Selfie
[sel-fee]
Noun, informal.
- “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media”
Designated Word of the Year 2013, by Oxford Dictionaries, “selfies” have taken center stage on social media, occupying space in our timelines and stealing away the photographer’s precious time. It’s extremely rare to upload the very first selfie you take of yourself; it is more likely that you’ll spend a while figuring out which photo presents your best angle, the effect that suits you well and in what side your hair looks better.
Oxford Dictionaries editors conclude that the selfie was originated by an Australian man in 2002, who used the word to describe a self-portrait picture taken while drunk at a 21st birthday party. But it wasn’t until 2013 that it became a big trend.
There are a wide reasons and theories of this phenomenon, The selfie phenomenon is a new study that has riveted psychology and media experts. Mark R. Leary, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, indicates that “[…]by posting selfies, people can keep themselves in other people’s minds[…]”. They are a work of “self-promotion” in which you show the best of yourself, just like an ad work. Karen Nelson-Field, Senior Research Associate of University of South Australia collaborates to this saying that: “…Selfies provide an opportunity to position ourselves (often against our competitors) to gain recognition, support and ultimately interaction from the targeted social circle…”.
Others concluded that selfies are an expression of pure banality. They understand these auto-portraits have few or no major elements, most of them include a person’s face positioned in the middle of “nothing”. Pamela B. Rutledge, Ph.D. declares in Positively Media that “With selfies, we don’t have anything to really connect it to. The closest we can come is those county fair photo booths that deliver a strip of four consecutive shots.” Psychology professor at University of Puerto Rico, Nicole Vélez Agosto, addresses the narcissistic element by stating that human beings were already narcissists before the internet; selfies are “just another way of expressing it”. She also mentions that these types of self-portraits have turned into the protagonists of our profiles. Before them, people chatted and describe themselves textually; nowadays we have photos to fill up this space. “Selfies not only claims a photo, they also claim the moment in which you take it, the technology you used and even the place where you were”, concluded Vélez Agosto.
Statistics
A team of specialists in media area gather to investigate the selfie phenomenon using theoretic, artistic and quantitative methods. They analyzed five cities across the world: New York, Moscow, Berlin, Bangkok and Sao Paulo. The results were quite fascinating and thought-provoking. For example, in terms of emotions they concluded Bangkok and Sao Paulo smiled more often than Moscow, who was, according to the studies, the least “happy”. Women win at this selfie game. More than 50% in every city were females. In Moscow only 18% of the examined selfies were males. Peculiarly, ladies reduce their selfie game at the time they reach age 40. Girls, wrinkles and flaws can be beautiful too!
Out of control
This selfie culture has established some bizarre trends you need to know:
Sellotape selfie
Selfies with homeless people
Funeral Selfies
Crying selfies
If you find yourself near Santurce you can check out ADAL’s exhibition “I Was a Schizophrenic Mambo Dancer for the FBI/ Go F*ck Your Selfie” at Roberto Paradise art gallery. You will encounter a variety of selfportraits that are trying to inquire the latent narcissism in the selfie culture. Click here for more information on the exhibition.
Sources:
http://www.academia.edu/6626658/SOCIAL_RESEARCH_AND_PROJECTS_ON_SELFIE
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/30/in_defense_of_funeral_selfies/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney/the-7-types-of-crying-selfies-youve-…