SELFIE-OBSESSED? NOT REALLY

First of all, selfies aren’t quite the plague you think them to be. They only account for 3-5% of pictures on Instagram. This is one of the many findings that a study by Lev Manoch at the City University of New York reveals. The study covers Bangkok, Moscow, New York, Sao Paulo and Berlin.

 

HAPPY AND YOUNG

Bangkok came out on top of the study in terms of youthfulness and smiles. Yes, we’re a young and happy bunch. But as the study was performed by anonymous freelancers from around the world (through the Mechanical Turk website), who were asked to guess the ages of the people on the pictures, Bangkokian selfie-junkies are either younger than their counterparts in other cities or just look younger.

 

IT’S A GIRL THING--NOT

Another surprising finding is that Bangkok is the most gender-equal city when it comes to selfies. Only 55 percent of selfies here are made by women. That score is higher in every other city, up to 82 percent in macho Russia!

 

STRIKE A POSE: NO THANKS

Also, Bangkok selfies are not the most over-the-top and dramatic out there—quite the opposite. You have to go to Sao Paulo for drama, where the average head tilt angle for females is a whopping 18 degrees! Thailand has the lowest score here, a mere 10.6 degrees for women and 8 degrees for men. We’re so natural.

 

So next time the Mental Health Department freaks out about our selfie culture, point them to http://selfiecity.net/ for actual data on the young, smiling and fairly natural #selfie people of Bangkok. The website is interactive, allowing you to select for various data points. Check it out.