Ever wondered where “selfies” came from? Have you ever given thought to the fact that the idea of “we cannot imagine our world without selfies” is maybe an indication that we are dealing with people becoming more narcissistic than we, or them, would like to admit? Is the “selfie” friend or foe?
Robert Cornelius was an American pioneer in photography and took the first selfie in 1839. He had to set up a standalone camera, expose the lens, run into shot for a minute or so, and then go back to the camera to replace the cap over the lens. He wrote on the back of the photograph: “The first light Picture ever taken 1839”. The Kodak Brownie box camera was launched in 1900 and selfies became more common.
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Celebrities and selfies are more common than you think. They like to take pictures of themselves and of themselves together with other celebrities to post on social media. They attract a lot of fame and attention because people retweet and repost these pictures to their families and friends. Don’t forget… they always take more than one selfie so that they can use the best one on social media. This is just because they don’t want to post pictures of how unperfect they are. To them, it is important to always show their most perfect self.
Younger people also tend to take twenty or more pictures of themselves. They will scroll through the collection in search of the best one, all because they just can’t handle it looking imperfect. They think a lot of themselves and do not want to show their flaws. They post it on social media and hope to get their pictures reposted and “liked” in order to feel accepted, pretty, and perfect. They also use it to get famous and to build on their popularity. When you actually see them in person, it is usually a completely different face or person looking back at you as they photoshop their pictures to look the best they can. In most cases, they end up changing their whole appearance. So, when you think you are going to meet the person in the photograph, you might end up seeing someone completely different. Like the time when I was on vacation with one of my friends. All he wanted me to do, is to take pictures of him the whole time, all at different angles, just to make sure that I do not miss something. He was forever complaining that I had to look out for his hair blown by the wind or the light that had to fall in just the right way onto his face, I had to make sure not to miss his jawline or his eyes that sparkle when the moonlight hits it… Then on top of that, we had to go to different spots for him to sit in trees at different angles and to stand on walls with different poses. I had to take pictures of him sitting on a bench doing different poses. I had to point the camera at different angles to get different shots and I had to make sure I am taking the perfect picture….
The selfie monster, together with social media, shows that a lot of people are becoming excessively interested in themselves. They are forever obsessing over their physical appearance, admiring themselves, obsessed with showing the world their “perfect” self. They obsess over how other people see them and spend hours making sure the world takes notice of their “flawless” image. For them, the selfie is clearly “friend”. The question I want to pose to you is: What is the selfie to you? Friend or Foe?
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