The
Globalization of the Selfie
By:
Janet Rodriguez
A selfie is a self-shot photo, usually taken with a mobile phone and posted online to social media sites. The selfie is one of the most common pictures taken and posted on social media. (Mainly Instagram; Instagram is considered the home of the selfie) Right now there are about 40,000,000 pictures up on Instagram with the #selfie. That’s not including #selfies, #selfiesunday, #selfienation, #selfiee, #selfiesfordays, etc.. In January of 2013 it wasn’t even on the top 100 tags used on Instagram. The usage of the hashtag selfie was first seen on Flickr in the year 2004, but it took about a decade to finally reach its highest popularity point. In the year of 2013, the selfie began to gain popularity and fame on google search. The first recorded selfie was taken biochemist and metallurgist, Robert Cornelius, in 1839. When famous people started taking selfies and posting them, fans all over the world started to post their selfies as well.
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Robert Cornelius (1839) |
The global spread of the selfie has brought many problems to the social media world. There are people that view individuals who take selfies as narcissists. It’s mainly the women who are often viewed this way. There are individuals that feel that females who take selfies and post them on social media are only doing it for the attention of men. There are also people who view women taking selfies as a way to break stereotypes on women. Many times women are expected to be these perfect, beautiful and classy individuals, according to the male perspective. Cynthia Wade, a filmmaker and creator of a film called “Selfie,” says, “We spend so much time trying to hide our flaws because the culture has set it up that you have to be ashamed if you’re not perfect. I think girls are tired of it.” People like her view selfies as a way to celebrate ourselves and our imperfections/flaws. Psychologists believe that young adults take selfies as a way of finding who they are and their true identities. However, they also fear of how influential selfies are on the emotional health of teenagers. Many believe that the comments and likes on a selfie could lower/ rise a person’s selfie esteem. The lowering of self-esteem is obviously bad because it could lead to depression or illnesses. Most people view the rising of self-esteem to be good, so how can that be bad? The rising of self-esteem is good but to a certain limit. When a person’s self-esteem is high, they could end up becoming narcissists. Researchers have discovered that people who post a lot of selfies online, because they feel beautiful, have scored high on measures of psychopathy.
Selfies
have affected the whole world in many ways. The selfie has because extremely
popular in the United States and has already influence the country’s social
media. Many famous people in the U.S. post selfies daily and they make sure
they look absolutely stunning. When fans see this they want to look as flawless
as they do. This has brought a lot of money into the Plastic Surgery business
in the United States. China has also seen how much selfies have gained
popularity in their country as well. Recently a Chinese manufacturer unveiled
his plans for a new smartphone with instant facial beauty support software, so
that the consumers’ selfies come out flawless every time. Selfies have had a
huge impact on the world and will continue to affect it in the near future.
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