Ah yes, the selfie. A truly fascinating social phenomenon that has skyrocketed in popularity by today's millennials, made possible with a simple feature built into our smartphones which allows for a camera that faces the user... so that we can take pictures of ourselves and see what we look like while doing it. So popular in fact that it was even the Oxford Dictionary's "word of the year" in 2013. But what exactly is a "selfie" and, more importantly, why do they exist in society at a deeper, conscious level?
As I was walking back to my dorm earlier, I couldn't help but notice the girl walking in front of me utilizing her front-facing camera. Not to take a picture of herself, but to check herself out, fix her hair and make sure she looked up to her own standards. There are many inherent characteristics of humans that most of us don't even realize. We are constantly caught up in our own imperfections, worrying if our hair looks good or bad, for example. Sadly, the reality is that 99% of the time, no one will notice your imperfection because we are all too busy worrying about our own. And even in the off 1% chance that someone does, another question arises. So what?
Going back to the concept of the "selfie", I believe they exist almost as an escape from this innate self-consciousness. We are not perfect and nobody truly is, but we now have the ability to change that, at least in one snapshot. And that is the result of technology. It's the reason people will take tons of selfies before getting the one they like. We hate looking at ourselves in a picture unless we look "perfect." We have to change the lighting, the angle of the camera, and make facial expressions that we wouldn't normally make all to be perfect in our own eyes. Finally, we can edit the selfie to alter our appearance even more. Selfies are kind of dangerous in a way. Yes, at an elementary level, a selfie is simply a picture of yourself. But when the face in the picture is reworked and refined so heavily, is it even you?
The answer is yes and no. It is less of who you really are, and more of who you want to be. This goes back to human nature's intrinsic self-consciousness. We're not happy with what we look like, so we can change it in a selfie and post it to Instagram or some other social media site in a sub-conscious effort to temporarily convince ourselves and the world around us that we look better than we actually do. The problem is that all of this is in our own heads. No one is going to notice that weird pimple on your forehead and even if they do, they won't care. Why? Because deep down we, as individuals, are only worried about ourselves.
This is incredible. I like how you explain your theory on it and apply real life examples using a fun to read tone of voice.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, I tried to use that same tone throughout the rest of the project.
DeleteReally cool perspective on the idea of selfies and self-consciousness. I love like how you chose lucid dreaming in your post. I tried to write down my dreams in hope od lucid dreaming but always forgot or wasnt consistent.
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