..I think I'm just trying to think about why people do it..(and maybe over-thinking..)... just because I don't go on any social sites so I don't see many selfies, other than the celebrity ones that are posted here because I don't read much celebrity 'gossip' type stuff either...so I guess I don't see enough to find them annoying particularly...but I agree with your last bit in that I think it would either be complete confidence or total lack of it and maybe needing people to comment favourably..?...I can't actually get my head around the confident bit if I'm honest though because if someone had that much confidence in themselves then they would know how they looked physically so why post so many selfies/why need those compliments..?..unless obviously it was a celebrity who may just want to always be in the public's faces because they didn't have so much 'talent' ...with this guy that you know personally..would you say he was a confident person and completely at ease with himself or not...?....

I don't really know to be honest, at first I thought it was an insecurity thing but now I think he just loves himself and is a bit of a poser :laugh:

..I think you were right though, I think maybe some people are quite insecure and them feeling more secure if they get complimented etc doesn't seem such a bad thing really ..then there are probably just posers who are attention seeking...but it's hard to know why they would attention seek if they feel they look so great anyway....and then maybe some people just do it for 'LOLS' because it might be a funny pose etc...

..but then if the not confident people were insecure about their appearance then would they really put up selfies because as well as compliments, they would be leaving themselves open to criticism as well, which they really wouldn't want....?....hmmmm, I think this is all getting far to complicated ..:laugh:...there is probably no thought goes into it whatsoever, they're just twiddling with their phones/take a selfie/post it and don't even realise how many times they're doing that..to the point where they're driving people crazy with looking at them all the time..:laugh:...

I think the bit in bold is what really happens, but I think the psychology behind it indicates that they're either massively insecure or overly secure in their appearance :laugh: - but only when we're talking about people who do it all the time... I don't think there's anything wrong with the occasional selfie for compliments, it's nice to be complimented and sometimes you need a bit of validation and you don't always get it randomly so sometimes you have to go looking for it specifically. When it becomes a regular thing, that's when it's annoying to other people, I think.

I don't think that people who are massively insecure would actually post that many photos of themselves online though, if you genuinely thought you looked terrible in a picture why would you want everyone looking at it?

I think when I say insecure I mean more people who generally feel insecure, so they take lots of selfies and post the best ones online, on a regular basis, to fish for compliments in an attempt to convince themselves that they're good looking as a gap filling measure instead of actually dealing with their poor body image, if that makes sense. So it's not that they think the pictures are bad, it's that they think they themselves are bad and are posting filtered pictures of themselves from their best angles to try and get some form of validation to try and stop themselves from feeling so bad, but it's just a quick fix and it never works.

..see, this is what I'm thinking as well, what Niamh said ..that if someone had a poor body image then would they be posting lots of selfies or pics of themselves because even it they did 'filter' the pics as you say, Z...their poor body image would still be there because they don't see what others see, anyway..?...it's more in their own thoughts/type thing so would they want to leave themselves open to criticism as we all know that the internet and social sites can be quite cruel..?..but would they even want to be 'seen' anyway..?...

self obsessed boring vein twats , this leads to narcissism, self obsession, eating disorders, body dismorphia and mental illness and we fail to nip it in the bud so it gets worse and worse

I enjoy selfies, espesh funny ones with my friends. :bigsmile:

Calm the **** down

i just don't get how it's a new thing (well, as in the last couple of years)..people were doing it on myspace in 2005

Probably because despite MySpace's popularity it was still mainly for scene kids and other assorted 'outcasts' from the 'mainstream' so anything that was popular on there was by default not popular in the mainstream - but with the advent of Facebook and how popular it's become, I guess all that stuff would have merged with lots of different people and that's how selfies have become so popular