Why we post selfies: Understanding motivations for posting pictures of oneself

Abstract

Photo sharing on various social networking sites (SNSs) has become an important part of the online social experience. SNS users utilize various types of pictures, particularly selfies (pictures one takes of oneself), to display their personalities, lifestyles, and preferences. In this study, we identified the motivations that drive selfie-posting behavior and examined the roles of the selfie-posting motivations and narcissism in predicting selfie-posting behavior. Our findings first revealed four motivations for posting selfies on SNSs: (1) attention seeking, (2) communication, (3) archiving, and (4) entertainment. Further, results showed that the motivations of attention seeking, communication, and archiving as well as narcissism significantly predicted selfie-posting intention while narcissism was the only significant predictor of selfie-posting frequency. In light of these findings, areas for future research are discussed.