Science Says No One Actually Likes When You Post Selfies, So Put Down The Phone

I hate to break it to you guys, but it turns out a majority of the internet doesn't actually like seeing your face pop up in news feeds.

As someone guilty of posting shameless selfies on the reg, it's kind of a bummer, so I think I'm going to cool it for a while.

In a recent study led by researchers in Munich, 238 people from Austria, Germany and Switzerland were surveyed on their opinions about selfies.

Unfortunately, the conclusions scientists made from the survey will definitely inspire you to put your cameras down.

The selfie researchers, Sarah Diefenback and Lara Christoforakos of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, published a paper called "The Selfie Paradox: Nobody Seems to Like Them Yet Everyone Has Reasons to Take Them."

While studying their participants' reactions to selfies, they concluded that irony exists behind the photos.

Why? Because even though so many people post selfies regularly, a lot of their followers are actually turned off by them.

An excerpt from the study reads,

Taking, posting and viewing selfies has become a daily habit for many. At the same time, research revealed that selfies often evoke criticism and disrespect and are associated with non-authenticity and narcissism.

The study also says selfies could have a reverse effect on self-esteem because they might depict a different image of a person than what he or she might actually look like.

Out of the selfie-takers who were surveyed, 77 percent said they take selfies at least once a month, while 49 percent said they receive a selfie once a week.

That's a lot of selfies.

However, the study says those who enjoy taking selfies are often judged by those viewing them.

An excerpt from the paper regarding the irony behind selfie-taking says,

Altogether, participants expressed a distanced attitude toward selfies, with stronger agreement for potential negative consequences (threats to self-esteem, illusionary world) than for positive consequences (e.g., relatedness, independence), and a clear preference (82 percent) for viewing more usual pictures instead of selfies in social media.

In other words, a lot people enjoy taking selfies, but they don't take into consideration the fact others view them as "narcissistic."

In fact, the study found 90 percent of the participants thought their peers' selfies were merely self-promotion, when 46 percent of them refused to think the same of their own.

Ironic, isn't it?

If you're confident in yourself and want to flaunt your looks for your followers to admire, keep on snapping those selfies!

Just be aware that your followers might not enjoy the photo as much as you think they do.

Citations: Study: No one really likes to look at your selfies (The Next Web)