Aselfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or camera phone held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If someone else takes your photo it is not a selfie.
Oxford Dictionaries announced their 2013 year word to be selfie as ‘a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.’
The origin of selfie
Designer/photographer Jim Krause is said to have coined the word selfie in 2005, and Time magazine ranked it one of its top 10 buzzwords for 2012. Although the rampant proliferation of the technique is quite recent, the selfie itself is far from being a strictly modern phenomenon. Indeed, the photographic self-portrait was surprisingly common in the late 1880s when camera shutters with self-timers became available, and it was often more convenient for the experimenting photographer to act as model as well.
The first photographic portrait considered a selfie was taken by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius. Setting up his camera at the back of the family store he took the image by removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back he wrote “The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.” Too bad he couldn’t upload the photo to Instagram with the hashtag #selfie to receive the credit he deserves.
‘How to take a selfie’ primer
To take a selfie on a smartphone:
Angles are important. Most people look the best when their face is tilted at a slight angle to the camera. But do not make it a side profile shot. Practice by just taking photos of your face from different positions. After you’ve found your angle, hold the camera with just one hand at a 45-degree angle above you and then use your thumb to snap the photo.
Using two hands can cause your neck to tense up and the selfie will look less relaxed. You can go hands free using a selfie stick – a long stick with an adjustable clamp on one end that holds your phone in position. The handle has a button where you simply click it and it takes the photo from your camera. They are also a great tool for group shots.
There are selfie DON’Ts to adhere too. Don’t hold the phone under your neck and show a double chin, or even worse, letting people look up your nose! Even mirror selfies taken just of your shoulders up are not a good option! There could be a glare in the mirror from the flash. Remember that selfies should always be the most accurate description of you; so just smile, relax, and have fun!
More than just a photograph
Elise Moreau, a professional blogger writes, ‘”There is so much more meaning behind a selfie and why it’s become such a massive trend. The younger crowd seems to be especially involved, mainly because teens and the 18 to 34 demographic are heavier digital users than their older counterparts. Kids who are connected on a social network to someone they admire may be more driven to upload attractive or alluring selfies as a way to seek attention, especially if they’re too shy to do it in person. It’s a strange new flirting method that’s only been around since the rise of the mobile.
The psychological factors that drive specific persons to take a selfie and upload it to a social networking may vary. It might be to genuinely express themselves, as not all are driven by narcissism, but want to build their own self-image. Many people take selfies entirely for themselves, even though they may post them online for everyone else to see.
But the narcissist part kicks in when they like to get noticed on social media and all of those ‘likes’ and comments from friends are a quick and easy way to fish for compliments and boost one’s own ego.
Yes, there are also people who are bored at work, bored at school, bored at home and bored on the toilet, and hence will take selfies because they have nothing else better to do! Social media is about being social. Some people don’t need a real reason to upload selfies. It’s fun, and it’s a cool way to sort of document your own life. Some popular tools have a lot of great filters to make your selfies look instantly aged, artsy or highlighted”.
But then every new technological advance creates a band of doomsayers and selfies are the latest victim.
Selfies, defenders aver, are a natural expression of being human. ‘As the human voice is the organ of the soul (to quote Henry W. Longfellow) the human image – the face – is the expression of the soul’. What can be more beautiful than the joy of the moment of capturing a group, or strangers for that matter, in a huddle of smiling faces – bent over in a selfie?
It is believed that selfie boosts self-confidence and self-esteem. According to Time magazine, researchers believe that it allows people to express their selves in a way never seen before. There have been about 90 million photos posted to Instagram with #selfie. It is absolutely a benefit to society that people are coming close and the bond has become stronger. There is more sociability. Everyone from prime ministers, athletes, movie stars are taking pictures of themselves and posting to their social media profiles.
A psychological disorder?
But some consider it as a psychological disorder or self-obsession. Scientists link selfies to narcissism, addiction and mental illness. People who take six or more selfies in a day and upload them on the internet have serious mental disease. Grouches ask, why 257 narcissist selfies in a day? Doesn’t this accelerate one of the evils of our increasingly individualistic society?
‘Selfitis’ – a newly termed mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is where a person develops an obsessive compulsive disorder of clicking selfies. They get impatient and irritated if told not to and have to be put on cognitive behavioural therapy.
Selfies can be group or individual. The latter addiction is a matter of concern, as such people lack self-gratification. “They strike different poses as they are not happy with one picture, and then upload them on social networking sites to get approval in the virtual world,” says Dr. D’Souza, psychiatrist and research associate at LTMG Sion Hospital, Mumbai. A study among school students found a majority of selfie-addicts are girls, 55% of whom were insecure or self-obsessed.
Dr. Harish Shetty, psychiatrist from Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, opines that clicking selfie is a magnified way of seeing oneself in the mirror. “Teenagers are more concerned about how they look and how others perceive them. Generally, individual selfie-clickers are seeking identity and meaning in the world.”
Selfitis can broadly be divided into three types: Borderline (taking at least three pictures of self but not posting them on social media), Acute (taking at least three photos of oneself every day and posting them on social media), and Chronic severe (taking at least six photos or more of self every day and posting them on social media).
But the big drawback of a selfie is that it can make you a target on social media and one can be bullied or trolled or even face more malicious acts. Avoid posting photos that reveal your body because it’s better to be safe than sorry. Over the last few years, hundreds have died in the act of taking selfies, generally while doing very dumb things like handling live grenades and dangling from skyscrapers, but it has had no effect on the rest.
Kali Holloway, a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet, observes that “Bad ideas and selfies are like ‘the peanut butter and jelly of our times’. While trying to snap impressive self-portraits, some of the distracted and vain have accidentally driven off the road and ploughed into a tree, walked backward off a dangerously high cliff, and been bitten by a rattlesnake who was not in the mood to be photographed (See box)
So in conclusion, excess of everything is bad; so selfie lovers must not go overboard. Make it fun!
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A.Radhakrishnan
A.Radhakrishnan, Pune based freelance journalist, with close to four decades of experience in mainstream print journalism, is aiming for the digital platform. Making friends interests him and for company, he loves music and books. He also writes short stories and indulges in poetry.[/column]