WHEN I was a girl back in the Dark Ages vanity was discouraged and modesty valued.

In 2015, all that has changed. With the advent of the Selfie, vanity is not only encouraged it’s vital. And no-one thinks modesty is any use. Just ask Rhianna.

Now, new research by the Dove Self-Esteem Project reveals that posting regular selfies online – and taking particular care to ensure that you look good in your photo – is part of a problem linked to mental health problems like depression and body dysmorphia where you hate how you look.

The use of social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has never been higher. In fact, half of all 13 to 23-year-old women are on it “all the time”, posting at least one selfie a day.

The real problem, though, is the amount of approval they need from these pictures. If they don’t get enough “likes”, then the world crashes around them.

While at first young girls’ interaction on social media is largely positive, with 70 per cent of girls aged 13 to 17 feeling they can express their true selves online, this apparently changes as they get older and become more aware of how they look.

These worrying statistics have led Dove to launch a campaign called “No Likes Needed” to encourage young women to value themselves rather than have their self-worth dictated by social media.

There is definitely pressure on young girls to compare themselves in the pubic marketplace of social media by posting selfies and gaining “likes.” Sadly, this is pointless vanity, a counterfeit way of measuring anyone’s value. Yet, they put themselves through this regularly because it’s what everyone else is doing: peer pressure.

They look at today’s so-called perfect faces and bodies, like that strange celebrity Kim Kardashian, and strive to look like that - failing to spot quite often just how pretty they are and what genuine physical attributes they have.

Worse, this surface valuation fails to take into account their intelligence and character – far better ways to measure the real worth of anyone.

I guess the media is mostly to blame for elevating shallow icons rather than more worthwhile females when there are still plenty of the latter around.

The only way to promote proper values once more is to value the genuine article rather than the counterfeit. And that’s up to all of us to insist on.