Selfie: (n) informal

A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.

Oxford English Dictionary

The Selfie. It is an ever present aspect of life on the modern Internet. Yet, despite its ubiquitous presence, the selfie can evoke an incredible slew of emotions. Some consider it to be the hallmark of a generation — millennials are often considered vain and narcissistic for participating in selfie culture. Others, conversely, consider the Selfie to be an act of self expression. Taking it one step further, some in the pro-selfie camp consider this phenomenon a way to insert themselves into an artistic space. Some might even consider selfies a revolutionary act occurring in a society that discourages self-love or confidence. Still, in order to understand the selfie and its place in Internet culture, one must understand it’s history in the context of a western civilization.

The concept of the selfie is not an old one. People have been engaging in self-portraiture for as long as humans have been able to produce their own images, whether that be with paint, pencil, or some other medium. If we assume that a selfie is required to be taken with a camera, however, the birth of the selfie occurred much later in the timeline of human history. According to The Public Domain Review, the first selfie was taken “in 1839 by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius.” The origin of the word selfie, however, is unclear. Still, without a definite example of the first use of the word selfie, we are able to pinpoint the exact time in which it was accepted as an official part of the English language. According to the same article in The Public Domain Review, selfie was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. So, in light of its recent induction into the English language, the selfie phenomenon faces its first challenge: establishing its connotation.

What does it mean to take a selfie? Sure, we know that it is a photograph taken of the self with a camera device that is then shared on social media. But what is the selfie’s connotation? What idea or feeling does the word invoke? There seem to be two warring sides: those that believe the selfie to be indicative of a selfish and narcissistic generation, and those that believe the selfie to be an act of self-expressions as valid and as important as any other. There is, of course, a third and neutral camp — one that does not actively agree with either of the other two parties. Still, the main aggression takes place between those that are anti and pro selfie.

While I am not necessarily pro-selfie (I consider it a participation in harmful self-editing, but that is an argument for another day), I adamantly disagree with many of the arguments proposed by the anti-selfie camp. Some might disagree with my use of the words anti and pro ascribed to a selfie argument due to those words’ political connotations, but they fail to realize just how political the selfie can be. I propose two arguments: criticism of the selfie is often rooted in ageism, and that it is also rooted in sexism.

First off: ageism. This is often the first problem with selfie criticism that one might mention. Often, the selfie is criticized for being the mark of a narcissistic generation.

Millennials, also known as the “me me me” generation even though the baby boomers where the ones for whom the term was first coined, are apparently riddled with narcissistic tendencies. According to the New York Times, “The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health; 58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982.”

Now, I’m not going to argue with statistics. While this article is rife with problematic language (like the gem, ghetto-fabulous), it still presents cold, hard, facts. It is up to us, as educated individuals, however, to interpret facts and attempt to uncover and outside reason why this data might have been collected. If not, then the contents of The Bell Curve might be taken as fact without any further criticism or analysis.

So, it is our duty to interpret the data provided to us in a way that assumes the influence of outside forces that might have affected the results. According to the previously mentioned New York Times article, Millennials have grown up in a world of “the quantified self . ” This is an era in which every aspect of our lives can be reduced to a data point — a number on our Fitbits, the number of likes on a Facebook post. With this data presented, I ask the following question: who created this world? Baby boomers place the blame on a generation that is not responsible for its societal environment. Millennials, who did not create the world that they live in, contribute to their environment in the only language they know how, by producing content that further commodifies the self. Essentially, baby boomers have nothing to stand on—They made millennials the way they are.

Second off: Sexism. This is a more specific complaint against those that think badly of selfies. Often, sexism is present in varied contexts, and often it intersects with internet racism or transphobia. When a woman, or some one feminine-presenting, posts a selfie on the internet, criticism of this act is often specific to their gender or gender performance. When a cisgender woman posts a selfie, she can be slandered for “seeking attention.” In more extreme cases, they can even be threatened with rape or murder. If a person is transgender, a person of color, and/or any other marginalized identity, the threats and ridicule might get more frequent and even more specific. Because of this reality, I am hesitant to give credence to any argument against the selfie since most of those arguments are rooted in perceived concepts of vanity, with no attempt to question the circumstances in which “vanity” might have been fostered.

Selfies have become a huge part of our lives, though it may not seem like it. We need to let people know what we look like, what we are doing, who we are with. I can’t attest to the reason, but I know that this is the world we live in. I know that this is the world that was created for us and that we are slowly changing in turn. The selfie now has a definition in the Oxford English Dictionary. We need to be responsible with it just like any other word in the English language. What meaning will we apply to it? Will we allow ourselves to give it a prejudiced connotation? I hope not.