A Study to Assess the Prevalence of Selfitis Among Undergraduate I Year Students of Selected Arts and Commerce Colleges of Bhopal City, Madhya Pradesh

ABSTRACT

Selfies are exploding social media all over the world. The number of self-portrait photos posted online has grown rapidly as a function of the simultaneous growth of social networking and smart phone use. It has triggered a number of risk taking and offensive public behaviour, pushing the boundaries of safety and decorum. Hence, the following study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of Selfitis in the upcoming generation of today's world, whose life mostly revolves around social media and friends. To assess the prevalence of Selfitis among undergraduate I year students. To associate the prevalence of Selfitis among undergraduate I year students with selected socio-demographic variables. Non-experimental univariate descriptive survey approach was used to determine the prevalence of Selfitis among undergraduate I year students of Arts and Commerce Colleges (n=200). Selection of the institution was done by non-probability convenient sampling technique and undergraduate I year students were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique from Bhopal city, Madhya Pradesh. The modified Selfitis Behaviour Scale developed by Janarthanan Balakrishnan and Mark D. Griffiths was used for data collection. The findings revealed that the overall prevalence of Selfitis was 97.5% (195) and 2.5% (5) of individuals did not have Selfitis and prevalence of acute Selfitis was higher i.e. 76.92% (150) and that of chronic Selfitis and borderline Selfitis was 11.28% (22) and 11.8% (23) respectively. The mean and standard percentage of the score was 49.3850 and 15.05357 respectively. The prevalence of Selfitis was higher in males (52.82%) as compared to females (47.18%). Hence, it is evident that there is significant prevalence of Selfitis among undergraduate I year students. Except gender none of the socio-demographic variables influenced the prevalence of Selfitis. The craze of selfies is turning out to be very harmful for adolescents because it is at this age that identity of an individual develops and if these unreal standards of appearance are bombarded on the young mind, it will have a catastrophic effect on the whole generation.