That is a selfie you took with your friends at the beach. That is another you took at the Coachella with Drake. Look there is a selfie with your puppy.

We are in the jet age where pictures speak a thousand words. We are in the era of smartphones with amazing cameras.

We don’t hesitate to whip our phones and take selfie photos at events. Social media like Instagram is there to facilitate sharing of the selfies with your friends and others.

For many, taking selfies is a normal thing, but there is that one friend of ours that always take it to the extreme.
Selfies have become part of us, but if you take too much selfies, you may have selfitis.

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Selfitis

Selfitis is a real mental condition, where individuals feel compelled to take multiple selfies daily and post them on social media.
Source
Selfitis was first coined in 2014 and it was regarded as a hoax then. However researchers at Thiagarajar School of Management in India and Nottingham Trent University investigated further and confirmed that selfitis is indeed real and there is a selfitis behavior scale that was developed to determine its severity Source.

Selfitis Behaviour scale

The scale runs from 1-100 and was developed using 200 participants based in India because they have the highest population of facebook users and highest mortality rate as a result of taking selfies in dangerous locations. The findings showed that there are three levels of selfitis.

Selfitis Level

• Borderline selfitis- This is a level where an individual takes selfies at least three times a day, but none is posted on social media.
• Acute selfitis- This is a level where an individual takes selfoes at least three time a day and posts them on social media.
• Chronic selfitis- This is a level where the urge to take selfies cannot be controlled. The individual takes selfies throughout the day and posts on social media more than six times a day.

The researchers developed 20 statements termed the Selfitis Behaviour Scale. It is used to determine how severe selfitis is in an individual by rating how much you agree to each statement.

Answer the statements below on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is strongly agree, and 1 is strongly disagree.
Add your score together at the end, the greater the score, the likelihood that you suffer from selfitis.

1. Taking selfies gives me a good feeling to better enjoy my environment
2. Sharing my selfies creates healthy competition with my friends and colleagues
3. I gain enormous attention by sharing my selfies on social media
4. I am able to reduce my stress level by taking selfies
5. I feel confident when I take a selfie
6. I gain more acceptance among my peer group when I take selfies and share them on social media
7. I am able to express myself more in my environment through selfies
8. Taking different selfie poses helps increase my social status
9. I feel more popular when I post my selfies on social media
10. Taking more selfies improves my mood and makes me feel happy
11. I become more positive about myself when I take selfies
12. I become a strong member of my peer group through selfie postings
13. Taking selfies provides better memories about the occasion and the experience
14. I post frequent selfies to get more ‘likes’ and comments on social media
15. By posting selfies, I expect my friends to appraise me
16. Taking selfies instantly modifies my mood
17. I take more selfies and look at them privately to increase my confidence
18. When I don’t take selfies, I feel detached from my peer group
19. I take selfies as trophies for future memories
20. I use photo editing tools to enhance my selfie to look better than others Source

Selfitis have been confirmed to exist. It is now left for further research to be conducted to understand more and help people who are affected.

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Let me know below your score and level of selfitis.

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References
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