It is often said that “acceptance is the first step to recovery.” For selfie addicts, who may not know that selfie addiction is actually a thing, the possibility of acceptance becomes unlikely. These thirteen signs tell whether you’re a selfie addict or not. If six of them seem like you, an intervention is, most likely, right around the corner and if you score on all thirteen, then, “For Christ’s sake why aren’t you in rehab yet?”
You have an obsessive relationship with light.
The perfect lighting is worth more to a selfie addict than precious jewels. In your world, it is a rare but phenomenal occurrence, thus, you’d never stumble upon one without ceasing the opportunity for a perfect 64 degree hand raise. Natural sun light, though not as close as the real deal, is your best friend and you may or may not have invested money in a phone selfie light to make up for possible low light conditions.
You derive joy from photobombing.
Your friends have no idea how you do this, neither do you, but one way or the other you always end up photobombing another’s picture. Spotting a fellow selfie addict doing the 64 degree hand raise elicits an uncanny but speedy reaction in you, so, it’s quite common to see your smiling face sticking out in the corner of a picture you weren’t necessarily invited to take, and on times when you’re not as fast as the camera shutter, a blurred body part.
You’re a compulsive phone borrower.
Your friends are probably at a point where they can’t stand how often you have to ask for their phone, not because they are stingy but because your tendency to request the use of their phone whenever you hang out is getting quite out of hand. Of course, the said phones probably have a better camera quality than yours so while a conversation is going on with the rest of the crew, you’re in “selfie addict” zone, serving faces, pouting, selecting and editing pictures.
When purchasing a phone with a good camera is priority.
Features like battery power, fast charging capabilities, voice recognition don’t necessarily matter as much to you when purchasing a phone. Your top priority is always the capability of the camera, the megapixels of its front facing camera, its performance in low light conditions, etc. You’d rather purchase an expensive phone with a really good camera than a cheaper phone with a substandard one.
You can take selfies anywhere.
You have no courtesy when it come to where you take your selfies. Restrooms, kitchens, classrooms, churches are all a go. The fear of getting fired doesn’t not prevent you from adding your place of work to this list either. In the unlikely case that you were ever in a life-threatening situation, you’re more likely to share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #DyingOnFleek before dialing 911.
You take a million pictures at once and have a hard time deciding one.
Once you get into selfie mode, your hand automatically raises to the 64 degree, non stop, continuous shutter hitting, angle and your find yourself switching poses until you’ve ended up taking hundreds of pictures that all look the same. You’d spend hours at a later time deciding which one, of the hundreds you’ve taken, is the better picture.
You dress up just to take pictures.
On a day when you don’t necessarily have anywhere to go or anything to do, you’d still wake up, dress up, apply makeup and then, head on to the bathroom to take pictures. If your addiction is on a whole other level you probably have a phone adapter and tripod stand so this means full on photo shoot. (If you do have a tripod stand for selfie shoots, you’re becoming slightly nonredeemable.)
You’d never consider a phone without a front camera.
What’s a phone without a front camera? You’d rather be stuck with a Nokia 3310, and you’d never be stuck with a Nokia 3310 because, “Duh no camera.” If the best phone in the world was worth $250 without a front camera and the worst phone in the world was worth $500 with a front camera, we all know which one you would be going for. On certain times you may have tried to justify your addiction to concerned friends by stating that you simply appreciate pictures and photography, yet, you don’t have an actual camera because, “Duh! No front camera and not a convenient selfie taking device.”
Your best social network is Snapchat and Instagram.
You’re a Snapchat freak, simply because, “Perfect excuse to take numerous selfies about everything and anything.” Once in a while you’d pop in on Instagram the only other app that truly appreciates the art of selfie-taking #TheSunIsYourFilter #YouWokeUpLikeThis #NoMakeUpBecauseWeReallyCantTellYouHaveFoundationAndNudeLipStickOn.
You’re always on the look out for a good background.
You’re a die-hard background hunter. Your search engine probably has “best backgrounds to take pictures near me” bookmarked. You’ve made it your personal part-time job to scout for the perfect background and when you do, you don’t mind driving miles there to bask in its its perfection, for a full on selfie-shoot.
Your have low storage space.
Your phone storage is almost full and its not because you have too many apps. In fact you’ve gone as far as deleting most of your apps in order to create space for your never-ending collection of selfies. Still, memory shortage remains a recurring challenge for you. Tip: Try using google photos in order to save space, not that we’re in support of your addiction or anything…
You can’t let go.
You find it extremely hard to let go of any one of your precious pictures. It doesn’t mater that they all look the same, only you can fully appreciate the perfect chin raise in one, or the subtle eye squint in the other.
For more on selfie addiction, check out this informative video.
