'SELFITIS'
is a transmedia socially engaged art project that has lasted for over
1 year ranging from social media activism to street art. The last
stage of the project is a public art installation on a billboard in
New York. The urban installation is part of a project called 'The Existential Tail'
organized by SaveArtSpace, a non-profit organization based in New
York, that works to create an urban gallery and spread messages of
social change. The overall idea of SELFITIS was to create an open
conversation, using the modern day obsession with selfies, to discuss
what they show us about social media and how it currently affects us.
The term ‘selfitis’ was coined by the media in 2014 as a hoax,
but the joke is now becoming real: it is the obsessive-compulsive
desire to take photos of oneself and post them on social media.
Research increasingly draws connections between heavily filtered
selfies and increased body dissatisfaction, which is now becoming
known as Snapchat dysmorphia.
