Know thy selfie

The article was published in the Telegraph on November 27, 2014. Nishant Shah and Rohini Lakshane were quoted.

Ever since her father gifted her an expensive smartphone, Anwesha Ray, a third year student at a Calcutta college, can't stop clicking selfies. First, she started uploading selfies on her Facebook page once a week. But the growing number of 'likes' inspired her to capture more images. Now she clicks at least five pictures a day and changes her profile picture at least twice a week. She deletes a picture within hours if it fails to garner at least 200 'likes' from over 4,000 friends.

Rohit Chattopadhyay, a third year student at an engineering college in south Calcutta, mastered the art of taking selfies and editing them courtesy Instagram. He uploads at least a couple of self-portraits a day. Sometimes he works well past midnight chasing that "perfect" shot.

Aliah Shamim, a second year student at a top Calcutta college, loves to click selfies with friends and family. However, she shares them only with her close contacts on Facebook and WhatsApp.

Welcome to the world of selfie-engrossed teenagers ready to do anything to get that perfect self-portrait. In every college you'll find students who are mad about selfies. Anwesha knows her obsession leads to her "wasting a lot of time", but she can't kick her habit of clicking selfies.

"I simply love those 'likes' on Facebook. It gives me a feeling of deja vu. I feel as if I'm a celebrity," she says a tad sheepishly. "Just imagine how many admirers I have," says Rohit proudly showing a particular top shot of his face which has garnered 602 'likes'.

Are these students really being too self indulgent? Or is it just their way of getting endorsement of their self worth? Dr Shefali Batra, founder, Mind Frames, a psychiatric clinic in Mumbai, feels the act of taking selfies is a way of feeling "empowered" as students attempt to compensate for their lack of self worth in the real world. According to her, the selfie obsession borders on narcissism — an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance — and clouds their judgement; they fail to see the real world.

She is worried because she's been getting quite a few teen patients who are obsessed with selfies. Although not as extreme as a 15-year-old girl from Philippines who died after falling down the stairs while taking a selfie or a Russian teen who plunged to his death after trying to take a selfie atop a railway bridge, she is scared the trend might catch on in India.

Calcutta-based psychiatrist J.R. Ram too is concerned about the increasing number of selfie-obsessed teens in his clinic. He says, "Last week, I met a 13-year-old girl who stole money to get a haircut like pop singer Rihanna. Her parents were worried but she was nonchalant as her portrait got 167 'likes' on a social networking site."

According to Ram, selfies are the modern day equivalent of a reflection in a pool which led mythological Greek hunter Narcissus to drown in a stream as he was enamoured of his own image. "The virtual image is more important to these teenagers than the real one," he avers.

Agrees Rima Mukherjee, a psychiatrist based in Calcutta. "Virtual appreciation means a lot to these kids and it doesn't matter if most of the 'likes' they get on social networking sites are fake," she says. According to her, the trend is pushing some youths to compete with their friends to garner more 'likes'. "If a friend's picture gets more 'likes' students feel compelled to go on an overdrive to shoot and upload more selfies," she notes.

Take the case of Ashmita Dasgupta. "I make it a point to score quality 'likes,' unlike Anwesha [her classmate]. I don't go on adding random friends to maximise the 'likes'," she says.

As an associate dean at Praxis B-school, Calcutta, Charanpreet Singh has a ringside view of student behaviour and activities. He says, "These kids do have a large network of friends but the relationships are very superficial. The so-called 'likes' don't come from the heart and mean nothing." He's also observes that those students who don't have many real world friends are more active on social networking sites. "They vie for appreciation out of emotional insecurity."

Some argue that this trend of clicking and uploading selfies has been fuelled by the celebrity culture. Says Aroona Broota, a former professor of psychology in Delhi University, "Some teenagers are inspired by celebs who frequently click selfies to promote themselves. The kids fail to understand that for the celebrities it's a shrewd way of marketing themselves or advertising a product." Also, for some, clicking selfies has become an escape route from the daily drudgery and frustrations that one face in real life such as scoring low marks in exams, having no job or other personal problems.

But not all psychiatrists or psychologists feel that the trend is scary. Zena Deb, a Calcutta-based clinical psychologist, finds nothing wrong with students clicking selfies unless their obsession leads them to taking risks such as shooting from the top of a building or a cliff.

Deb, a mother of an 18-year-old girl says, "Most do this to seek attention and get some validation from peers. It doesn't matter if one is ugly or pretty — you can seek a certificate for your self-worth and you get it so easily on a social network." For a teenager such 'peer review' is of utmost importance and it must not be confused with narcissism.

Ali Khwaja, founder of counselling centre Banjara Academy, Bangalore, too feels narcissism is too strong a word to describe the trend. "With a strong medium at their disposal they want to spread the message that they want to be different, creative and adventurous. They hope to expand their contacts and create an identity," he says.

Nishant Shah, co-founder of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, feels the act of taking selfies is a networking phenomena. He says, "These are meant for creating interesting routes of connectivity with a photographic object that goes beyond individualistic relationships. It forms social and cultural capital for youths."

Rohini Lakshané, a researcher at the CIS, believes we are living in times where users of social media, especially "digital natives" find it rewarding to constantly promote themselves in their chosen ways and forms through these channels. She says, "The selfie often circumvents the artistic pursuit of making a self portrait. Instead it tries to make a spectacle or testimony that the selfie-taker was indeed present at a certain place, at a certain time, in a certain attire or mood, and (perhaps) in the company of certain people." According to her, selfie-takers enjoy control over how the photos turn out to be, how they look in the photo, and the time and social network in which such a photo is published — all of which are 'advantages' over having someone else take their photos or being shot candidly. She adds, "While I would consider the act of taking several selfies self-indulgent, I am not sure if it qualifies as narcissistic."

They have the tools of self-expression which their parents didn't have, says Kaustuv Sengupta, a youth trend analyst and an associate professor at NIFT, Bangalore. "This is a more expressive generation which wants to become more visible," he says. As a panel member of a youth survey — called Millennial Paradox — conducted by Titan Industries last year, he found that despite the unprecedented levels of self-obsession and independence, India's millennnials (21-35 year old) do not operate in isolation — they have a strong desire to share and belong to a community. "Sharing has become the principle form of validation....everything requires endorsement — whether that takes the form of a 'friend' a 'like' or even a 'retweet", concludes the survey, describing the new trend as "collective individualism".

For the current generation of digital natives, endorsements in the virtual world matter more than the feedback they get from the real world, says Dr Subhrangshu Aditya, a student counsellor at Jadavpur University. "The real world — parents, guardians and other authorities — doesn't approve of the 'Kiss of Protest' movement against moral policing, but it is appreciated by their virtual friends," he observes.

Nishant Shah of CIS points out that social media are a potent tool for today's youngsters. These can be used as a political weapon when they identify crises in their immediate environment. And all the recent movements across the world — anti-corruption or the post-gangrape protests in India, occupy Wall Street in the US or Shahbag protests — have originated in the digital world. More power to the social media, we say.