Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer that question. They came up with some surprising answers. People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behavior connected to narcissism, the Syracuse researchers said. Narcissists are people who think very highly of themselves, especially how they look.

　　美国纽约雪城大学的研究人员试图回答这个问题。他们得出一些令人惊讶的答案。雪城大学研究人员称,人们发布自拍并使用编辑软件美化照片的行为，可能与自恋症有关。自恋症的人常高估自己，尤其是自己的相貌。

　　Ji Won Kim, a doctoral student at the university’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, worked on the study.

　　美国纽约雪城大学纽豪斯公共传播学院的博士生金志媛从事这项研究。

　　She said because social media can be superficial, it is a good place for people to “work towards satisfying their own vanity.”By superficial, she means social media is mostly used by people to share unimportant information about their lives -- not deeply personal issues.

　　她说社交媒体只是表象，是人们“满足自身虚荣心”的最佳场所。她说人们主要通过社交媒体来分享生活中的琐事，并不是深刻探讨个人问题。

　　There are other reasons, besides narcissism, that people post selfies， People who post group selfies show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group, the Syracuse University research found.

　　除了自恋，人们发布自拍还有其他原因。雪城大学的研究发现，人们发布集体自拍是为了满足自身受欢迎和合群的需要。

　　Other findings from the study include:

　　这项研究还有如下发现：

　　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.

　　男性和女性上传自拍的频率和修图的频率有很大的不同。但是男性比女性更想要展示自己的受欢迎程度。

　　The Newhouse School’s Associate Professor Makana Chock worked on the study.

　　纽豪斯学院的副教授马卡拉?乔克从事这项研究。

　　She said selfies should not be seen as completely negative. 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.

　　她表示自拍不应该看成是件完全消极的事情。她说有些人是受到了来自“同伴的压力”而发布自拍。有些人奉行这样一种观念，认为如果不发图片或者经历，事情就仿佛没有发生过一样。

　　Chock said posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years. On trips and special events, our parents and grandparents used cameras instead of phones to take photos.

　　乔克说，在社交媒体上发布自拍，与许多年前人们的做法其实并没有太多的不同。我们的祖辈和父辈用相机而不是手机来记录旅行和生活中的点点滴滴。

　　Before social media, people would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them.

　　社交媒体出现之前，人们会拿出照片向人们展示朋友和家人。你除了看这些照片，什么都做不了。

　　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.

　　如果你是个善解人意的人，你会对这些照片中的人大加赞赏，特别是要夸夸照片上的孩子和给你看照片的这个人。这不就是“点赞”的一种传统方式嘛。

　　On social media, it is a different experience.

　　而有了社交媒体，事情就大不一样了。

　　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.

　　人们可以自己决定要不要看朋友或者家人的照片——即使他们在Facebook的自拍上“点了赞”。

　　Using social media to post photos is pretty new. Facebook did not start until 2004. Instagram started in 2010. 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.”

　　在社交媒体上发布照片是近几年的新事物。Facebook直到2004年才问世。Instagram2010年问世。直到2013年，牛津英语词典才将“自拍”这个词添加到词典上。并为这个词作了解释：“人们给自己拍的照片。”

　　Here is how the Syracuse researchers did their study.

　　我们看雪城大学是如何进行这项研究的。

　　They questioned 260 people, aged 18 to 65, and almost evenly divided between men and women. 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.”

　　他们调查了260人，年龄在18岁到65岁之间，男女数目大致相同。为了判定是否自恋症，受访者会回答有关自恋症性格特征的问题。例如是否赞同以下论断“我喜欢成为人们关注的焦点”和“我喜欢控制他人。”

　　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.”

　　为了判定是否想受到欢迎，受访者会回答以下问题：“人们认为我受欢迎，这对我来说很重要”和“我在学校经常为得到人们的欢迎而做一些事情。”