As many of you know, I take selfies on a regular basis, as well as a lot of other people out there! I recently had someone write me asking “if taking selfies are bad for you, and do I feel stupid taking one at the gym?”…ok, well I will be honest, I hate taking them at the gym, and my gym can tell you how awkward I am when I say “will you please take this picture and video of me working out?” However, for me, I find it helps me with accountability, as well as help me feel comfortable in my own skin. Self-Awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. Self-Awareness allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment. Can a selfie of yourself, or others, help you become more self aware?
What Does Research Say?
There has been a plethora of research investigating relationships between social media activities and self-esteem, which has produced mixed results. Mehdizadeh (2010) has instead found that individuals low in self-esteem engaged in more self-promoting behaviors on Facebook (including self-promoting photos) as compared with individuals with higher self-esteem (Sorokowski et al., 2015). Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012) have shown that self-esteem may predict the actual need for self-promotion on social networking sites. Conversely, other studies (e.g. Krämer & Winter, 2008) have pointed out that low and high self-esteem users did not differ on self-presentation behaviors.
What Does This Mean?
Try both?? If you have never put yourself out there on social media and you want to share your progress then do it! For some, you might find it helps with accountability and self-image. For others, you may find you are comparing yourself negatively to others on social media. Either way, what is good for one, may not be the best for another, so respect each other and support each other. Selfies, whether of yourself or others, may help you become more self-aware!
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