'Dubsmash' can reduce stress

The "Dubsmash" video application, which is now a craze among netizens on Facebook and Instagram, is seen as a platform to reduce stress.

A psychiatric consultant, Associate Professor Dr Muhammad Muhsin Ahmad Zahari said the application enabled smartphone users to lip-synch over their favourite songs, speeches or film quotes and then share the results online.

"It has become a norm for the Malaysian society to share their happy moments with other people through the social media network.

"This dubsmash video become more viral during festivals that there are also people giving speeches using the application," he said when contacted by Bernama.

However, the lecturer at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Universiti Malaya, said individuals who uploaded more than three video recordings a day could be considered a 'social phobia'.

"It cannot be denied that there are some dubsmash fans who are actually 'social phobia' where they are afraid and feel uncomfortable to socialise, so they opt for the one way direction of socialising which is uploading video recordings of themselves," he added.

Meanwhile, head of the Social Work Programme, Centre of Psychological Studies and Human Development, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Dr Mohd Suhaimi Mohamad said the dubsmash fever could produce positive effects on its fans.

"Through the dubsmash video, they can create a strong social chain as they may get many 'like' and 'followers' and this helps them to have many friends.

"The dubsmash fans also have 'active minds' because they are constantly thinking of ways to produce better video," he added.

He said the application also helped to build the confidence of it users as only those with confidence would dare share their own video with others.

However, he advised dubsmash fans to exercise moderation and not to an extent of becoming addicted to the application.

A dubsmash fan, Siti Neira Amirul, 19, said producing videos through the application had become her latest hobby.

"I used to cycle, until the past few months when I came to know about dubsmash and I now spend my time producing dubsmash video, but I seldom upload them on the social media," she said.

Another fan, R.Thineswaran said she used dubsmash to improve her talent in acting and singing.