Men are taking twice as many selfies as women

Men are taking nearly double the amount of selfies per week as women, and sharing them on social media.

That’s according to the findings of a survey into the self portrait photography craze by smartphone giant HTC.

The research asked 2000 British men and women aged 18 to 30 about their selfie habits, and found that on average men posted 3 selfies a week as opposed to the 1.6 women of the same age averaged. Over a third of men surveyed said they shared more than five a week.

When asked what prompted them to take the images made famous by the likes of Kim Kardashian, a quarter of men said they shared selfies in order to make an ex or a partner jealous. One in 10 said it was to make themselves look more desirable.

In comparison, half the women asked said they took selfies to make others jealous, while only 7% took pictures to make themselves more appear more desirable.

HTC’s Ben Walsh said: ”The selfie trend exploded in 2014 and shows no signs of slowing down. With social networks such as Facebook and Instagram as well as dating apps growing in popularity, having the best possible photos of ourselves is now more important than ever.”

The term “selfie” was first used in a forum post on an Australian website in 2002, but has since grown exponentially in popularity. HTC launched the Desire Eye smartphone at the end of 2014, which has a 13-megapixel front-facing camera designed specifically for selfies. Other smartphone manufacturers are also beginning to do the same.

The survey found that men are also taking more photos of their bodies than women, with 76% of male selfie shots being of the body, compared to 45% of women’s. Women are more likely to share facial selfies (55%), while 20% of male shots are of their chest, followed by 17% of their torso or six-pack.

According to the stats, the 11 million 18-30s in Britain are posting more than a billion selfies on social media each year. With the craze driven by social image apps like Snapchat, 6% of women said they had shared a photo of their backside, known as a belfie.

And down the years the great and good have been involved in the odd selfie.