Do you love a good selfie? Marisa Scott talks celeb snaps, hashtags and a little bit of selfie history.
The Selfie: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” This is the dictionary definition for ‘selfie’. Yes, the word ‘selfie’ is now in the dictionary and was The Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2013.
Like it or loathe it the ‘selfie’ is everywhere. A worldwide modern craze adopted by celebrities and the wider population alike. Ellen DeGeneres has done it, Barak Obama has done it and Cancer Research UK has done. But is this really a new phenomenon or has it existed a rather long time?
Way before the age of smartphones and Instagram Van Gogh painted dozens of self-portraits in the late 1800’s and Andy Warhol also created a number of self-portrait pieces through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. In fact, the idea of capturing oneself is in no way new with the self-portrait actually dating back as far as Ancient Egypt. In terms of photographic ‘selfies’ the first ever photographic self-portrait is considered to be that of Robert Cornelius in 1839 back when cameras were still very new.
Kim Kardashian is the biggest ambassador of the selfie.
But the difference is now that the selfie has become an everyday thing, just a click of your phone away with a whole range of social networks just begging you to upload your next ‘selfie’ pose. This could be seen as a good thing, another technological advancement that means we can show ours friends what we are doing wherever we are in the world. The ‘selfie’ has even been used in the recent Cancer Research no make-up selfie nominations which went viral, simultaneously raising awareness and money.
But is our selfie obsession another technical fad? Is it an excuse for narcissists to seek other’s attention? We now live in a self-obsessed society where everybody wants to be noticed and the selfie gives us this instant satisfaction. But perhaps it’s not even as clean cut as this. Maybe the selfie is another factor in today’s world where we are obsessed with editing ourselves. As a society we are becoming more comfortable behind a computer screen or a phone screen than face to face. We are so self-conscious and unsure of ourselves that we use selfies to show our faces to the world the way we want to be seen. In many cases isn’t it true that the selfie is an attempt to show a more confident, attractive you Is the ‘selfie’ a desperate attempt to be accepted, and in many cases, praised for your looks?
Miley loves a good pout
The biggest question is – where can the selfie go from here? Well unfortunately for the selfie haters out there it seems that its popularity is only set to grow with over 2 million #selfies being posted to Instagram daily. But what’s your opinion? Is it all just a bit of fun or a depressing display of our vanity? Tweet us @amormagazineuk
Words: Marisa Scott.
