Life

These Cities Take The Most Selfies

by Eliza Castile

April 29, 2015

When you think of selfies, two things types of people come to mind: the various and sundry members of the Kardashian clan, and young folks. Considering that places like New York and California have both of those in abundance, you’d think that the state capitals that take the most selfies would be located on either side of the country. Such logic has no place in the world of selfies, however, because according to a survey from "selfie social network" ON.com, the cities where people spend the most time using the forward-facing cameras on their phones aren't where you'd expect.The selfie has been having a bit of a moment over the past few years, ever since the first #selfie popped up on Instagram in 2011. In 2013, it was named Oxford Dictionary's word of the year, much to the Internet's dismay, and they have become so ubiquitous that everyone from Miley Cyrus to your aunt who lives in Tennessee has tried it at least once. Despite the numerous selfies taken by your parents that are slowly taking up your newsfeed, however, the selfie is generally associated with young, trendy urbanites who live in big cities like New York and Los Angeles. According to ON.com's survey, though, we might need to rethink that assumption. The top five state capitols in the United States for selfie-taking are as follows:

Santa Fe, New Mexico: 6.94 selfies per user
Topeka, Kansas: 5.83 selfies per user
Springfield, Illinois: 5.65 selfies per user
Jackson, Mississippi: 5.63 selfies per user
Lansing, Michigan: 5.61 selfies per user

Even the team at ON.com were surprised by the results. "For obvious reasons, our team believed that cities in New York and California would lead the way in most selfies taken, but after we pulled the data we realized that simply wasn’t the case," ON.com's CTO Kevin Deegan said in a statement. "We can now see that the recent selfie takeover has accrued in every corner of the country."

It's important to note that the survey looked at state capitals, so the data doesn't include places like New York City or San Francisco. Still, Santa Fe has some serious selfie game — seven selfies per user? It must be all that sunny weather, because if there's one rule in the art of the modern self-portrait, it's that good lighting is a must. Now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do today — but first, let me take a selfie.

Image: Giphy