Selfie craze gone too far: Making Indian teens 'insensitive'

Selfie phones and selfie sticks are no longer just a convenience but considered the new symbol of self-absorption, say experts, adding that the selfie fever can further isolate this generation and those to come.

Of late, the craze for clicking all kinds of selfies has been creating a havoc across the globe, and in some cases, the madness. But, if you are among those parents who are constantly worried about your young ones being occupied with selfies, the moment you are out on a family dinner or holidaying, brace yourself for worse to come.

First, selfie phones and selfie sticks are no longer just a convenience but considered the new symbol of self-absorption, say experts, adding that the selfie fever can further isolate this generation and those to come.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan recently said he was left disgusted by the insensitivity of young fans who surrounded him and began clicking selfies while he was attending the cremation of a friend.

"Disgusting! No respect for the departed, or for the moment," Bachchan later posted in a tweet.

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"If Big B is disgusted, he is not alone. Recently, I saw a teenager who took selfie with his friend's mother who was on ventilator and posted it on Facebook. This is such a stony-hearted approach," laments Dr Madhuri Singh, consulting psychiatrist at Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital in Mumbai.

"The selfie craze is pulling sensitivity out of Indian teenagers' minds," she told IANS.

For Dr (Brig) S. Sudarsanan, senior consultant psychiatrist at BLK Super Speciality Hospital in New Delhi, taking selfies on sad or solemn occasions is certainly an uncultured behavior and needs to be discouraged.

"I would still not consider selfie behavior as an addiction, which implies many other behavioral changes like craving, withdrawal symptoms, disregarding all other interests, relationships and activities. But, yes, excessive or extremes of such behavior warrant counselling," he said.

The behavioral experts have divided selfies into three broad categories - those taken with friends, those taken during certain activities or events and those that focus on physical appearance.

A recent study, appearing in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, found that people who posted a lot of selfies tend to have higher levels of certain narcissistic traits such as fragile self-esteem.

"An excessive dependence to the extent of becoming preoccupied with the social need of posting these selfies at regular intervals can be detrimental to the psychological and social well-being of teenagers," elaborates Dr Samir Parikh, director (mental health and behavioural science) at Fortis Hospital.

Such obsessions can further lead to adverse influences on the child or adolescent's self-esteem, body image satisfaction and feelings of anxiety or depressive symptoms as well as inter-personal relationships.

"The selfie culture tends to deprive youth of social stimulation, becoming more and more engulfed in the virtual and technological world of the media. Such excessive preoccupation can also lead to social withdrawal and alienation," Dr Parikh warns.