Sharing smiling selfies can help you beat the blues

New York, Sept 14: Taking smiling selfies with your smartphone and sharing them with your friends can help make you a happier person, say computer scientists at the University of California, Irvine. “This study shows that sometimes our gadgets can offer benefits to users,” said senior author Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics.

“Our research showed that practicing exercises that can promote happiness via smartphone picture taking and sharing can lead to increased positive feelings for those who engage in it,” lead author Yu Chen, a post-doctoral scholar, added. By conducting exercises via smartphone photo technology and gauging users’ psychological and emotiol states, the researchers found that the daily taking and sharing of certain types of images can positively affect people.

Chen and her colleagues designed and conducted a four-week study involving 41 college students. The participants — 28 female and 13 male — were instructed to continue their normal day-to-day activities (going to class, doing schoolwork, meeting with friends, etc.) while taking part in the research.

Each was invited to the informatics lab for an informal interview and to fill out a general questionire and consent form. The scientists helped students load a survey app onto their phones to document their moods during the first “control” week of the study. (IANS)