Love taking selfies? You may be an addict!

However, this obsession with selfies and super-selfies hit a new level of craziness when a UK teenager Danny Bowman spent over 10 hours a day taking 200 snaps of himself, and when he couldn’t get the picture right, he tried to kill himself in depression.

According to a recent study, it’s now being proved that the growing trend of taking smartphone selfies is linked to mental health conditions that focus on a person’s obsession with looks. So how much is too much to drive a sane person mad with pictures? We find out how selfie addicts and people around think of this crazy fad, and what do they feel about the bombardment of self-clicked shots?

For 23-year-old Sanchit Sharma, a tattoo artist at Immortal Arts Studio, the idea of clicking selfies is way too over-rated. He says, “I have seen some really crazy girls and guys, who click their own photos and post it on Facebook every now and then. It’s like a competition, where people have nothing else to do but to count the number of likes and comments each picture gets. I deleted my Instagram account recently because all the updates I used to get were more or less like duck-faced posers trying to look cool in random places.”

On the other hand, experts feel that the fixation with social media and the race to be on top is a sign of narcissism. Dr S.K. Rao, a psychologist at Good Life multi-specialty clinic, informs, “There is a marked rise in number of cases where one can see the increase of narcissistic attitude among youngsters. The entire concept of social networking has snowballed into a major disorder, where people can’t get enough of showing off their personal life. In some cases it reaches to a point where people start obsessing about it so much that it affects their mental well being.”

Ayushi Verma, a marketing professional, agrees with the rising trend of selfies and opines that due to rise in peer pressure many youngsters follow the extreme route and get obsessed with the idea of self-publicity. She says, “It’s the ‘in’ thing right now — selfies are the best way to flaunt your jaw line or new hairdo, but too much of it is obviously annoying for anyone. Youngsters are specially going gaga over selfies because they feel it’s the best way to show who gets the maximum votes in the group.”

Urmila Kaul, a photographer and a selfie addict, informs how sometimes she clicks at least 50 pictures of herself in a day just to get a good shot. She says, “I have an iPhone and it has amazing storage capacity. I like clicking my own pictures and sharing it with my friends. It’s the latest trend and the best thing is you don’t have to depend on anyone to get the picture right.”

Similarly, Manita Asija, a brand consultant, vouches for selfies and mentions, “Clicking selfies is not at all depressing according to me. Sometimes you capture beautiful moments, and looking back at those pictures is priceless. It’s fun to pose and click but it has to be in limits as excess of everything is bad.”