Why are poses so important? One reason is the phenomena known as the “boring photos lowers cuteness” effect. Consider the photos of He Jing shown below (known as momojing on MOKO). Notice how at the start she looks excruciatingly cute, but as you progress through these pose-lacking photos, it begins to get a bit boring. Eventually, you might even find her downright repulsive. It’s not until she starts doing some poses at the end that it starts getting interesting again and cuteness levels begin to rise.

I find this problem to be particularly noticeable while scanning through a large amount of photos. After a while, it can get really tedious if people don’t do something interesting.

So remember, don’t just smile, strike a pose!