Wednesday, 26 March 2014

‘Selfie Addiction’ Is No Laughing Matter, Psychiatrists Say

“Selfie” may be the 2013 word of the
year, but for certain at-risk people,
taking selfies just may be dangerous.
It seems that some people simply can’t
stop turning the camera their way for
that perfect social media photo, and
now psychologists say taking selfies can
turn into an addiction for people
already affected by certain
psychological disorders.
That certainly seems to apply to Danny
Bowman. The 19-year-old Englishman,
who had been diagnosed with body
dysmorphic disorder and obsessive
compulsive disorder, developed a selfie
addiction in which he took up to 200
photos of himself a day, Mirror News
reported. He even became suicidal.
Watch Bowman explain his addiction in
the video above.
“Danny’s case is particularly extreme,”
Psychiatrist Dr. David Veale, whose clinic
helped treat the teenager, told Mirror
News. “But this is a serious problem. It’s
not a vanity issue. It’s a mental health
one which has an extremely high suicide
rate.”
Selfie addiction may not be so surprising
since addiction to forms of social media,
such as Facebook, has been known to
exist. Researchers even have developed a
psychological scale based on six basic
criteria to measure risk for Facebook
addiction.
And researchers at the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor found in 2013
that college-aged and middle-aged
adults who scored higher for certain
narcissistic traits posted more
frequently on social media sites, such as
Facebook and Twitter.
“With modern technology, it can actually
be quite severe,” Bowman says in the
video above. “This kind of thing can
happen to anyone.”
Categories: Odd News

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