But we are once again the unwilling bearers of bad news. Fellas, no matter how much you’re feeling yourself, it’s never going to be a prime opportunity to snap and share a selfie. Sorry, but that’s the official word from a recent survey of over 1000 people conducted by AskMen.
According to the survey, which was conducted in honour of last month’s National Selfie Day, respondents said that selfies were the absolute worst ‘category’ of photo, even more off putting than food snaps, baby photos, and engagement posts. In fact 80 per cent of people surveyed suggested that they’d prefer a standard photo over the selfie. Bad news for the selfie stick industry.
The survey results are real world proof of another recent study of 230 active social media users, published in the Health Communication journal, looking at the relationship between online health content and the impact it has on those who view it, with selfies in particular negatively impacting the receiver.
“A lot of us just kind of scroll through and see things passively,” said study co-author Tricia Burke or Texas State University. “We might not realize that we are internalising it, and that it can be affecting our attitudes about ourselves.”
Burke suggests that those who are exposed to a higher number of ‘fitspo’ selfies were more likely to experience moments of low self-esteem and were overly concerned with their weight and visual appearance.
"When people received more posts about exercise, it made them more concerned about their weight -- more self-conscious -- and that's not a good thing," said Stephen Rains of the University of Arizona. These negative impacts are the result of ‘social comparison’, and when viewing photos of individuals that were deemed to be similar, negative comparisons and self-doubt arose.
But wait... If you go to the gym and don’t post a sweaty selfie to Instagram, did you even really workout? 🤔