Research: Selfie

The word Selfie is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" (2013).

In the online article by BBC News (2013) it notes how Oxford Dictionaries uses a research programme that collects around 150 million English words in use from around the web each month; the software is ultimately used to track the occurrence of new words and observe any changes in the frequency of use. Therefore this tracking system inevitably found the word Selfie, which Oxford Dictionaries named as word of the year in 2013. The article notes how the word has evolved from a niche social media tag into a mainstream term for a self-portrait photograph (2013) Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said: "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." (2013).

The article goes on to explain that word of the year award celebrates the inventiveness of English speakers when confronted with social, political or technological change. To qualify for word of the year, a word need not have been coined within the past 12 months, but it does need to have become prominent or notable in that time. The article tracks the word Selfie back to 2002 where it was first used in an Australian online forum, according to Oxford Dictionaries. A man posted a picture of injuries to his face sustained when he tripped over some steps; he apologised for the fact that it was out of focus, saying that it was not because he was drunk but because it was a selfie. 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. (2013).

In the article ‘The science behind why we take selfies’ (2014) James Kilner a neuroscientist at the university college in London discusses why he believes we take selfies. Kilner notes, “The lack of knowledge about what we look like has a profound effect on what we think we look like. When people are asked to pick a photograph, which they think looks most like them - from a series of photographs in which an actual photograph has been digitally altered to produce more attractive and less attractive versions - people are very bad at selecting the original photograph…Given that we have a poor representation of what we look like, this is perhaps unsurprising” (2014) Kilner’s ideas evolve around the notion that we will automatically tend to lean towards the more attractive altered version of our photo, rather then the original, in order to appear more attractive. Kilner notes, “This might in part explain our obsession with selfies. For the first time we are able to take and retake pictures of ourselves until we can produce an image that comes closer to matching our perception of what we think we look like” (2014). 

The idea of the selfie, helping us to create and choose a preferred version of ourselves, within a photograph links to ideas around narcissism. The selfie gives users the options to alter a photograph in order to reach our ego ideal; it ultimately helps in providing us with a version of our ideal self. (See more on page- Research: Narcissism)

Chris O’sheas article on science and selfies (2013) discusses how scientific research, has found that sharing selfies can link to a decrease in intimacy. O’shea notes, “The professors asked 508 Facebook users with an average age of 24 to rank how close they feel to their friends, coworkers and relatives who also use Facebook. They then compared those answers to how many selfies those people posted. Overwhelmingly, the more someone posted selfies, the lower they ranked on the intimacy scales of the participants” (2013). The input of Dr. David Houghton in the article concluded with: "People, other than very close friends and relatives, don't seem to relate well to those who constantly share photos of themselves" (2013).

In Chris O’sheas opinion, perhaps the constant posting of ones photo across social network sites, results in your online group of friends feeling, you are quiet narcissist; as Oshea notes in his article: “The selfie is reprehensible because it's two levels of narcissism. First of all, you're on a social media site. This, by itself, is a narcissistic thing to do. But for the selfie sender, this isn't enough. No, they have to take their egos and lack of self-esteem to another level and post pictures of themselves on these sites. (2013).

The article ‘You are wrong about selfies they are not proof of narcissism’ (2013) looked at how we should think of the selfie as reflecting how digital technology has made a public self, available to more people; the article steers away from the idea that the selfie is a form of narcissism. Contribution from author Kate Losse, who wrote an article ‘the return of the selfie’ (2013) notes, “The self is the message and the selfie is the medium,” and as such, the self-image is a way of conveying something about who we are to others. Rather than simply being narcissistic”

Additionally, technology critic Jenny Wortham has argued, “selfies strongly suggest that the world we observe through social media is more interesting when people insert themselves into it…It sounds counter-intuitive, but by putting the self into a picture, it humanizes it and makes it more social, rather than selfish” (2013). Concluding the article, ideas from cultural critic Sarah Nicole Prickett, are also used. She argued “posting pictures of yourself is also a way to control your image in a life of ongoing documentation – to force others to see you as you want to be seen. It is important to mention, too, that these ideas are coming from female thinkers reacting to yet another insinuation that activities undertaken by women are somehow more flippant or need defending from accusations of excessive self-concern” (2013).

Further reading from Kate Loose article on ‘The return of the selfie’ (2013) discusses how the selfie was once for loners, as to take a successful photo of yourself, in order to upload onto your social network site, it would be typically taken by someone else, who would be standing not far from you; for Loose, this declared a sense of social belonging. Loose mentions that due to this point selfies seemed doomed to marginalization however, a key technological advance occurred, being a front-facing camera, which was built into the iPhone 4. Loose notes, “These cameras are now embedded in the face of practically every smartphone and tablet, which means that you can take a self-portrait while looking at the screen, allowing for perfect framing and focus. These days, selfies can look as polished and crisp as posed group shots, and no longer require a mirror or an awkwardly contorted hand” (2013)

Loose concludes, that the development of the front facing camera along with new media apps such as Instagram saw the growth in the number of selfies; Loose adds, “There is little space on Instagram for delivering context or depicting a large group of people; the confines of the app make single subjects more legible than complex scenes. A face in an Instagram photograph, filtered to eliminate any glare or unflattering light, appears star-like, as if captured by a deft paparazzo” (2013)

Bibliography

Alang, N. (2013). You are wrong about 'selfies,' they are not proof of narcissism. Available: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/you-are-wrong-about-selfies-they-are-not-proof-of-narcissism/article15600483/. (Last Accessed: 10th April 2014).

Losse, K. (2013). The Return of the Selfie. Available: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/06/the-return-of-the-selfie.html. (Last Accessed: 10th April 2014).

O'Shea, C. (2013). Science Confirms That Selfies Are the Worst. Available: http://dailylounge.com/the-daily/entry/science-confirms-that-selfies-are-the-worst. (Last Accessed: 3rd April 2014).

‘Selfie’ named by Oxford Dictionaries as word of 2013. (2013) Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24992393. (Last Accessed: 5th April 2014).

‘Selfie’ Oxford Dictionaries. (2013) Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/selfie. (Last Accessed: 5th April).

The science behind why we take selfies. (2014) Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25763704. (Last accessed: 5th April 2014).