Lay Off The Selfie Fiends, They May Be Suffering From A Condition
The term "selfitis" originally began circulating because of a spoof news article that suggested the American Psychiatric Association had coined the term - the same guys who enjoy popping a label on anyone who diverges from the 'norm', so it wouldn't come as a surprise.
Selfitis was defined by ones obsessive need to take a selfie.
Now though, psychiatrists have researched the idea further, after discovering "nomophobia" - the fear of not having your mobile phone near you - to be a condition. Dr Mark Griffiths and Janarthanan Balakrishnan from Nottingham Trent University have completed a research paper for the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction that has argued the reality of selfitis as a factor in technology addiction:
The concept of selfie-taking might evolve over time as technology advances, but the six identified factors that appear to underlie selfitis in the present study are potentially useful in understanding such human-computer interaction across mobile electronic devices.
The study took into account 400 participants from India as the country has the most users on Facebook. Using the research the psychiatrists created a Selfitis Behaviour Scale which looks at what factors provoke the condition. Identifying factors such as self-confidence, attention seeking and social competition were all taken into account.
After discussing technology addictions such as 'nomophobia' the researchers concluded that "as with internet addiction, the concepts of selfitis and selfie addiction started as a hoax, but recent research including the present paper has begun to empirically validate its existence."
Who's first to burn their selfie stick?