The Selfie Chronicles: Why did I Just Do That?

“There is a primal human urge to stand outside of ourselves and look at ourselves “says Clive Thompson, a technology writer and the author of the new book Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better.

In retrospect, most people would want to know how they are in the eyes of their spectators. And what better way to do that than to snap a few? With people taking snapshots of themselves, from the Obama girls to the famous Oscar selfies certainly no secret that the phenomenon has taken over society, and you rarely meet a person that has not taken a selfie or two.

A selfie has been defined as a self-portrait photograpy, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. These selfies are often shared on social network services such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They are often casual, and are typically taken either with a camera held at arm’s length or in a mirror.

The action had grown from a viral trend on the internet, to becoming a part of our norm over the years. Selfies have wiggled their way as a part of our modern culture over the years, and we engage in it without any real thought because of the fact that everyone else does it.

But selfies aren’t all that new to our society. Self-portraits became famous during the middle ages. The original self-portrait apparently dates back to 10th century England when St. Dunstand, Archbishop of Cantebury, created a self-portrait of himself worshipping Jesus.

Over the years, self-portraits have evolved to becoming symbol of the person’s status and importance. Selfies are just that, with a twist of modern technology. And whether it’s the Mona Lisa’s famous smile, or Kim Kardashian’s selfie book, the fact of the matter is that it’s all about control.

“We all like the idea of being in control of our image and getting attention, being noticed, being a part of culture.” Dr. Terri Apter, a psychology lecturer at Cambridge University, comments.

“People are wrestling with how they appear to the rest of the world.” Mr. Thompson said. It is true that we are social creatures and selfies are a way for us to control the way our image is projected to the rest of the world.

The notorious digital self-portraits are not just for us sharing ourselves, it’s also a way for us to help define ourselves. They say that it’s better to take your own photo that to make someone else take your photo because you can make it better. This statement implies the want to control the projected image we put out. In striving for the ‘better’ image, we might engage in countless tries just to get the ‘perfect selfie’.

This is heightened by the “culture of celebrity” or society has. Selfies celebrates the regular people. You don’t have to be an A-List star or a model to snap a few photos of yourself.

People have their different reasons to take photos of themselves. Some do it for the fun of it. Others do it so that their friends know they attended some lavish event. How about you? Why do you take selfies?

 

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