The phrase, “want to take a selfie,” is as normal in daily American culture as drinking coffee every morning. You know you take a lot of photos on your phone, but you’ve probably never tracked just how many. A new study by Intel and Lineage Labs examines exactly how often we snap pics — and how many of those are selfies. Oh boy.
On any given day, nearly half of Americans take at least one photo. Among those of us who consider ourselves regular photo-takers, the average is five photos per day. This equates to at least 1,825 new photos on your phone each year — but for the 17% of us who take the same photo four or more times in an attempt to get the perfect shot, that number could be significantly higher.
Surprisingly, only 6% of photos taken in the United Sates are selfies, a statistic that can only be explained by the absurd number of photos people take of their pets and food each day. According to the study, the phone-photo numbers actually break down thusly:
- 29% are of friends and family
- 20% are vacation- or travel-related
- 19% are of kids
- 13% are of pets.
But, for the 18-to-24-year-old set, 16% of photos taken are selfies — an average of six photos per day.
Those photos don’t just sit on our phones (well, not all of them). The study found that 42% of Americans share their photos on Facebook, while 12% do so on Instagram. Considering Facebook’s over 1.3 billion global active users (compared to Instagram’s 400 million), that stat makes sense. The 18-to-24 age group shares the most often and the most diversely:
- 53% of their photos are shared to Facebook
- 31% to Instagram, 25% on Snapchat
- 15% on Twitter
Americans number-one reason for unfollowing someone? Excessive selfies tops the list, followed by too many political, religious, or food photos.
How does your selfie habit compare to that of the “average” American?
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