There are two types of selfies. The first type is a selfie taken to showcase something: that you've gotten a new haircut, that you're wearing a new "I Voted" sticker, or that you're in a cool place or with a cool friend. I don't have a problem with those. The selfies I'm not a fan of are the ones posted with no other intent than to show off how good looking you are to your followers in the hopes of racking up likes or comments.
I've come to the conclusion that this second type of selfie is worse for your mental health than looking at and comparing yourself to other people's extravagant social media posts. Not only is it a (likely perfectly posed) post for your peers to compare themselves to, but these kinds of selfies open yourself up for evaluation and objectification by those same peers.
It's no surprise that these glamour selfies receive more likes than most (engagement, wedding, and birth announcements excluded, of course). So when you post them, what are you really saying? Is the message you want to put out there one that updates your followers on your life, or do you want your feed to consist largely of dolled-up, insignificant posts that were just fishing for likes?
There's nothing wrong with feeling confident and snapping a picture. I'm actually a big fan of that. But I really do believe that so many people have started to rely on the likes they get on these types of images. It's one thing to feel confident about how you look, but it's a completely different beast to ask your peers for validation on a selfie as a means to get confidence. It's the motives behind the image that make it either really healthy or really unhealthy.
If you're a fan of "for no reason" selfies, I just ask you to get to the root of why. With or without your likes and social validation, your confidence should belong to YOU. Not your friends, not a partner, and certainly not a bunch of internet strangers. By posting selfies with no other purpose than to get likes, you really are undermining your own personal confidence.
Instead of asking the world how good you look, show them how good you look. It's all about the motives. When your selfie boils down to a number of likes, your motives are all wrong. Control and own your own confidence: you'll certainly feel much better for it!
