Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Satinder Kaur ¹, Deepika Vig ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Home Science, PAU, Ludhiana, IN

Abstract

A selfie is a self-portrait photograph of oneself, taken with camera or a camera phone held at arm's length or pointed at a mirror that is usually shared through social media. Though people were fond of taking photographs of their own and others since many decades, with selfie camera it has lead to an extreme effect. Selfies became a very interesting topic for researchers to study and examine the cause since 2012, as the rate of usage of selfie has reportedly increased many fold. The extent of selfie addiction can be well judged from the fact that many deaths have been reported in India due to increasing obsession of taking selfies in general public. Infact, India has witnessed highest number of selfie deaths in recent years. A strong relationship has been found between selfie addiction and various mental health issues like poor self esteem, narcissism, loneliness and depression. Addiction with selfie in youth, especially teenagers and mental health issues are on the rise as many psychiatrists are seeing number of parents coming with the same complaint. Therefore, it is right time to sensitize parents, teachers and educators about the alarming increase in selfie addiction and its deteriorating impact on mental health of adolescents.

Keywords

Selfie, Social Media, Mental Health.

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Satinder Kaur ¹, Deepika Vig ¹, Sarita Saini ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Home Science, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab, IN

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to explore the mental health status of rural and urban adolescents with selfie addition. The total sample composed of 360 adolescents studying in 10th, 11th and 12th standard from rural and urban schools of Ludhiana district identified with different levels of selfie addiction and equally divided across two locales i.e. rural and urban. Self-structured Selfie Addiction checklist and Mental Health Battery (Singh & Gupta, 2000) was used to collect the data. The combined picture of mental health status of rural and urban adolescents showed that adolescents with chronic level of selfie addiction were having poor mental health status which indicates that they were having issues with certain aspects of mental health. The results indicated that within borderline and acute level of selfie addiction, urban adolescents had better mental health as compared to rural adolescents. It was found that all the rural urban adolescents with chrome selfie addiction were found to have low level of mental health. It was further found that as the seventy of selfie addiction increased from borderline to acute the percentage of adolescents with high intelligence decreased. Urban adolescents were having better emotional stability than rural adolescents whereas rural adolescents were having better intelligence than their urban counterparts. Urban adolescents were more independent, self-determined in thinking and had greater sense of security as compared to rural adolescents.

Keywords

Adolescents, Selfie Addiction, Self-Esteem.

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Satinder Kaur ¹, Deepika Vig ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, IN

Abstract

Nowadays, taking selfies and posting them to social media is a major trend. However, photos may seem harmless, if used carelessly, they can have devastating repercussions on psychological heath of individuals. The present study is based on the comparative analysis of perceived Loneliness among selfie addicts and non-selfie addicts youth of Punjab. In this study, 500 young adults of 19-21 years were surveyed by using Self-Structured Selfie Addiction Checklist and Loneliness Inventory. A complete list of all the districts falling under three cultural regions of Punjab, viz., Majha, Malwa and Doaba was prepared. For equal representation of the sample from all cultural regions, proportionate numbers of districts were selected in the ratio of approximately 1:1:3 from Majha, Doaba, and Malwa region respectively. Amritsar district from Majha and Jalandhar district from Doaba region and Ludhiana, Moga and Patiala from Malwa region were purposively selected. The colleges and universities were chosen randomly for data collection to complete the sample. Survey results indicated that non-significantly majority of young adults had medium level of loneliness irrespective of their addiction in Majha, Malwa, and Doaba region respectively. Moreover, significantly more number of non-addicts had high level of loneliness which highlights that addicts keep them engaged by clicking, editing and posting selfies on social media. Further, significantly higher number of addicted males in comparison to non-addict males, had medium level of loneliness whereas more number of addicted females were found in low level of loneliness which shows that addicted females feel less lonely and isolated as compared to addicted males.

Keywords

selfie, selfie addition, loneliness, Punjab and youth.

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