By Stephanie Scrafano
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A “selfie” is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as being “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically a photograph taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Though the meaning may seem simple, the omnipresent “selfie” has come to mean much more to avid social media users.
From Instagram to Facebook to Twitter, you can no longer scroll through any social media network without seeing an infinite number of selfies. One girl poses with her boyfriend as they open their mouths in excitement while the magnificent Grand Canyon unfolds behind them. A guy you knew in high school flexes his increasingly large muscles in a mirror with various exercise equipment scattered the background.
The quiet girl from your history class smiles upward to the camera that captures her outfit of the day.
Selfies have become an inescapable part of our experiences on social networks. Most smartphones have even started to include front- facing cameras to ease the process of selfie-taking. Though they have become an expected part of our experience on the Internet, there have been disputes regarding why people take selfies in the first place. Some say it is the public manifestation of narcissism.
However, others say posting selfies stems from a natural desire to see how others observe us. I for one think both ideas play a part in the increasing popularity of selfie taking.
In terms of narcissism, we all have that one friend who posts a selfie every day, making the same face with a deep and meaningful song lyric as a caption. It is pretty hard to believe that the subject of those photos does not possess the slightest sense of vanity. The quantity of low-quality, silly photos some people post does seem to be a function of narcissism.
The way people present themselves on the Internet has been discussed as both the Internet and social media networks have risen in popularity over the last decade. It seems that instead of showing who they really are and what they do on a daily basis, people share the most interesting and presentable parts of themselves. Selfies appear to be an extension of this. People are concerned with the way that others view them, so they post selfies to show aspects of themselves that they want others to see. These people also react well to positive feedback, which could explain the ever-growing prevalence of selfies.
Knowing how others observe a person can improve his or her own self-awareness, but it can also place too much importance on others’ opinions. This can especially be harmful when the selfie is not an accurate depiction of the subject of the photo, but rather a presentation of the person that he or she feels comfortable sharing with the public. Michael Syku, FCRH ’16, argued that the motives behind taking selfies are much deeper than people wanting to feel good about themselves. “People who take selfies, especially chronically, fall under that umbrella of having a slight insecurity, and they attempt to fill those voids with likes and vapid comments,” Syku said.
Though harsh, it may be true that the sense of public approval that people feel when their selfies are liked may be the result of an excessive need for validation.
While it is true that people have an innate desire to know how others view them, this may be turning into an issue.
The growing trend of posting selfies on social media networks does not seem to be slowing down, and it may be because the more validation people get, the more they want.
One’s self-worth should not be dependent on something as insignificant as likes on a photo. On that note, selfies may not be as harmless as they seem after all.
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Stephanie Scrafano, FCRH’16, is a communication and media studies major form Lodi, N.J.