Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer that question. They came up with some surprising answers.
纽约雪城大学的研究人员试图解答这一问题。他们得出了一些令人惊讶的答案。
People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behavior connected to narcissism, the Syracuse researchers said.
雪城大学的研究人员表示，发自拍并使用美图软件修图的人表现出了与自恋相关的行为。
Narcissists are people who think very highly of themselves, especially how they look.
自恋者是指对自己评价非常高的人，尤其是在外表方面。
Ji Won Kim, a doctoral student at the university's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, worked on the study. She said because social media can be superficial, it is a good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own vanity."
Ji Won Kim是雪城大学萨缪尔·纽豪斯公共传播学院的博士生，她从事了这项研究。她说，因为社交媒体非常肤浅，它是人们“努力满足自己虚荣心”的好地方。
By superficial, she means social media is mostly used by people to share unimportant information about their lives -- not deeply personal issues.
她说的肤浅是指社交媒体主要被人们用于分享生活中一些不重要的信息，而不是深刻的个人问题。
There are other reasons, besides narcissism, that people post selfies.
除了自恋之外，人们发自拍还有其它原因。
People who post group selfies show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group, the Syracuse University research found.
雪城大学的这项研究发现，发集体自拍的人表现出了对人气的需求和对属于某个集体的需要。
Other findings from the study include:
这项研究获得的其它研究结果还包括：
There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software. But men who post selfies showed more of a need to be seen as popular than women who posted selfies.
男性和女性发自拍的频率以及使用美图软件的频率并没有很大的区别。但是发自拍的男性比女性更多地表现出希望被视为受欢迎的需求。
The Newhouse School's Associate Professor Makana Chock worked on the study. She said selfies should not be seen as completely negative.
纽豪斯公共传播学院的副教授Makana Chock从事了这项研究。她说，自拍不应该完全被视为消极的。
She said some people feel "peer pressure" to post selfies. And some follow the popular belief that if there is no picture of an event or experience, it did not really happen.
她说，有些人受到“同侪压力”才发自拍。还有一些人效仿了普遍观点，认为无图无真相。
Chock said posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years.
Chock表示，在社交媒体上发自拍跟人们多年来的所作所为并无区别。
On trips and special events, our parents and grandparents used cameras instead of phones to take photos. Before social media, people would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them.
在旅行和特别活动中，我们的父母和祖父母使用相机拍照而不是手机。在社交媒体之前，人们会带回照片来展示亲朋好友。你别无选择，只能看照片。
If you are a nice person, you commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos. That was the old way of "clicking" like.
如果你是一个友好的人，你会说照片中每个人都很好看，尤其是儿童以及展示照片的人。这就是老版的点赞。
On social media, it is a different experience. People can decide not to look at photos of their friends and family -- even if they click "like" or even "love" under the Facebook selfie.
在社交媒体上就是另一种的体验。人们可以选择不看亲朋好友的照片，即使他们在Facebook网站的自拍下点了“喜欢”甚至“超爱。”
Using social media to post photos is pretty new. Facebook did not start until 2004. Instagram started in 2010.
使用社交媒体发布照片是非常新鲜的事物。直到2004年才有Facebook，直到2010年才有Instagram。
It was not until 2013 that the Oxford English language dictionary added the term "selfies." It defined selfie as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself."
直到2013年，牛津英语词典才添加了自拍一词，并定义自拍为“给自己拍的照片。”
Here is how the Syracuse researchers did their study.
以下是雪城大学研究人员的研究办法。
They questioned 260 people, aged 18 to 65, and almost evenly divided between men and women.
他们调查了260位年龄在18岁到65岁的人士，并且男女人数几乎相同。
To determine narcissism, people were asked if they agreed with personality traits connected to narcissism. For example, people were asked if they agreed with statements such as, "I like to be the center of attention" and "I like having authority over people."
为了查明自恋，人们被问及是否认同一些跟自恋相关的个性品质。例如，人们被问及是否认同一些类似“我喜欢成为关注焦点”或“我喜欢对人有威信”这类表态。
To determine if those in the study had a need to be seen as popular, people were asked if they agreed with these statements: "It's important that people think I'm popular" and "I often do things just to be popular with people at school."
要查明研究中的这些调查对象是否存在被视为受欢迎的需求，研究人员会问他们是否认同这类表态：“人们认为我受欢迎是很重要的”以及“我做事只是为了取悦学校里的人。”