Taking a selfie makes you happier

The next time you take a picture with your phone, turn the camera around to face you and take a selfie. New findings suggest that selfies can promote happiness. The researchers conducted exercises using smartphone photo technology and assessed participants’ psychological and emotional states. They found that taking daily pictures of one’s self and sending them to others can have positive effects.

Lead author Yu Chen said, “Our research showed that practicing exercises that can promote happiness via smartphone picture taking and sharing can lead to increased positive feelings for those who engage in it. This is particularly useful information for returning college students to be aware of, since they face many sources of pressure.”
College students face a number of different stressors, including finances and loneliness, but they are always on their phones, so they can easily boost their mood and take advantage of the stress-relieving benefits that taking selfies can offer.

“You see a lot of reports in the media about the negative impacts of technology use, and we look very carefully at these issues here at UCI [University of California, Irvine]. But there have been expanded efforts over the past decade to study what’s become known as ‘positive computing,’ and I think this study shows that sometimes our gadgets can offer benefits to users,” concluded Chen.