The term "selfitis" originally began circulating because of a spoof news article that suggested the American Psychiatric Association had coined the term - the same guys who enjoy popping a label on anyone who diverges from the 'norm', so it wouldn't come as a surprise.
Selfitis was defined by ones obsessive need to take a selfie.
Now though, psychiatrists have researched the idea further, after discovering "nomophobia" - the fear of not having your mobile phone near you - to be a condition. Dr Mark Griffiths and Janarthanan Balakrishnan from Nottingham Trent University have completed a research paper for the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction that has argued the reality of selfitis as a factor in technology addiction:
The concept of selfie-taking might evolve over time as technology advances, but the six identified factors that appear to underlie selfitis in the present study are potentially useful in understanding such human-computer interaction across mobile electronic devices.
The study took into account 400 participants from India as the country has the most users on Facebook. Using the research the psychiatrists created a Selfitis Behaviour Scale which looks at what factors provoke the condition. Identifying factors such as self-confidence, attention seeking and social competition were all taken into account.
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After discussing technology addictions such as 'nomophobia' the researchers concluded that "as with internet addiction, the concepts of selfitis and selfie addiction started as a hoax, but recent research including the present paper has begun to empirically validate its existence."
Who's first to burn their selfie stick?
