From what I see and gather, this is universal. The big difference in China is I see people using their own "selfie" as their mobile phone/computer wallpaper and even printing their own picture out, framing it, and having it on their work desks. Really, I find the post-80s and recent generation to be entirely self-absorbed and filled with a sense of entitlement (my favorite b*tch about young people today. My goodness! I've turned into my father! Aaaaaaaaah!)

Agree - selfies are totally lame.  Although I understand the view is that pictures without people you know in them are considered boring.  I can kinda get that because people do like watching people - hence the success of terrible reality shows.  But it'll never be to my taste and does reek of self-obsession.

Since my first days in China I have been puzzled by the "duck-face" self pic that so many young girls take here. Do they really think they are cute in those silly poses?

It's a sign of emptiness.

People with no personal interests take selfies because they have nothing meaningful to think or talk about. They want other people to be interested, but without possessing qualities worthy of attention. Shallow, stupid, insecure western teenage girls do this too.

I can't imagine ever being bored or vapid enough to do this.

Yeah I'm not sure why either...i think it's because they have a lot of time on their hands..not much on their mind. 

Chinese women take getting pictures seriously and they like having their pictures taken.

I once went out with a young girl.  She was gorgeous and always taking selfies.  I had never seen so many.  I admit, I hated the idea (It's a sign of vanity), but her beauty was as such that I never tired of looking at them.  She freely admited to me that there was nothing going on in her head.  She literally thought of nothing!  Her words.  Every girl I've met with vanity issues have nothing up top and I usually run from them.  She was a notable exception.

vanity narcism nothing of worth going one with their lives. 

It is because Chinese girls are the most beautiful in the world, and they need to show everybody.

This is not just a Chinese thing, though. Several Asian countries have this phenomenon. Also, they have many followers on Facebook. In Korea, they are called "ulzzang" and some of them are almost like minor celebrities. I mean, is it really so bad to follow someone on Facebook just because they are good looking? The only thing I don't get is taking basically the same photo many times with slight variations and actually posting that online. At least have some variety.

more and more people seem to be experiencing life though either a camera lens or their phone.

Seems like an Asian thing. Although whenever I log onto my Facebook these days I'm flooded with status updates and pictures of old school friends doing the same thing. We live in the age of materliasm.

I have 250+ contacts on Facebook, and rarely see selfies.

I have 10 contacts on WeChat, and my news feed is filled mostly with selfies.

On the bright side, I don't miss my ex one bit, nor regret breaking up with her in the slightest. Seeing photos of her doing the duck face with the exact same position and angle every single time a fucking million times makes me wonder how on earth I could have possibly fallen in love with someone that empty. Same thing for the photos of every single one of her meals.

It makes me so angry inside. The duck face looks so fucking stupid. It's not even close to ever being sexy or cute.

You have no idea how hard I have to try not to post anything saying "stop it you look retarded", since I don't want to add salt to the injury.

But to answer your question, I guess the reason is self-obsession, a huge craving for attention due to a low self-esteem and insecurity, as well as a boring, empty life.

If any of you female users here actually does the duck face thing, please, for the sake of femininity, beauty, and mankind in general: stop it.

Mr_Spoon hit it on the head perfectly. 

"But to answer your question, I guess the reason is self-obsession, a huge craving for attention due to a low self-esteem and insecurity, as well as a boring, empty life."

I feel this is especially prevalent in Asia because there is less pressure on women to partake in society in some meaningful way - so it's ok that they just mess around and post things like this describing how bland their lives are. I feel China is especially crazy about this though, since I lived in Japan for 3 years and never really saw this level of inane behaviour...

Apologies if that came off a little irately hehe, I just have been seeing my 50-year old Chinese professor posting ridiculous selfies of herself hourly and it's hard to hide my disdain at her vanity and lack of dignity sometimes...

it's a universal thing since there is this word "selfie"

here is a link about how selfies became a global phenomenon

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/14/how-selfies-became-a-global-phenomenon

On the plane back from Europe to China the other day, I sat next to a woman, probably in her 40ies r early 50ies. Prior to take off she took a series of selfies. Then she struggled to turn off her phone when it was announced to do so. When it was allowed again, she took more selfies. After the first in flight meal was served, even more, and later on in the flight even more. 

The amazing thing was that she was wearing a hooded jacket. Not once for any of the selfies did she remove the hood. She did remove the hood for eating. 

Must be great for her family to see the pictures when she is back.

This is one of me in the plane

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here is one of me smoking weed in Amsterdam,

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oh, and here is a picture of a bird I took the day I got my phone. 

Maybe they haven't figured out yet how to post just text without the need of posting a picture along with it? I'm curious what your colleagues might say if you ask about it. Girls here oftentimes post pictures that are irrelevant to their accompanying texts.So I'm assuming they just enjoy sharing every bit of expression on their faces and the texts are supposed to  show others they're not being narcissistic.

Selfies, their meals, their alcohol and when they're on IV drip. That's wechat moments summed up!

Even my foreign friends on weixin take selfies now. Ugh. >_<