"Me, my selfie and I" : A qualitative study of reasons, experiences andbeliefs connected to human computer interaction in the context of selfieculture.

Abstract: This research paper illustrates the social effects of social media and selfie posting on older age generations. These generational groups are called “Baby-boomers” and “Baby-busts” and are born before the existence of Internet and social media and therefore have had to adapt to the online context. The goal of this study is to make comparison between younger and older generations in terms of experiences, beliefs and feelings they encounter when posting and observing self-photos.  By using Semi-structured Qualitative interviews, which is set up as an interview guide based on questions designed to give open ended answers, we had the possibility to obtain a deeper understanding of the topic studied. This study has shown different perspectives of how generations born before the Internet era have adapted to social platforms and how they understood the selfie culture. Results identified have proven older age generations have higher level of self-esteem and prefer posting real and honest selfies, whereas the younger ones are interested in their looks and appearance on social media and they value their popularity by the number of likes received for their self-photos. As we discovered that likes and followers have no value for participants in our study, we concluded there is no reason like popularity seeking beneath their selfie posting habits. The target group in this study is instead using social media accounts as a source of inspiration, communication channel or a marketing tool for their professional life.