The Philippines is known for a number of unusual achievements. Adding to this list, the Philippines has recently been named the “selfiest” country in the world.
Data sampling was done by saving pictures from Instagram across the world simultaneously for five days. This was done in two sets and the pictures saved were tagged “#selfie.”
Coming in first in the list was the Philippines’ Makati City, which included 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, Cebu City came in 9th, with 99 selfie-takers per 100,000. Baguio City also made it on the list, with 82 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.
Experts say that the result of this research is not at all surprising since Filipinos are found to have a natural narcissistic personality in them. In a study in 2011, it was revealed that 48% of Filipino men found themselves to be sexually attractive.
Famous writer Fransisco Sionil Jose also shares his account on Filipino narcissism, saying that “we [Filipinos] are great show-offs. Look at our women, how overdressed, over-coiffed they are, and Imelda epitomizes that extravagance. Look at our men, their manicured nails, their personal jewelry, their diamond rings. Yabang — that is what we are, and all that money expended on status symbols, on yabang. How much better if it were channeled into production. We are poor because our nationalism is inward-looking.”