A random dozen, relevant, actual quotes…
“Sending my selfie to NASA, because I’m a star.”
“I don’t take selfies all the time. I just do it once and a while everyday.”
“Real men don’t take selfies.”
“Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s an Instagram filter.”
“I remember when Selfies where just called no one else.”
“A selfie day keeps insecurities away!”
“Twerking and selfie have just been added to the dictionary. Future and optimism have now been removed.”
“The ‘I’m doing something fun with a famous tourist landmark’ selfie (aka travelfie)”
“The best selfies are the ones that aren’t.”
“If I send you ugly selfies, our friendship is real.”
“Teenager Post #14606: For every good selfie there are 47 failed ones.”
“I haven’t taken a selfie for a while, but I am still very cute just to keep you updated.”
A “selfie” is a photograph one takes of oneself, typically with a smart phone, and then uploaded to a social media site. Millions of selfies are taken daily.
Just to play with the data a little (and not spending too much time attempting to comprehend who and why someone actually keeps track of said subject), note that the average millennial is expected to take 25,700 selfies in his or her lifetime, and now, more people die annually taking selfies than in shark attacks.
It’s a crazy phenomena — all these pictures of “me.”
Elsa Godart, a renowned French psychoanalyst and philosopher, in her 2018 book, “I Selfie Therefore I Am” — writes about the inherent contradiction of the selfie.
At the heart of the selfie, Godart explains, is a contradiction. “What may look like straight-forward narcissism can often be insecurity and a craving for reassurance: a reassurance that you can only ever get from ‘likes.’”
I suppose the key phrase there is “what may look like.”
“What may look like…”
“What may look like” does not equate to what actually is.
A selfie is a singular photograph, snapped at a singular moment in time. We see the pics. We form opinions. We judge the narcissism or whatever else we seemingly glean from the solitary photo.
But a solitary photo does not make an album.
A single image does not tell an entire story.
Where are we crafting entire narratives based on singular shots?
… singular angles?
… singular moments in time?
My sense is a selfie society doesn’t always provide an accurate perspective.
Respectfully…
AR