Thursday 29 March 2018

Selfie Crazy Selfitis World

Have you heard about the word 'Selfitis'?
'Selfitis' is the obsession of taking selfies on smartphones.
Social Media has a selfie overdose. Studies indicate that Selfitis may be a real disorder.

Article published in Business Standard
According to the study "An Exploratory Study of Selfitis and the Development of the Selfitis Behavior Scale" published in the International Journal of Mental Health And Addiction by Janarthanan Balakrishnan of the Thiagarajar School of Management in Madura, India, and Mark D. Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, UK, the following six factors determine the 'Selfitis Behavior Scale':
  • Self-confidence
  • Attention seeking
  • Mood modification
  • Environmental enhancement 
  • Social competition
  • Subjective Conformity
If you love clicking selfies, then these factors govern your behaviour too.
India ranks number one, with the distinction as the country with the maximum number of selfie-related accidents that occur throughout the world.
You must have watched videos or read news reports about selfie-related deaths...
Report in the TOI, Bhubaneswar edition
As per this Telegraph UK article, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, US, and Indraprastha Institute of Information in Delhi, India, conducted a study – titled Me, Myself and My Killfie: Characterizing and Preventing Selfie Deaths. As per this study:

India recorded the world’s highest number of selfie deaths, accounting for more than 60 per cent of reported fatalities.

This is a dangerous trend indeed.
The Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, has advised all states and union territories to identify tourist attractions, which are prone to accidents and erect signs warning visitors of the dangers involved in taking selfies at such spots. 

Prevention is better than the cure.

Clicking a selfie at 'Sunset point' or 'Echo point' or 'Suicide point' is a bad idea. The Govt. wants to prevent incidents by setting up "Selfie Danger Zones" or “Selfie Restriction Zones” at tourist sight-seeing locations. 
But, the question is- Will the selfie-crazy public follow the guidelines/warnings?

What is worse is that some people will go to any lengths for a selfie; whether it is for a selfie with a celebrity or a selfie with a foreigner. Imagine the pursuit for selfies just to show off or brag on Social Media!

At CII’s annual tourism summit International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development in New Delhi in December 2017, Tourism minister, KJ Alphons, said that asking foreigners for selfies is an intrusion to their privacy. Selfie insistence by locals had caused some attacks.

What impression does such selfie hooliganism portray about us and our culture?
Does our love for selfies exceed our responsibility towards our nation and our guests?

Our life and dignity is more important than a selfie.
High time the world understands this.
Really hope and pray that our world's obsession with selfie does not emerge as Killfie...
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Do you find an obsession & overdose of selfies in Social Media these days? Why do you feel people love clicking & sharing selfies?Are you #SelfieCrazy? Do share in the comments below.

3 comments:

  1. An important article and a must read one. This article should be forwarded to college and secondary/high school students as the selfie craze is high in this group.

    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    ReplyDelete
  2. The mounting obsession with selfies can be a serious threat to humanism.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I feel that over the top selfie can be dangerous and we tend to over to do overlooking hazards where we might meet up with accidents. Shabana Azmi is someone who is dead against selfie and laud her. Selfie has robbed the joy of being natural in front of camera.

    ReplyDelete

Your words mean a lot to me.

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