Assessment of Antebrachial and Carpal Muscle Activity During Smartphone Use: is “Selfie Wrist” a Real Phenomenon?

Reports in the media by celebrities have sparked an interest in a phenomenon being called “selfie-wrist,” in which smartphone users develop symptoms traditionally associated with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). There has been no research to date which investigates the claims of “selfie wrist.” The primary aim of this study was to address the validity of “selfie wrist” claims. The secondary aim of this study was to further investigate the effects of texting on musculoskeletal health, taking into account the differences between texting one-handed versus two-handed, and the effect of using a grip device while texting. The experiment consisted of an intake survey component, a selfie-taking component, and a texting component. Subjects who, for various reasons, were unable to participate in the in-person experiment completed an online alternate survey. The surveys assessed smartphone usage habits. Photos of the flexion angles of the thumb, wrist, and elbow were taken of participating subjects during flexion without holding a smartphone, during selfie-taking and group selfie-taking for each joint. Surface electromyography was used to assess the muscle activity of the trapezius, flexor carpi ulnaris, flexor carpi radialis (FCR), and abductor pollicis longus muscles during texting tasks performed one-handed, two-handed, and with and without a grip device. Joint angle data and muscle activity data were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance, with the two factors being joint and number of hands used during texting, and grip device in use and number of hands used during texting, respectively. A significant increase was found only in the elbow joint angle during selfie-taking and group selfie-taking. The significant increase that occurred in the elbow joint was expected since the baseline data reflected flexion of the elbow, and the performance of selfie-taking results in extension. These results indicate that a detrimental angle of flexion was not achieved with any selfie-taking task, and that “selfie wrist” is not a real phenomenon. Further research is needed to determine the potential effects of selfie-taking when viewed as a repetitive strain injury. All muscles except for the FCR showed a significant increase in muscular output during texting one-handed as compared to two-handed. There was no significant difference found in the use of a grip device during texting one-handed nor two-handed. The results of this study indicate that neither texting nor selfie-taking result in the development of musculoskeletal disorders

Videoconference Group Selfies With Virtual Backgrounds

Video conference user interfaces are limited to displaying each endpoint in a corresponding box. Participants can also use virtual backgrounds. However, current video conference applications do not provide a sense of shared space. This disclosure describes techniques to replace the disparate backgrounds of individual participants in a video conference with a consistent virtual background. The replacement can be performed while the video conference is in progress and provides a consistent visual appearance to all participants. The foreground portions can be segmented to arbitrary shapes and can be overlaid in a manner that provides an aesthetically pleasing arrangement. The virtual background can be user selected or can be generated automatically based on the topic of the video conference

Do Online Privacy Concerns Predict Selfie Behavior among Adolescents, Young Adults and Adults?

Selfies, or self-portraits, are often taken and shared on social media for online self-presentation reasons, which are considered essential for the psychosocial development and well-being of people in today's culture. Despite the growing popularity and widespread sharing of selfies in the online space, little is known about how privacy concerns moderate selfie behavior. In addition to this, it is also not known whether privacy concerns across age and gender groups influence selfie behavior. To address this timely issue, a survey assessing common selfie behaviors, that is, frequency of taking (individual and group selfies), editing (cropping and filtering), and posting selfies online, and social media privacy concerns (over personal data being accessed and misused by third parties) was conducted. The web-survey was administered to 3,763 Norwegian social media users, ranging from 13 to 50 years, with a preponderance of women (n = 2,509, 66.7%). The present study investigated the impact of privacy concerns on selfie behaviors across gender and age groups (adolescent, young adult, and adult) by use of the structural equation modeling approach. The results suggest that young adults have greater privacy concerns compared to adolescents and adults. Females have greater privacy concerns than males. Greater privacy concerns among female social media users were linked to lower engagement in selfie behavior, but privacy concerns did not influence selfie behavior in the case of male adolescents and young adults. Overall, privacy concerns were more consistently and inversely related to selfie behavior (taking and posting) among females than males. The study results have theoretical as well as practical implications for both researchers and policy makers.Peer reviewe

Swafoto Kelompok Sebagai Task Design Permutasi pada Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh

Task design atau desain tugas merupakan komponen penting dalam mendorong terjadinya proses belajar matematika. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menyusun task design pembelajaran topik permutasi. Penelitian ini melibatkan 80 siswa Sekolah Menengah Atas di Ngabang, Kalimantan Barat pada tanggal 1 Januari sampai 5 Maret 2021. Penelitian ini menggunakan metodologi didactic engineering yang terdiri dari empat tahap yaitu 1) preliminary analysis, (2) design and a priori analysis, (3) implementation, observation, and data collection, dan (4) a posteriori analysis. Task design disusun dengan menggunakan kerangka Teori Situasi Didaktis. Pada setiap tahap, khususnya tahap keempat, data dianalisis secara deskriptif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa untuk materi permutasi dapat dibuat task design berupa swafoto kelompok. Swafoto kelompok merupakan fundamental situation dalam task design yang dikonstruksi dengan kerangka Teori Situasi Didaktis dan sesuai dengan konteks siswa. Task design ini juga mampu mendorong siswa mengkonstruksi pengetahuannya melalui permasalahan swafoto kelompok. Dalam konteks pembelajaran jarak jauh, pada masa pandemi ini, swafoto kelompok merupakan bentuk task design yang kontekstual dan mendorong siswa terlibat aktif karena sifatnya personal. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan potensi dan penggunaan Teori Situasi Didaktis sebagai kerangka task design pada topik permutasi di Sekolah Menengah Atas

How HEXACO personality traits predict different selfie-posting behaviors among adolescents and young adults

Selfies are usually defined as self-portrait photos shared on social networks. Recent studies investigated how personality traits, and specifically narcissism, can be associated to different kinds of selfies. The HEXACO model, a new theory on personality structure, investigates personality on six dimensions, among which there is the Honesty/Humility trait, found strongly and negatively associated to narcissism. Thus, this study aims to investigate how different kinds of selfies could be predicted by HEXACO personality traits, controlling for age, gender and sexual orientation. Participants were 750 adolescents and young adults (59.1% girls, N = 443) from 13 to 30 years (Mage = 20.96; SDage = 4.23) who completed an online survey composed by the Kinsey scale, three questions about the frequency of different kinds of selfies (i.e. own selfies, group selfies and selfies with partner) and 60-item Hexaco Personality Inventory-Revised. Results showed that females, adolescents and not- exclusively heterosexuals posted more own selfies, and that adolescents posted also more group selfies and selfies with partner. Moreover lower Honesty/Humility, lower Conscientiousness, higher Emotionality and higher Extraversion significantly predict both own selfies and group selfies. Finally, only lower Honesty/Humility and higher Emotionality predict selfies with partner. Results suggested a common pattern of personality traits that can explain selfies behaviors according to literature on HEXACO model. Specifically, these findings enlightened that Honesty/Humility and Emotionality traits seem to be relevant in understanding selfies. People who post more selfies are lower in Honesty/Humility, showing a strong sense of self-importance and feeling superior. Moreover, they show higher Emotionality that is related to looking for social reinforcement on social networks. Only for own and group selfies, people high in Extraversion probably feel self-confident in groups, also in the online dimension, and low extraverted people probably posted less frequently because they feel uncomfortable being at the center of attention. Finally, people with high Conscientiousness spend less time online because they consider social networks as a distraction from their tasks. Thus, HEXACO model allows to better understand which personality traits can predict different kinds of selfies. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed

‘Watch the Birdie': The Star Economy, Social Media and The Celebrity Group Selfie

This work will explore some of the broader implications of celebrity group selfies, through the example of Ellen DeGeneres’ star-studded group shot, taken during the 2014 Academy Awards ceremony, Joan Collins 2014 Prince’s Trust Award selfie, just days after, and Collins’ subsequent ‘view from the other side’ tweet; exploring notions of authenticity, performance, intimacy, self-promotion, public visibility, identification, imitation, vicarious consumption and audience participation. Engaging with existing work upon celebrity tweeters, Twitter and other online fandom, photographic theory, star studies and, in particular, Bourdieu’s theories surrounding cultural capital, taste formation, and cultural distinctions, this work not only explores some of the reasons behind the frequently negative judgements of celebrity group selfies, but also seeks to identify some of the very real social functions and more personal gratifications, both for celebrity and fan, that the celebrity group selfie, as a communication and a self-promotional tool, may actually satisfy. More specifically, it is this paper’s contention that selfies offer an ostensibly unmediated, accessible and virtually instantaneous means of articulating and disseminating a coherent, identifiable, aspirational (yet bizarrely, also, seemingly ‘ordinary’) and eminently marketable star image, via a popular and up-to-date medium. With celebrity group selfies this is also the case, but here the photographer subject presents an image of themselves to the world, in relation to a specific group of peers (who themselves also function as signifiers and commodities); perpetuating the notion of a pantheon of star ‘gods’ and the myth of a coherent celebrity community; reinforcing the divide between ‘famouses’ and ‘normals’ and participants and observers; prompting an exponential rise in fan/public interest as more stars enter the equation and allowing the celebrity participants within the image to either borrow some of the greater ‘worth’, ‘status’ or cultural capital of other, more eminent, celebrity subjects also pictured or alternatively, lend their superior cultural capital to less successful celebrities within the image. As such, this work seeks to move beyond a hasty dismissal of such images, their subjects, and their audiences and instead, hypothesise a coherent set of reasons why the most-photographed individuals on the planet (not just film stars, but heads of state and religious leaders) might feasibly choose to create, appear in and/or disseminate such images (or, indeed, decline to participate as did Prince Charles in Joan Collins’ group shot) and why the public may find these images of such interest