Selfies can be good for your mental health, it turns out
[Photo: Pexels]
Selfies have been getting a bad rep recently, with people saying that they’re ‘vain’, trigger low self esteem and are something that only ‘self-obsessed’ millennials like to do.
So it’s nice to see selfies being given some credit instead, as new research reveals that they could actually be good for our mental health.
Psychologists at the University of California assessed 41 students, most of whom were women (28 female to 13 male), and watched them go about their daily routines for four weeks.
First, participants were asked to note down their mood three times a day, along with a specific time or event that affected their mood.
[Photo: Pexels]
In the three weeks after this, they were told to take photos each time they wrote these emotions down too.
The group was then randomly split into three, with one third being asked to take a smiling selfie at this time, another to take a picture of an object of place that made them happy, and the final group told to take a picture of something that would make someone else happy before sending it to the person.
And of the three groups, those that took a selfie felt happier and more confident.
In other words, taking happy selfies is far from damaging for our self esteems - in fact, it probably makes us happier.
Do you think selfies make us happier? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
