Dawn of the #Selfie Era: An Obsession Or A Form Of Self Expression?

It starts with a certain angle: a smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a back-lit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out.

The pose is important. Knowing self-awareness is conveyed by the slight raise of an eyebrow, the sideways smile that says you’re not taking it too seriously. A doe-eyed stare and mussed-up hair denotes natural beauty, as if you’ve just woken up and can’t help looking like this. Sexiness is suggested by sucked-in cheeks, pouting lips, a nonchalant cock of the head and a hint of bare flesh just below the clavicle. Snap!

Afterwards, a flattering filter is applied. Outlines are blurred, colors are softened, a sepia tint soaks through to imply a simpler era of vinyl records.

All of this is the work of an instant. Then, with a single tap, you are ready to upload: to Twitter, to Facebook, to Instagram, each likeness accompanied by a self-referential hashtag. Your image is retweeted and #tagged and shared. Your screen fills with thumbs-up signs and heart-shaped emoticons. You are “liked” several times over. You feel a shiver of — what, exactly? Approbation? Reassurance? Existential calm? Whatever it is, it’s addictive. Soon, you repeat the whole process, trying out a different pose. Again and again, you offer yourself up for public consumption.

This, then, is the selfie: an ubiquitous phenomenon of modern digital culture. We are all at it. Just type “selfie” into the Twitter search bar or take a look at Instagram, where over 300 million photos are currently posted with the hashtag #me.

The selfie has become a by-word for our self-obsessed age, and it seems everyone’s doing it; even Barack Obama, Helle Thorning and David Cameron at Nelson Mandela’s memorial.

Are selfies art? Of course, there are many famous self-portraits by painters including Rembrandt and Van Gogh, but art critic Jerry Saltz has linked the modern craze of the selfie with a new artistic genre.‘It’s something like art. They have a certain intensity and they’re starting to record that people are the photographers of modern life.’ Saltz believes the selfie has emerged as a new kind of portrait genre, and that has enormous long-term significance.‘Genres are a really big deal. Once they come into being, they tend not to disappear-ever.’ Saltz says while about 99 per cent of selfies are just boring -people making duck faces and throwing gang signs-they do look different to all other self portraits that come before them. (Saltz,2014).

Art historian James Hall has traced the development of the self-portrait right back to the Middle Ages when ‘selfie’ vanity was just beginning. Hall describes the medieval mirror craze -where people were obsessed with everything to do with the science and symbolism of mirrors -which contributed to a whole range of extraordinary self-portraits in the 12th century and beyond.

Different theories emerged to explain why people take selfies. Clive Thomson, author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing our Minds for the Better Some (2013), states selfies are a mean of self-exploration. As one takes multiple selfies and combine them with different filters, one can re-see herself (Thomson,2012; Crook,2014). A slightly different view is self-embellishment from psychology that states when exposed to slightly modified pictures of themselves, people tend to identify a more attractive version as the original picture(BBC,2014). With the ability to control aesthetics of a picture, selfies are a perfect tool for showing the world one’s subjective self-image.

Selfie Obsessed?

Selfies are a prominent online culture that have been both criticized and advocated by different parties. Critics say selfies are vain, narcissistic, and attention-seeking; some argue a wide adoption of selfies by female users exacerbates sexual objectification and male gaze. One research demonstrated that adults with the Dark Triad personality trait (e.g., narcissism and psychopathy) have a higher chance of posting selfies and editing images on social media (Fox & Campbell,2015). Self-objectification is also known to correlate with increasing photo sharing activities on Facebook among young women (Meier & Gray,2014).This leads to a worry about the loss of control over one’s self-image in an increasingly sharing and hackable culture, where the notion of privacy becomes dependent on the types of interactions that are allowed. The mere presence of an individual’s face in a public photo stream can reveal a great detail of information about that person.

Narcissists have extreme preoccupation with their own physical appearance, mental abilities, success, and image as perceived by others (Lopez de Victoria, 2008). They often find gratification (i.e., satisfaction, pleasure) from vanity or admiration of their own physical appearance. The current venue to achieve this gratification is by taking countless selfies everyday and sharing it on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

It’s no secret that most people who own an Instagram usually have feeds that scream “look at me, don’t I look gorgeous?” In fact, a 19 year-old guy named Danny Bowman was so obsessed with taking the “perfect selfie” that it took approx. 200 photos and 10 hours of his day to accomplish it (Huffington Post, 2014).

The obsession was driven by his desire to get girls interested in him and the false belief that perfection of one’s appearance is the way to get it. After failing to produce the perceived “perfect selfie” he attempted suicide. He was later on diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

For the Love of Selfies

Selfies may not necessarily be limited to narcissism; it may also be a modern tool for self-exploration and self-expression.

Defenders of the selfie culture argue that selfies are the pinnacle of control and self-expression; selfies allow people to take control over how they and their peers are represented in public, which mobilizes the power dynamics of representations and promotes empowerment. One study interviewed 20 participants who had posted sexual self-portraits and showed how the exchange of such self-portraits can be a transformative experience, increasing their critical self-awareness in a positive manner (Tiidenberg, 2014).

Furthermore, selfies help us to preserve the special milestones such the first Instagram selfie on space by Steven Swanson, the first selfie in the deepest part of the world’s ocean by Don Walsh and Jacques Piccar.

Furthermore, selfies can lead to extreme admiration of the one’s appearance or exploration of one’s identity. Either way, the “perfect selfie” does not exist but the ultimate selfie shall be a reflection of your true self. Sharing the ultimate selfie by removing all the make-up, facades and masks (that you put up because of social influences), makes the selfie beneficial to your well-being and to the others that see it. You don’t have to try to be perfect by hiding your flaws. You are amazingly made, just the way you are.

References

BBC. (2014),‘The science behind why we take selfies’, Magazine Monitor, 17 January, viewed 8 October 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25763704

Crook, J 2014, ‘Know Thy Selfie’, TechCrunch, 24 February, viewed 8 October 2016, https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/24/know-thy-selfie/

E,P. Meier & J, Gray 2014, ‘Facebook photo activity associated with body image disturbance in adolescent girls’. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(4):199–206,

Huffington Post. (2014). ‘Selfie Addiction is no Laughing Matter, Psychiatrists say’, 26 March, viewed 8 October 2016,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/selfie-addiction-mental-illness_n_5022090.html

Fox, K & Rooney,M.C 2015,‘The dark triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality and Individual Differences, 76(0):161–165

Tiidenberg, K 2014, ‘Bringing sexy back: Reclaiming the body aesthetic via self-shooting’. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 8(1)

López, S 2008, ‘ How to Spot a Narcissist’. Psych Central. viewed 8 October 2016, http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/08/04/how-to-spot-a-narcissist/

Saltz, J 2014, ‘Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie’, Vulture, 26 January, viewed 8 October 2016, http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/history-of-the-selfie.html

Images

Fig. 1. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=selfie&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=602&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS2vHJ49HPAhUI34MKHXohBOQQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=zifB5wQBI9QpFM%3A (accessed October 9, 2016).

Fig. 2. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Don%27t+hate+the+selfie&espv=2&biw=1242&bih=602&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZt9ym49HPAhUj8YMKHVb2C4kQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=68BeqMhM8ZGNtM%3A (accessed October 9, 2016).

Fig. 3. ‘David Cameron: ‘The selfie will come, the selfie will go’, The Spectator UK, http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/david-cameron-the-selfie-will-come-the-selfie-will-go/ (accessed October 8, 2016).

Fig.4.http://www.artrepublic.com/attachments/image/45/36045/x36045_600x250_c.png.pagespeed.ic.K8dK9V_8-T.jpg (accessed October 8, 2016).

Fig. 5. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLZ74UIA6lK/?tagged=loveyourcurves&hl=en (accessed October 9, 2016)

Fig. 6. ‘ Instagram finally makes it in space! First ever image from ISS is posted on the social media site — and it’s a #nofilter selfie’, The Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2599709/Instagram-finally-makes-space-First-image-orbit-posted-social-media-site-selfie-nofilter.html (accessed October 9, 2016).