Happy! Mad. Maybe a little sad. Don’t say it with words, say it with a selfie. In a world of increased pointless over sharing (and let’s face it narcissism,) the selfie has become a key method of visual communication. The explosion of Instagram and the ease of taking pictures with your phone have (un)fortunately made the it easier than ever to share your puss with the world.

“Selfie” is no longer just internet slang, after its recent induction by Miriam Webster in the dictionary it is officially a real word. While this move may add some legitimacy to an “art form” that continues to gain momentum, some are wondering when will it end. Songs like the ChainSmokers’ YouTube sensation, #Selfie, poke fun at selfie-taking and how ridiculous it can be. In the age of the selfie, we’re not sure whether to laugh or cry.

It may seem like the taking selfies is all fun and games, but there is a dark side with very serious fallouts ranging from silly to quite serious. We will explore silly selfie phenomena in our poll at the bottom (take it or we will start posting pictures of our sparrow faces – the sequel to the dreaded duck face! Believe us, they will haunt you!)

The selfie may be just starting to spiral out of control with people “dying” to achieve the perfect picture. Teen Danny Bowman nearly killed himself over the need to take a great selfie. Topping out at taking 200 selfies a day searching for the ‘perfect’ pic, he became suicidal when elusive perfection could not be achieved.

We Stalecake-ians know why it can be so hard to achieve that “perfect” selfie. Apparently, your brain has a lot to do with how you interpret your selfie image. It can be why a perfectly fine selfie that would look weird to the pic taker might look absolutely fine to someone else. According to this article:

Whether or not a selfie is reversed after being shot is a major factor. If you’ve used multiple mobile apps to take pictures of yourself, you’ve probably noticed that some, like Snapchat, record your likeness as it would appear in a mirror; others, like group-messaging app GroupMe, flip the image horizontally and save your selfie the way others would see you—and this version can be jarring to look at.

Beyond the mirror version, we are also more likely to recognize the most attractive version of ourselves. It’s almost comforting that EVERYONE is a little vain.