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| Sasha and Malia Obama taking a Selfie |
I didn’t know know it would turn out to be a word that would be bandied around or even become so popular. I see young ladies and guys that take selfies when they put on new clothes, new hairdos e.t.c I even know a friend of my wife who takes about 5 selfies every Sunday after dressing up and posts them on her Facebook page. Don’t ask me what I think of selfies because I still cannot understand the thought behind. Don’t get me wrong; I get it but I don’t get it.
But I guess it is the year of the “Selfie”. Selfies abound everywhere with the advent of Facebook, instagram and the likes. The word “Selfie” has just been chosen as the word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries. The award celebrates the inventiveness of English speakers when confronted with social, political or technological change.
Now what is all the noise about “Selfies”?
According to Wikipedia, a selfie is a type of self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. It is often associated with social networking. Selfie can be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum, according to Oxford Dictionaries.
This year, selfie has gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world, helped by pictures such as one of the Pope with teenagers that went viral.
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| Papal Selfie (though not really ‘cos Pope is not with the camera) |
According to Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, “Social media sites helped to popularise the term, with the hashtag #selfie appearing on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004, but usage wasn’t widespread until around 2012, when selfie was being used commonly in mainstream media sources.”
Though I think Selfies are vain, Jillian McHugh of “The Bunbury Mail” thinks “Taking “selfies” and posting them on social media might not be as vain as it seems.” A study on the art of the selfie – taking a photo of oneself, usually with the intention to post on social media – has found that two-thirds of women surveyed admitted to taking the self-snaps.
But cultural and social media experts from Curtin University say it’s more about seeking reassurance and making statements about ourselves. “There are very few people who are completely confident,” said cultural studies expert Jon Stratton.
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| Francis’ Selfie |
