By Ruth Hunter-Hill
Everyone loves a selfie, right? I’ve seen stories on the news about people actually losing their lives – and endangering the lives of others – trying to get the perfect selfie. One person was mauled by a tiger when trying to get a selfie; in Mumbai, a man fell to his death attempting to get the perfect selfie on a tall building. People are obsessed with getting a shot of their image in front of something or someone amazing – then posting it on social media.
I confess as I pondered where I stood on the selfie culture issue for this article, I struggled to find an upside!
Recently, my son spent time in Barcelona, Spain. He learned pretty quickly that there was virtually no selfie culture there! In fact, the locals expressed disdain at being included in photos of any kind. His photos captured the beauty of Barcelona, and the few that included people – including selfies – were typically with other visiting Americans or tourists from elsewhere! And he was always careful to ask permission before snapping a shot of any kind.
Selfies aren’t that old and were first tagged as #selfie on Flickr in 2004, as reported by The Guardian. But the popularity exploded in 2013, according to HuffPost. So, we fast forward to 2020, and we’ve got selfies on steroids in a relatively short time!
From my perspective, the upside of the selfie culture is that it embraces the present and makes an amazing memory. Like with most photos, we want to capture a precious moment so we can relive it – and it’s an even better memory if our image is in it!
What can sometimes taint the upside is motive. Not so much the motive behind taking the picture, but the motive(s) behind posting the shot on social media. Why do we do that?
To boost our self-esteem? Being present in that amazing picture for that special occasion should be a pretty good boost already! Be careful that you’re not posting to see how many superficial “likes” you can get. If you’re posting for likes, maybe you should ask yourself why that’s so important to you…
To target someone specific in an unkind way? Shame on you…enough said!
Selfies are not inherently bad! Like with so many things in life, the reasons for what we do are important. Being true to ourselves about where we post those shots and why is the way to always enjoy the upside of the selfie culture.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teens-and-selfies_b_4218454
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/14/how-selfies-became-a-global-phenomenon
