OCD is an obsessive compulsive disorder which Body Dysmorphic Disorder derives from. Which is a disorder of irresistible thoughts of physical perfection and when this isn’t met individuals become suicidal.

The rise of social media and detailing mundane daily tasks with pictures is starting to show us the impact mentally. Low self-esteem and bullying usually has taken place before this all. Now add cruelty of ones peers and self-loathing it can cause a chaotic disaster. Young adults like Bowman can spiral out of control before they even realize they have a serious problem. Bowman averaged two hundred pictures a day to get that perfect picture. And when he couldn’t retain these high expectations and others responded negatively to his images, Bowman attempted to kill himself. He didn’t just develop a selfie addiction but OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder.

Some can argue that a selfie is a form of self discovery and expression. Finding oneself and defining themselves. Why a selfie? Why not draw, paint, or take photos of loved ones. Why self-indulge and feed that ego? These individuals who need all the likes on Facebook and approval need to ask, “Do I have low esteem? Why do I need someone else to tell me I’m Beautiful? And why do I value this vanity and not the person I am, my character? Well again it is young adults, teenagers mostly effected by this selfie-addiction and social media discordantly. But there is people of all ages combating these same problems. Certainly people that have a distorted self-image needs their ego caressed and boasted. As they venture down this road of selfie and digital media becoming a tight rope act they risk that fall. There isn’t always a safety net for everyone to be saved. When exposed to this fake bravado created online on these social sites egos grow and addictions spread like wild fire.

The more people attempt to connect in this virtual world the more we establish distance from the original point of it all. Technology progresses to advance us but it’s only making it easier for people to be so far apart. We connect to family thousands of miles away, friends, and make new companions. The need for young people like Bowman thriving off of the attention, comments, and likes on his Facebook site brought on all kinds of mental diagnoses. He is known to be the first patient to be treated for selfie addiction in the UK. The Dr.s from the clinic he was being cared for say that more than a hundred clients are being medicated and given therapy for selfie addiction, OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. People trying to attain fullfillment by posting all kinds of photos to get a positive reaction and when they don’t receive it they become depressed, overwhelmed, and preoccupied with negative likeness. Todays society bombards youngters with pictures of unattained beauty in magazines, online, and other media platforms. Those models themselves are not that beautiful. They have make-up artists, proffesional photographers, and photoshop. The whole thing is out of hand and very unrealistic which is exactly where all these disorders and bad habits manifesting.