How Selfies Are Quietly Changing the Way We Live And Work, Especially The Way We Do Things, & Work Out
How Selfies Are Quietly Changing the Way We Live And Work, Especially The Way We Do Things, & Work Out
How Selfies Are Quietly Changing the Way We Do Things, Especially Working Out
How Selfies Are Quietly Changing the Way We Do Things, Especially Working Out
Illustration of a man holding a weight in one hand and taking a selfie with the other
Science takes a hard look at the Instagram-ization of life as per example, the fitness culture.
One minute, you’re soaked in sweat, silently repeating to yourself whatever vaguely inspirational mantra you use to push through each set’s last few agonizing reps, after all no pain -- no gain. (“Go hard,” “Finish strong,” and “You can get pizza or a naked burger, after this” are favorites.) The next, you’re hustling out of the background of a fellow gym-goer's workout selfie— you wouldn't want to photo bomb his selfie, if you aren’t taking one yourself to document your own hard work first.
“I have clients give me their phones—they're like, 'Could you take a quick picture of me?'” said Kenny Santucci, the General Manager at Solace New York, NY. (Solace, not coincidentally, appears on a list of the “Most Instagramable Workouts in NYC”). He usually thinks to himself, “We're in the middle of class, I've got fifteen other people here, and you want me to take a picture of you!?” "Ofcourse, no problem." he says not to say, no to a customer.
Then there are the folks who ask "How do you take two selfies with one phone?" They think for a second and pull out a second phone. One wonders who they're hiding from, one ofcourse assumes one phone is for business and one for personal use ( i.e.: one for girlfriend and one for wife ).
The scenario Santucci details is common in 2018, when everything from brunches, lunches to crunches can have the insufferable “do it for the ‘gram” slogan slapped on it. “It's become more of a visual game than ever before," Santucci says. "Instagram specifically has made the fitness culture, for example evolve a lot faster." In a recent poll 43% of respondents reported taking photos or videos at the gym, and 27% of those were selfies. And if you were wondering whether the practice based on gender, Santucci says that in his experience, men and women are equally vain and likely to stop, wipe sweat, pose, and snap.
The gym selfie, experts say, is more than just a visual brag or photo-driven pep talk. Social media is fundamentally changing the way we work out, thereby live our lives—and the way we see our self image or ourselves in the mirror. In a recent study, professors Tricia Burke and Stephen Rains found that individuals who saw more workout posts in their feeds were more likely to feel concerned about their own bodies, especially if the posts came from a person they felt looked similar to them. This means that even a passive scroll through Instagram can be more about stoking self-consciousness, and/ or self-ego in oneself and in others, than providing motivation—and that we internalize these lessons more easily than we think. “If people become preoccupied with their weight, and how they look, for example that could manifest itself in less healthy ways,” Burke told me.
Brunel University professor Tara Marshall was among a team of researchers who examined the how the “big five” personality traits, self-esteem, vanity and narcissism all interact; you may remember their results going viral in 2016 under variations of the title “People who Post About Fitness Are Narcissists.” They found that narcissists were more likely to post online updates about their accomplishments, and, assuming that vanity is among the reasons they exercise, Marshall explains that “discussing their diet or exercise routine on Facebook seems to be one way they broadcast a core aspect of their identity”—here, their physical appearance.
It’s worth noting that non-narcissists can also enjoy sharing posts about exercise with their friends, even if their motivations for doing so are less, well, narcissistic; seeing someone working out and feeling good can inspire others, even if it doesn’t always do so in practice. Rains adds that documenting workouts isn’t necessarily all that different than documenting any of the other mundane things we blast out to our followers without a second thought. “If exercise is part of one's everyday life, it makes sense that it would be documented on social media,” he said.
Mark Ribeiro, founding instructor at FitHouse, echoes Marshall on the potential for gym selfies to do some good in the world. “Fitness is a community,” he says. We all struggle with feeling discouraged, inadequate or insecure, wondering if we’re the only ones having a tough time making it through a session—or venturing to the gym in the first place. Posting fitness-adjacent content and interacting with other people who are battling the same woes, he says, can exude positivity and strengthen connections, especially if you find ways to make clear the purpose of your approach. (Example: Being less OCD or being less obsessive -- focusing less on the body, or at least keeping the shirt on, perhaps.)
As with everything in life, moderation is key. When your obsession with crafting the perfect string of hashtags starts to bug your coach—or, even worse, when it distracts your fellow gym-goers—that’s when it becomes a problem, says Santucci. His major no-nos include skipping parts of a workout, taking too long to complete it, or interrupting someone else’s routine because you’re too busy arranging the equipment to perfectly frame your face or body. [Ed. note: God help you.]
New York City personal trainer Elysia Cronheim doesn’t have her clients ask for mid-session photos for a simple reason: She now has to set ground rules about it. “There's this need to prove to the world that you're ‘being your best self’ on social media, but it's not always a reflection of how you're actually spending your time,” she says. She explains she’ll agree to snap a photo when a client hits a major goal, objective or milestone like the first pull-up or a new deadlift personal best, but otherwise avoids paparazzi duties: “The vast majority of gym selfies are oversexualized, and that's where the body image pressure comes in and becomes toxic.”
In other words: Think before you send. Even if your intentions are pure, gym selfies can have ripple effects outside your Instagram grid about which you may not be thinking. Mull over why you’re really taking that selfie, especially if its every 5 - 10 minutes: to motivate yourself, or to perform for someone else? And however you come down on that question, a good rule of thumb is to always finish first and and think about hitting the “post” button last. It’ll still be there. We promise.
"Looks Can Kill More Than 250 Deaths Caused by Selfies," Says Study.
How far would you go to take the perfect selfie? More than 250 people have died in attempts to take “extreme” selfies since 2011, a new study has found.
How far would you go to take a selfie?
How far would you go to take the perfect selfie? More than 250 people have died in attempts to take “extreme” selfies since 2011, a new study has found.
While the selfie craze borne from the social media era may seem to be a largely harmless pastime, a study has found that this phenomenon is having deadly consequences.
Between 2011 and 2017, 259 people have died during attempts to take “extreme” selfies, says a study conducted by researchers at the US National Library of Medicine.
The deaths mostly occurred in dangerous locations – such as tall buildings, mountains and roadsides – with drowning, transport accidents and falling among the most common causes.
The average age of those killed was 22, with almost 80% of the deaths recorded being male.
According to the study, the figures given may be incomplete as, being something of a new phenomena, selfie-deaths are under-reported.
“It is important to assess the true burden, causes, and reasons for selfie deaths so that appropriate interventions can be made,” the authors of the study said.
To combat the issue, the researchers have suggested that “no selfie zones” should be erected and clearly signed, so as to warn people of the dangers.
In Mumbai there are already 16 of such zones in place, while similar measures have also been put in place in Russia and Indonesia.
Adver
Subscribe for $1 a week. Ends soon.
This is your last free article.
Support independent journalism.
Subscribe.
Unlimited articles on any device.
$3.75 $1.00/week for one year
QUICK CHECKOUT
Comments
Post a Comment