Recently, there has been a sharp increase in the number of articles discussing the negative effects of the so-called 'selfie' phenomenon—a growing trend in which people take self-portraits with their mobile phones and upload them to social-media websites. Fears exist that this application of mobile and Internet technology may have unforeseen but potentially damaging cultural and psychological consequences. Selfies have been linked with adverse personality traits, including self-obsession, poor self-esteem, and narcissism, amongst others. Particularly alarming, critics say, is that the threat of negative influence looms largest among the group most likely to take selfies: adolescents, whose personalities are still developing. Their hypothesis is that selfies encourage people to fixate on their appearance and, because the photographs can be edited, to project only the best version of themselves in the virtual world. This creates a psychologically stressful situation in which people's real-life appearances can never match up to the online façade, and many people end up becoming obsessed by their flaws.

The reality of the selfie phenomenon, however, seems somewhat more complicated. Although some recent studies have indeed suggested a link between selfies and poor self-image, others have demonstrated the opposite. Some psychologists posit the theory that selfies may actually help people to 'construct' their ideal self and allow them to model the behaviours and lifestyle changes they want to adopt. Other studies have found no correlation at all between self-esteem and the selfie. This complex new behaviour may well depend on multiple interrelated personal and interpersonal factors and thus merits further investigation.