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I talked with a friend about a phenomenon I see more often in recent family photos which is a mouth-only smile while the with rest of their face the subject app

I talked with a friend about a phenomenon I see more often in recent family photos which is a mouth-only smile while the with rest of their face the subject appears to be wishing they were somewhere else, or that they would like the camera-person to tell them whether they have broccoli in their teeth. My friend suggested (correctly, I think) that it's because when we were kids our parents weren't taking our pictures literally hundreds of times per day. It's not just that they're having their pictures taken, but that they're being asked to light up the room with a smile every time, and it's tiring. However, your comment made me wonder whether that uncanny, dead-eyed smile might become more normal or even something to strive for. I don't really think it'll happen but imagine a group of friends being like, "hey, Suzn, why's your smile so over-the-top all the time in our selfies?"

bovermyer 5y ago
I've discovered a weird but related phenomenon. At some point, I started consciously trying to true-smile (including the eyes, among other things) for all appropriate photos. After awhile, I realized that it was having a positive effect on my mood. I don't know if there's some study around that, but it appears that the process of trying to genuinely smile _created_ a positive mood, rather than resulting from one.
- prerok 5y ago
  This is a known phenomenon: https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/06/the-real-health-benefits-of-smiling-and-laughing/ https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/06/the-real-health-benef... Though, I do remember reading about a collection of studies that failed to reproduce and this was one of the hypotheses. Perhaps the difference is that you genuinely wanted to smile :)