SELF(IE) PERCEPTION
REFLECTING ON SELFIES
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REFLECTING ON SELFIES
caseyfederbusch
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17 likes caseyfederbusch attempting to change how we look at selfies, one page at a time (a senior capstone) Like
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SELF(IE) PERCEPTION
VIA THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media:
VIA URBANDICTIONARY.COM A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be
The taking of a picture of yourself and posting
uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort
it on Facebook because you have extremely low
of social networking website. You can usually see
self-esteem and you need people to comment
the person’s arm holding out the camera in which
to tell you how hot or pretty you look. In reality
case you can clearly tell that this person does not
you just look desperate for attention. And no
have any friends to take pictures of them so they
matter how attractive you might be, you still look
resort to Myspace to find internet friends and
pathetic. See also duck face/kissy face makes
post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves.
you look retarded.
A selfie is usually accompanied by a kissy face or the individual looking in a direction that is not towards the camera. A strange phenomenon in which the photographer is also the subject of the photograph, in a subversive twist on the traditional understanding of the photograph. Usually conducted because the subject cannot locate a suitable photographer to take the photo, like a friend. A ridiculous practice of narcissism.
The beginning of the end of intelligent civilization.
THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE 7 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 21 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 35 REFLECTING ON SELFIES 47 SURVEYING SELFIES 61 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
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FIRST RECORDED USE OF THE WORD “SELFIE” 2002
An Australian college student posts a photo of his split lip after a party on an online forum with the caption, “Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie”
2003
MYSPACE LAUNCHED AUGUST 1, 2003
SECTION ONE
THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 9
2004
FACEBOOK LAUNCHED FEBRUARY 4, 2004
FIRST DEFINED 2005
An early definition of “selfie” appears on the website urbandictionary.com
Before the rise of social media, in the mid-aughts, the self-taken portrait was a largely private genre. The images, usually overexposed and out of focus owing to the difficulty of taking self-facing photographs without a viewfinder, typically remained on cameras and hard drives. But as social-media sites requiring a profile picture gained popularity, so, too, did the self-taken photograph. It starts with a certain angle: a smartphone tilted at 45 degrees just above your eyeline is generally deemed the most forgiving. Then a light source: the flattering beam of a backlit window or a bursting supernova of flash reflected in a bathroom mirror, as preparations are under way for a night out. The pose is important. Knowing self-awareness is conveyed by the slight raise of an eyebrow, the sideways smile that says you’re not taking it too seriously. A doe-eyed stare and mussed-up hair denotes natural beauty, as if you’ve just woken up and can’t help looking like this. Sexiness is suggested by sucked-in cheeks, pouting lips, a nonchalant cock of the head and a hint of bare flesh just below the clavicle. Snap! Afterwards, a flattering filter is applied. Outlines are blurred, colours are softened, a sepia tint soaks through to imply a simpler era of vinyl records and VW camper vans. All of this is the work of an instant. Then, with a single tap, you are ready to upload: to Twitter, to Facebook, to Instagram, each likeness accompanied by a self-referential hashtag. Your image is retweeted and tagged and shared. Your screen fills with thumbs-up signs and heart-shaped emoticons. You are “liked” several times over. You feel a shiver of–what, exactly? Approbation? Reassurance? Existential calm? Whatever it is, it’s
FILTER (NOUN) A particular effect that can be applied to an image or a piece of an image. Most commonly used on Instagram.
addictive. Soon, you repeat the whole process, trying out a different pose. Again and again, you offer yourself up for public consumption.
HASHTAG (NOUN)
Starting on Twitter, this symbol (#) has become a new way to add a thought or sum up the thought of a sentence, giving it more clarity, and often, more wit
THE HISTORY OF SELFIES 11
2006
The history of selfies is linked to the rise of technology and the cult of the celebrity. The first recorded use of the word was in 2002 when an unnamed Australian student posted a picture of his split lip after a drunken party. “Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie,” he wrote on an online forum. Images tagged as #selfie began appearing on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004. But it was the introduction of smartphones – most crucially the iPhone 4, which came along in 2010 with a front-facing camera – that
2007
made the selfie go viral. A recent survey of more than 800 teenagers by the Pew Research Centre in America found that 91% posted photos of themselves online – up from 79% in 2006. Or take a look at Instagram, where over 331 million photos are currently posted with the hashtag #me. These are not like the self-portraits we are used to. Unlike traditional portraiture, selfies don’t make pretentious claims. They go in the other direction— or no direction at all. Although theorists like Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes saw melancholy and signs of death in every photograph, selfies aren’t for the ages. They’re like the cartoon dog who, when asked what time it is, always says, “Now! Now! Now!” Setting aside the formal dissimilarities between these two forms—of framing, of technique—traditional photographic self-portraiture is far less spontaneous and casual than a selfie is. This new genre isn’t dominated by artists. When made by amateurs, traditional photographic self-portraiture didn’t become a distinct thing, didn’t have a codified look or transform into social dialogue and conversation. These pictures were not usually disseminated to strangers and were never made in such numbers by so many people. It’s possible that the selfie is the most prevalent popular genre ever.
GO VIRAL (VERB) When an image, video, or link spreads rapidly through a population by being frequently shared with a number of individuals via social media
THE HISTORY OF SELFIES
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2008
2009
THE SELFIE IS REVOLUTIONIZING HOW WE GATHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ABOUT OURSELVES AND OUR FRIENDS Let’s stipulate that most selfies are silly, typical,
boring. Guys flexing muscles, girls making pouty lips
(“duckface”), people mugging in bars or throwing gang signs or posing with monuments or someone famous. Still, the new genre has its earmarks. Excluding those taken in mirrors—a distinct subset of this universe— selfies are nearly always taken from within an arm’s length of the subject. For this reason the cropping and composition of selfies are very different from those of all preceding self-portraiture. There is the nearconstant visual presence of one of the photographer’s arms, typically the one holding the camera. Bad camera angles predominate, as the subject is nearly always off-center. The wide-angle lens on most cell-phone cameras exaggerates the depth of noses and chins, and the arm holding the camera often looks huge. (Over time, this distortion has become less noticeable. Recall, however, the skewed look of the early cell-phone snap.) If both your hands are in the picture and it’s not a mirror shot, technically, it’s not a selfie—it’s a portrait.
DUCKFACE (NOUN) A term used to descibe the face made if you push your lips together in a combination of a pout and a pucker, giving the impression you have larger cheekbones and bigger lips.
THE HISTORY OF SELFIES 15
2010
IPHONE 4 AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER JUNE 15, 2010
The latest version of Apple’s immensely popular iPhone adds a front-facing camera to its list of new features
INSTAGRAM LAUNCHED
OCTOBER 6, 2010
Selfies are usually casual, improvised, fast; their primary purpose is to be seen here, now, by other
2011
people, most of them unknown, in social networks. They are never accidental: whether carefully staged or completely casual, any selfie that you see had to be approved by the sender before being embedded into a network. Many fret that this explosion of selfies proves that ours is an unusually narcissistic age. Discussing one selfie, the Post trotted out a tired line about “the greater global calamity of Western decline.” C’mon: The moral sky isn’t falling. Marina Galperina, who with fellow curator Kyle Chayka presented the National #Selfie Portrait Gallery, rightly says, “It’s less about narcissism—narcissism is so lonely!—and it’s more about being your own digital avatar.” Chayka adds,
SNAPCHAT LAUNCHED
SEPTEMBER 2011
“Smartphone selfies come out of the same impulse as Rembrandt’s...to make yourself look awesome.” Franco says selfies “are tools of communication more than marks of vanity–Mini-Mes that we send out to give others a sense of who we are.”
THE HISTORY OF SELFIES
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WORD OF THE YEAR 2013
Oxford Dictionaries declares “selfie” the “Word of the Year” and includes it in upcoming editions
2014
THE OSCAR SELFIE MARCH 2, 2014
While hosting the Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres takes a selfie that is retweeted over 2 million times.
Selfies are our letters to the world. They are little visual diaries that magnify, reduce, dramatize—that say
I’M HERE, LOOK AT ME
THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE 19
The popularity of the selfie is, says Mariann Hardey, "an extension of how we live and learn about each other" and a way of imparting necessary information about who we are. By way of an example, Hardey says that when her father died suddenly last year, she took refuge in her Instagram feed. "I couldn't bear the conversations but one way to prove to friends that I was OK was to take a picture of myself," she says. "That revealed something very important to my friends – one, that I was still functioning and, two, I was out doing stuff. An image can convey more than words."
SELFIES COME FROM ALL OF US They are a folk art that is already expanding the
language and lexicon of photography. Selfies are a
photography of modern life窶馬ot that academics or
curators are paying much attention to them. They will, though: In a hundred years, the mass of selfies will be an incredible record of the fine details of everyday life. Imagine what we could see if we had millions of these from the streets of imperial Rome.
THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE
22 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE
SECTION TWO
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 23
The familiar if dull refrain is that selfies reflect the narcissism of our age, spurred by the easy sharing capabilities of smartphones and the cameras they house. Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr provide potentially far-reaching platforms to broadcast close-ups of our faces, particularly the ones we deem fit for consumption by others. Some critics of the genre think they're an icky vice, and that everyone would be better off if they ceased to exist. For example, a recent joint study of self-portraits in social media by three universities in the U.K. found that aggressively posting self-portraits on Facebook can alienate our friends and loved ones. A recent poll, in fact, found that selfies compose a disturbing 30 percent of images snapped by everyone's favorite demographic — the muchbeloved millennial.
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BUT THERE IS MORE TO THE SELF PORTRAIT THAN SHEER NARCISSISM Indeed, perhaps the selfie and its wordless ability to
inform an audience isn’t quite as self-centered as we make it out to be. One of the most effective ways to know yourself is to see yourself as others see you. Selfies offer the opportunities to show facets of yourself, such as the arty side, the silly side, or the glamorous side. We learn about people by accumulating information over time. Our understanding of everything, include
other people, is a synthesis of all the things we know about them. By offering different aspects through images, we are sharing more of ourselves, becoming more authentic and transparent—things that digital connectivity encourages.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 25
THERE IS A PRIMAL HUMAN URGE TO STAND OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES AND LOOK AT OURSELVES said Clive Thompson, a technology writer and the
author of the new book “Smarter than you Think: How Technilogy is Changing Our Minds for the Better.” Selfies have become the catchall term for digital self-portraits abetted by the explosion of cellphone
cameras and photo-editing and sharing services. Every major social media site is overflowing with millions of them. Everyone from the pope to the Obama girls has been spotted in one. In late August 2013, Oxford Dictionaries Online added the term to its lexicon. One of the advertisements for the new Grand Theft Auto V video game features a woman in a bikini taking a photograph of herself with an iPhone. In a recent episode of Showtime’s “Homeland,” one of the main characters snaps and sends a topless selfie to her boyfriend. Snapchat, a photo-based messaging service, is processing 350 million photos each day, while a recent project on Kickstarter raised $90,000 to develop and sell a small Bluetooth shutter release for smartphones and tablets to help people take photographs of themselves more easily. Technology is adapting, providing us with better tools to present our self-image. How often is the frontfacing camera in a phone used as a compact mirror, compared to FaceTime or Skype? How many photos of yourself have you taken with your phone, and how many would you actually share online? It is the perfect preoccupation for our Internet-saturated time, a ready-made platform to record and post our lives where others can see and experience them in tandem with us. And in a way, it signals a new frontier in the evolution in social media. “People are wrestling with how they appear to the rest of the world,” Mr. Thompson said.
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TAKING A PHOTOGRAPH IS A WAY OF TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE SEE YOU, WHO YOU ARE, AND WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE.
AND THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT
30 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE
At times, it feels largely performative, another way to polish public-facing images of who we are, or who we’d like to appear to be. Selfies often veer into scandalous or shameless territory — think of Miley Cyrus or Geraldo Rivera — and at their most egregious raise all sorts of questions about vanity, narcissism and our obsession with beauty and body image As for the well-worn assertion that selfies foster vanity and somehow court stalkers, “There are some people who put themselves at a certain amount of risk by exposing too much,” Dr. Rutledge said. “But that’s not about the selfie. That’s about someone who is not making good choices.” A selfie is no different from arriving at a job interview looking your best, Rutledge says. The photos intend to present yourself in your best light, and with social media, young people have the power to do so whenever they want. “I see selfies as primarily a form of communication that is more immediate, more authentic,” she says. “We care what other people think of us, and we care about monitoring the social environment, so how we present ourselves matters.” But let’s be real: the most common selfie is the one where you look cute, particularly becausae it’s a quick way to get positive comments about your appearance. “If I feel pretty, I take one,” says Maryland native Paris, 23. “When other people Like it, it’s a mini boost of confidence.” Sure, showing off a new outfit or that you’re at a cool event is fun, but it can be a slippery slope. Psychologist Jill Weber, Ph.D., says there’s a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and Likes you get when you post a selfie, and they aren’t based on who you are—they’re based on what you look like.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 31
On one hand, seeking validation is totally normal, Dr. Weber explains: "It's a healthy way for teenagers to develop their identity." But with social networks, where it's easy to get quick hits of approval almost constantly, the selfie thing can quickly spiral out of control. It may even start to feel like an addiction: When you get a "GORGE," you're up, but when you get nothing— or a "get over yourself"—your confidence can plummet. Girls in particular are socialized toward seeing themselves as lovable and worthwhile only if others value them, Dr. Weber notes, and "selfie culture is a way for this tendency to go into overdrive.” In other words, it is about showing your friends and family your elation when you’re having a good day or opening a dialogue or line of communication using an image the same way you might simply text “hi” or “what’s up?” Teenage years involve forming your identity through socializing, and in today’s world, social interactions can occur 24/7 through smartphones. In fact, social media helps many adolescents make connections they miay not have otherwise, says David Proost, a psychologist in Dallas who specializes in child and adolescent psychology. The opinion of others has been a part of identity development for more than a century.
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THE “LOOKING-GLASS SELF” IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPT THAT SUGGESTS WE DEVELOP OUR SENSE OF SELF BASED ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF THOSE WE INTERACT WITH "Now that we can interact with hundreds—no, thousands—of people simultaneously, we've strengthened the impact that others have on our self-value," says Dr. Letamendi. One of the differences between our self-image in real life and online is more ability to change our look, and also mask our identity. Even when a person posts a photo of you on social media, you can untag, delete or modify the photo to keep social presence more consistent with the self-image you want others to see.Technology has also allowed us to shape who we are and highlight specific features in ways we couldn’t do as easily offline. Visual social platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr allow quick and frequent access to others’ profiles. We can see what old high school friends that you haven’t talked to in years have lost weight. We know what coworkers and extended family are doing more-so than we could offline. This encourages social comparison. Dr. Rutledge says this is a normal feature of human behavior, and that comparison doesn’t stop when people shut the laptop or phone and go to school or work. “It is only problematic when someone fixates or over-compares to their detriment, but that is not a function of the photos as much as the individual struggling with self-esteem,” says Dr. Rutledge.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 33
34 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE
Rather than dismissing the trend as a side effect of digital culture ot a sad form of exhibitionism, maybe we’re better off seeing selfies for what they are at their best–
A KIND OF VISUAL DIARY, A WAY TO MARK OUR SHORT EXISTENCE AND HOLD IT UP TO OTHERS AS PROOF THAT WE WERE HERE. The rest, of course, is open to interpretation.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 35
36 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
SECTION THREE
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 37
38 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
In the current age of digital communications, the human aspect of speaking with another person can be lost in a few bars of text on a screen. Things essential to understanding another person such as tone, inflection, and pitch are next to impossible to communicate via the usual means of texting and e-mail. So what exactly do selfies bring to the table, aside from what at first glance is a narcissistic obsession with our image? We are swiftly becoming accustomed to — and perhaps even starting to prefer—online conversations and interactions that revolve around images and photos. They are often more effective at conveying a feeling or reaction than text. Plus, we’ve become more comfortable seeing our faces on-screen, thanks to services like Snapchat, Skype, Google Hangout and FaceTime, and the exhilarating feeling of connectedness that comes from even the briefest video conversation. Receiving a photo of the face of the person you’re talking to brings back the human element of the interaction, which is easily misplaced if the interaction is primarily text-based. Dr. Pamela Rutledge, director of the nonprofit Media Psychology Research Center, says that’s how the human brain works.
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 39
WE ARE HARDWIRED TO RESPOND TO FACES, she said. “It’s unconscious. Our brains process
visuals faster, and we are more engaged when
we see faces. If you’re looking at a whole page of photos, the ones you will notice are the close-ups and selfies.” “The idea of the selfie is much more like your face is the caption and you’re trying to explain a moment or tell a story,” said Frédéric della Faille, the founder and designer of Frontback, a popular new photo-sharing application that lets users take photographs using both front- and rearfacing cameras. “It’s much more of a moment and a story than a photo.” And more often than not, he added, “It’s not about being beautiful.” Above all, and this might be the selfie’s redeeming feature: they are not designed to be looked at solely by the subject. The selfie’s usual purpose is to be transmitted by social media – with “social” being the key word. They may be focused on the self, but they also express a timeless human need to connect with others.
Katie
Made it back to STL
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VS
Kari
Look, I’m a minion at an ultimate tournament! Ahh it looks like it’s so much fun!!!!!!!!!
VS
Rachel
How’s Paris?? Did you find the Eiffel Tower?? Oui oui!
VS
Jocelyn
Guess what?? We found another bunny!!
VS
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 41
WHAT SELFIES DO FOR US IS THEY HELP
42 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
BRING US BACK INTO THE CONVERSATION CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 43
What history has shown time and time again– what has remained a constant through the ages, remarkably, is:
OUR DESIRE FOR CONNECTION
44 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
When you’re looking at lines of characters on a screen, the distance between yourself and the other person in conversation is obvious. What stands between you are two phones, a series of apps, and a few buttons on a keyboard that somehow attempt to communicate human voice and human feeling. By adding a face to that, suddenly everything is more emotional, connected, and social. The need to understand each other has driven the development of game-changing technologies such as the telephone, the internet, the mobile, VoI–and of course social media. When we created Facebook profiles using our real identities, and when we did it in the hundreds of millions–even though skepticism abounded, we were allowing ourselves as individuals and as a society to become more intimate with technology–merging more of our real selves with our virtual selves. Whether you think that’s a good thing or bad thing, it’s that growing intimacy with technology deepened by the culture of sharing and selfies that will likely lead to the development of ‘the big one’: the next game-changing technological invention that will enable us to connect with each other in a new, likely mind-blowing way.
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 45
46 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES
In that respect, the selfie is like so much else in the digital world–
ALL ABOUT “ME,” BUT REVEALING A SOMEWHAT DESPERATE URGE TO FIND AN “US”
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 47
48 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
SECTION FOUR
REFLECTING ON SELFIES
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 49
50 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
THE MEANINGS OF THE SELFIE James Franco is an actor who was previously nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the film 127 Hours. This piece was originally published in its unedited form in the New York Times on December 26, 2013.
Selfies are something new to me, but as I have
But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems
become increasingly addicted to Instagram, I have
to get attention. And attention seems to be
been accused of posting too many of them. I was
the name of the game when it comes to social
called out on the “Today” show, and have even
networking. And if you are someone people are
been called the selfie king.
interested in, then the selfie provides something
Maybe this is so, but only because I’ve learned that the selfie is one of the most popular ways to
very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible.
post — and garner the most likes from followers.
We speak of the celebrity selfie, which is its
The likes spin out of control for selfies of me and
own special thing. It has value regardless of
my two handsome brothers, especially Dave, the
the photo’s quality, because it is ostensibly an
other actor, whose image pulls in its own legion of
intimate shot of someone whom the public
teenage fans.
is curious about. It is the prize shot that the
I can see which posts don’t get attention or make me lose followers: those with photos of art projects; videos telling the haters to go away (in not so many words); and photos with poems.
paparazzi would kill for, because they would make good money; it is the shot that the magazines and blogs want, because it will get the readers close to the subject.
(Warning: Post your own, and you’ll see how
These stars know the power of their image,
fast people become poetry specialists and offer
and how it is enhanced when garnished with
critiques like “I hate you, you should die.”)
privileged material — anything that says, “Here is a bit of my private life.”
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 51
Of course, the self-portrait is an easy target for charges of self-involvement, but, in a visual culture, the selfie quickly and easily shows, not tells, how you’re feeling, where you are, what you’re doing. And, as our social lives become more electronic, we become more adept at interpreting social media. A texting conversation might fall short of communicating how you are feeling, but a selfie might make everything clear in an instant. Selfies are tools of communication more than marks of vanity (but yes, they can be a little vain). We all have different reasons for posting them, but, in the end, selfies are avatars: Mini-Me’s that we send out to give others a sense of who we are.
I AM ACTUALLY TURNED OFF WHEN I LOOK AT AN ACCOUNT AND DON’T SEE ANY SELFIES, BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW WHOM I’M DEALING WITH. In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to look someone right in the eye and say, “Hello, this is me.”
52 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 53
My sister and I.
54 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
THE MUSINGS OF A SELFIE APOLOGIST Tessa Huttenlocher is a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Chicago. In her spare time, Tessa enjoys overthinking things.
It is easy to point to the selfie as an artifact of
Most of my old family photos are one person
everything that is wrong with the “me generation.”
short. Someone is usually “behind the camera” in
The selfie upholds the image of the self-centered
situations where there wasn’t a third party around
millennial, walking through life with her phone—an
to click the shutter. Even once self-timers became
extensions of her brain!—perpetually focused on
standard-issue, my parents were reluctant to
herself. In many ways, the selfie is indeed narcissistic,
spoil the moment by going through the motions
but I say: is it really a bad thing to insert yourself in
of setting up a Family Photo—balancing the
the documentation of a life that belongs to you?
camera on a pile of books or a tree-branch, and
When I was in elementary school, my mom would send me and my sister to summer camp with one disposable camera each. After a few years of paying to develop thoroughly unmemorable rolls of film, my mom gave me some advice I never forgot: She told us to take pictures with people in them. The pictures
encouraging my sister and I to keep smiling, even though the smiles stopped being authentic several minutes ago. The photographs that we have do the job of documenting our family enjoying a place and time together, but the memories feel incomplete at best, or inauthentic at worst.
of our cabins, the woods or even the high ropes
I value the selfie for its intimacy. The selfies I’ve
courses we conquered wouldn’t mean much to us in
taken with my little sister are more precious to
the future, unless those photos also contained faces.
me than any of the pictures I have ever snapped
After that, I went from photographing things, to
of her, and most of the pictures third parties
photographing the people with whom I’d experienced
have taken of the two of us together. Our selfies
those things. To me, selfies are simply the next step.
document the many times that we were spending
After all, wasn’t I there, experiencing those things
time alone together, and wanted to remember
and enjoying the company of those people? Why
that feeling of togetherness.
shouldn’t I be present in those visual memories?
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 55
Group selfie –birthday celebration at a bar on the North Side of Chicago
Homecoming selfie with Elizabeth Jay: UChicago was playing against WashU, and I took this selfie to taunt my sister. Neither of us cares much for sports, but we tried to incite a rivalry all the same!
56
My friend Calvin and I went out to brunch in downtown Chicago, and we walked through Grant Park, where it was snowing REFLECTING ONapple-blossom SELFIES petals. He lives in
The pigtail selfies. It is kind of silly that two grown-ups would spend the better part of 15 minutes making faces into a camera, but
I went to a gender-swap party with my friend Patrick. This selfie was his profile picture for the longest time, and I think it is still on his Tindr profile. I’ve told him that it probably will confuse his potential dates, but he doesn’t care.
The same thing goes for larger groups of people. When I’m with my friends, photographing them conventionally would be to take a break from being with them—to step outside the moment and look in as a photographer. As ridiculous as some of my group selfies are, at least they are true to the experience of me being with my friends. Which, to be honest, already involves making a lot of funny faces. The selfie may be ubiquitous, but it is clear that we live in a selfie-shaming society. One need not look any further than the composition of a typical selfie. We crop out our outstretched arms—effectively creating an imaginary thirdparty photographer—or we save ourselves that trouble by using the dreaded selfie stick. The rest of the time, we pose in a goofy way that screams “haha look at me, I’m taking a selfie ironically.” In the latter case, self-deprecation serves as plausible deniability for the crime of self-centeredness. I am guilty of falling prey to both of these strategies.
FOR ME, SELFIES ARE PARTICIPATORY, NOT NARCISSISTIC I am glad that people today are much more willing to place themselves in the photos that document their lives. Let us continue to be engaged in our own experiences, and with the
A snapchat from my 23rd birthday. I love that snapchat allows you to add non-indexical material to your images. I think this photo
people with whom we share those experiences. And when we document those moments, let us not be ashamed—of our selfies or of ourselves.
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 57
LEAVE SELFIES ALONE Lesley Kinzel is a deputy editor at xojane.com. This piece was originally published in its unedited form on November 22, 2013 on xojane.com.
58 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
I don't actually give a shit whether the selfie is a
There's a reason a woman like Tess Munster has
feminist, pro-woman act. My personal interest
over 85,000 followers on Instagram -- because the
in feminism is not real invested in the individual
opportunities to see women who deviate markedly
expression, vadge-shaving, should-I-let-a-dude-
from the fashion-model norm are so precious
hold-the-door-for-me stuff. Truth is, I don't
to those women who feel invisible in the world.
actually go about my day asking myself whether
See Tess' #effyourbeautystandards hashtag on
every little thing I individually do is "feminist," but
Instagram for more examples of this, and a bit of
I guess many other folks do, and hey, Godspeed
evidence in how selfies have helped a lot of women
to those who walk that path, sincerely. You're a
to accept themselves as they are, and to stop hating
more conscientious person than I.
themselves for how they look.
I'm definitely interested in what we all do as self-
For many women, the gratification of posting a selfie
expression online, but I can't honestly say I spend
is not simply about being told you're "pretty,"
much time worrying about how feminist it looks. Because while I think the criticism that selfies may encourage some young women to continue to value themselves as decorative objects may be valid, that's an awfully narrow view of a very broad selfie phenomenon. For example, selfies are important to a lot of folks for the simple reason that they offer a rare opportunity to see a woman who looks like they do represented in media, even if it's simply social media. The overwhelming majority of women we see held up as idealized beauty every day are very slender and very white, not to mention very able-bodied and very "feminine" according to traditional standards.
IT’S ABOUT BEING REASSURED THAT YOU EXIST, THAT YOU ARE SEEN, AND YEAH, THAT YOU ARE WORTH LOOKING AT, NOT MERELY AS A DECORATIVE ITEM BUT AS A LIVING, FEELING HUMAN –something some of us need to be reminded of when we're feeling down or upset or lonely.
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 59
In full disclosure, I love other people's selfies. I love them because Marianne, one of my very best friends, lives 1200 miles away; because my coworkers are all in New York; because I get to see my mom face-to-face for a total of maybe four or five days every year. I love selfies because they give me the opportunity to put faces to the screen names of so many people who've communicated with me over the years -- and not just one face, in a thoughtfully-framed, posed photograph taken by someone else, but a range of expressions captured in private moments, as the taker wants to be seen. Seeing all these people's faces, people I know and don't know, gives humanity to an internet that is often cruel because it is so faceless and anonymous. And even on that self-expression tip, selfies are hardly a new thing. I was taking proto-selfies in the 80s, with an old Kodak Instamatic camera. I have "selfies" I took as an eight year old, an eleven year old, a fifteen year old, more -- long before anyone even considered putting a camera in a phone, and I love them because they represent me trying to document myself. And I succeeded! I have me, as I wanted to be seen, as I saw myself, at that time in my life! More or less. A little blurry. These images are communication, as much as any snapshot is, and they're probably less ephemeral than we like to think.Â
60 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS
Whether selfies are slowly destroying feminism or making women more appearance-obsessed is totally a thing people are allowed to worry about. But it turns out selfies aren't taken for one reason alone (vanity), nor do they all serve one universal purpose (reassurance that you are "pretty"). And even if they are sometimes? That's OK too.Â
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 61
62 SURVEYING SELFIES
SECTION FIVE
SURVEYING SELFIES
SURVEYING SELFIES 63
3
64 SURVEYING SELFIES
TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF(IE) A note from the designer
At the beginning of my research on selfies (approximately when the photo to the left was taken), I realized that I was coming in with an inherent bias due to my obvious interest in the topic. So I did what I figured any actual researcher would do: sent out a survey to gauge how people other than myself felt about the topic. Well, sort of. It was a little less than scientific, since it was sent out via Facebook (through both mine and my mother’s), but that does not make the responses any less interesting. In the end, what the survey results prove is that our views on selfies are as varied as our culture definitions want us to believe they are narrow. They are serious and funny and sometimes a little bit sad. They are concerned about narcissism, absolutely, as much as they reference Kim Kardashian and duckface. And while they mostly represent the collective thoughts of college students, they also include responses from two high school students and four people between the ages of 40 and 53. I hope they are as interesting for you to read as they were for me to collect and put together for you here.
SURVEYING SELFIES 65
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF “SELFIES”?
MEASURING TONE One of the things that interested me the most about the responses to this question was whether or not people had an inherent positive or negative reaction to the term “selfie”. Surprisingly, two-thirds of the responses were completely neutral. Of the other one-third of the respones that I determined did have a tone, three-fourths of those were pessimistic and often adopted a patronizing tone towards selfie-takers. However, I was pleased to find that some people did look at selfies in a positive light and did not look down on those who opt to take them.
9%
Positive Neutral Negative
25%
66 SURVEYING SELFIES
66%
I either think of someone really basic (even
A selfie is a completely unabashed picture
though I hate that word) taking pictures for
that someone takes of themself either to
Instagram or some girl/guy taking mirror
keep personal or share with others. Selfies
pics for their profile picture. They're either
are a great way of promoting a positive
flexing their muscles (how much confidence
self-image, and frankly the hate that they
do you have to lack to need to do that?) or
get is probably from people who think badly
pushing up their boobs and taking the selfie
about themselves, which they translate into
from above *sigh*
a generalized hate of others.
KIM KARDASHIAN I think of some high profile selfies like the Ellen selfie with all of her celebrities. I also think of taking personal naked pictures of myself when I was a kid. I think of a little bit of narcissism too. Someone taking a picture of themselves with their cellphone alone Took me a long time to know what one was.. now I want to do a bunch with my 80 yr old father to never forget his face.
DUCK FACE IS THE WORST AND PLEASE STOP USING HORRIBLE FILTERS I think of the process of taking a photo yourself of you personally or you with multiple people. It's when you have the reach your arm out and awkwardly take the photo.
I think of sorority girl or vain girl taking a picture of herself with the sun shining on her in an angle so she looks better than normal. Pursed lips are a plus. I also usually think of selfies in a sarcastic way when I take them myself.
People taking pictures of themselves. It’s usually pretty vain. People take a ton of pictures and then pick the one they look best in to send out on social media. Multiple times a day, often.
LOOKING REALLY GOOD/HAVING GOOD TIMES AND WANTING TO TAKE A PHOTO Girls trying to get attention, insecurities I think of snapchat, of the selfie as a form of communication and a way to make odd faces, share your life in pictures, and express yourself. I think of it as a strange social phenomenon in which there are varying levels of social acceptance (When is it appropriate to take a selfie? Where is the
Instagram, how hard it is to take a good
line where you start to seem like you have
selfie, perfect lighting, selfie Sunday
an ego if you post selfies to social media?) I also think of selfie sticks–those things are weird but effective.
SURVEYING SELFIES 67
LET’S TALK STATS SO WHO EVEN ANSWERED THIS SURVEY?
Responses to the survey
Age with the most responders
Youngest responder
Oldest responder
Two-thirds of responders identified themselves as female
1%
13% 8%
HOW OFTEN DO YOU TAKE SELFIES? 31%
18% 16%
Daily
A Few Times a Month
A Few Times a Day
Weekly
Other
A Few Times a Week
13% 18% 68 SURVEYING SELFIES
Once a Year
WHERE DO YOU USUALLY SHARE SELFIES?
1% 3%
Via Text
Other
Snapchat
Nowhere
OTHER
10%
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM FOR TAKING SELFIES?
11%
Via Text
Other
Snapchat
75%
WHY IS THAT PLATFORM YOUR FAVORITE?
FACEBOOK I don't use any of these other ones except Instagram but I feel awk posting a selfie on Instagram
INSTAGRAM As I slowly translate my social media into a professional practice, Insta is one of the places where it still (for the most part), feels like it's just for me. The "Likes" and "Comments" system also allows me to accrue tangible and measurable praise
IT’S THE ONLY FORM OF SOCIAL MEDIA THAT I DO. I’m technically challenged and that is my only social media. It’s easy to do on my iPhone. Most of my friends are on it.
and approval, which I often (perhaps inadvisably) use to calculate my self-worth.
70 SURVEYING SELFIES
Because I don’t have an Instagram.
SNAPCHAT Its the one that seems the least narcissistic and is more streamlined for sharing activities in the moment. Also they (supposedly) disappear, so whats the harm? Snapchat is where selfies are most socially acceptable. I will occasionally post selfies with other people in the photo on my Facebook, but I am always more self conscious of those photos cause they're usually lower quality and for some reason, I do feel like they're less socially acceptable. My friends post selfies all the time on Twitter and Instagram, and I guess I just don't feel the most confident
IT CAN ONLY BE SEEN BY THE PEOPLE I SPECIFICALLY CHOSE TO SHARE IT WITH, AND IT DISAPPEARS AFTER 5 SECONDS. NOT THAT I’M HIDING ANYTHING, BUT WHY DOES EVERYONE IN THE WORLD NEED TO SEE MY FACE?
doing it on those formats. Also, cause
I wouldn't want a bunch of selfies to be
I feel like if you're posting a selfie on
somewhere permanent because then
social media, it should be a "pretty" selfie.
I'd look self indulgent. And snapchat
But with snapchat, it's more of a quick
is basically made for selfies, it's about
communication device so the selfies don't
connecting people face to face.
have to be quality. Plus, they go away! And fewer people see them.
BECAUSE IT’S TEMPORARY. I GENERALLY FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE POSTING SELFIES ON PLATFORMS LIKE FACEBOOK WHERE THEY DON’T GO AWAY BECAUSE I JUDGE PEOPLE WHO POST SELFIES SO I WORRY PEOPLE JUDGE ME FOR DOING THE SAME.
Because snapchat is pretty much designed FOR selfies, so no one can judge you for sending them! It's temporary, so the judgement is not (as) possible. It's also usually sent to only a few people, whereas on facebook or instagram, it's very public. I think the selfie can be very conversational, which doesn't lend itself to mass sharing–unless it's a selfie on top of Mt. Everest, the whole world doesn't need to see it. Because I dont have the patience for taking pretty selfies, so I let snapchat make them disappear. I take selfies in the context of conversation with specific people, not to share them with the greater public
SURVEYING SELFIES 71
WHY DO YOU TAKE SELFIES?
ANY CONCLUSIONS? Well, just like people think of a variety of things when
they think of selfies , people take selfies for a variety of reasons. And for the most part, its as simple as trying to CAPTURE SOMETHING AT A MOMENT IN TIME. Or it’s about DOCUMENTING BEING AROUND OTHER PEOPLE, maybe BEING IN A SPECIFIC PLACE. Or if another person isn’t there it’s about EXPRESSING YOURSELF WITH A PHOTO better than words ever would. Sure, there are moments that can be taken as narcissism, such as RECORDING A MOMENT WHEN THE SELFIETAKER LOOKS GOOD. But what’s the true harm in that?
72 SURVEYING SELFIES
Never alone unless it’s specific or extreme
For snapchat conversations mostly, but
situations (vacation or my snapchat story
also definitely on days when I think my
is gonna be really good if I include a selfie)
hair/makeup/face look really good and
also with other people if it's weird to ask
I want to remember it. Looking back on
someone else to take a photo for us.
those pictures can really give you a selfconfidence boost. And I think it's really
To express my mood to another person, or
great when you're confident to share
to prove that I was somewhere
them on other social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Usually to take pictures with friends, and then sometimes to check my teeth/hair/ makeup, etc.
Usually ironically, but also just to make funny faces at people to better get my point across. Sometimes with texts stuff gets lost
Usually when I'm really just feeling myself
in translation, so it's more fun to send a
and want a way to tangibly document the
funny picture along with it.
emotions that I am feeling at the time. Or when I need a quick photo for a project or
I did my makeup or hair well... Or I have a
club I'm involved in.
really good pun but nothing else to be the subject of my photo.
To mark memorable moments or communicate with my friends.
Usually it's when I'm being stupid with my friends and feel like sharing that
90% of my selfies have other people in
ridiculousness with my other friends on
them. I want to document being with those
Snapchat.
other people in a particular place. I take "true selfies" (just me) to document being in
Just for funsies. Sometimes in response
a particularly lovely place (I've taken a bunch
to other selfies. Sometimes just to
when I find myself in beautiful secluded
communicate when I don’t have anything to
places while on walks), and occasionally to
take a picture of. Sometimes just to make
document good hair/makeup days. A lot
fun of myself to someone.
of times I send these to my mom, because she usually sees me stressed out, zitty, and
On vacations when I have access to other
in need of a haircut when I'm home during
peoples' smartphones (I use a primitive
breaks. She likes seeing me put-together
phone by choice).
and happy-looking. When I look different than other days– To show off how I look and maybe fish for
different make up, tried something new
some compliments. To learn more about my
with my hair, etc. When I realize that i'm
own face (I feel like I don't really get to see it
having one of those "good" days–good hair
that often).
day, good make up day, good skin day, etc.
SURVEYING SELFIES 73
74 REFLECTING ON SELFIES
SECTION SIX
THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS
REFLECTING ON SELFIES 75
76 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS
ALL THE THANK YOUS IN THE WORLD GO TO... Wow, it’s hard to believe that this is over. The
culmination of 4 months of hardcore designing,
editing, and staring intently into the bright lights of my monitor waiting for inspiration to strike are finally coming to an end. Thank you to Amy Auman for being my primary capstone advisor and Jonathan Hanahan for checking in, and occasionally sending me articles claiming to be about selfies that in the end actually had nothing to do with selfies. Another round of thank yous to the wonderful group of seniors in my actual capstone class: Anna Bang, Celine Bondoc, Danielle Clemons, Julia Kent, Sung Sub Kim, Nancy Landaverde, Simin Lim, Jackie Reich, Jocelyn Runice, Emily Sybrant, and Michael Tarazi. Mondays/Wednesdays from 1–4 really won’t be the same without y’all. A huge shout out to my exhibition poster models Shivangi Bhatia, Amanda Brown, Maddy Drolen, Rachel Eun, and Bonner Williams. You guys are star selfie-takers and models at the same time. And to the many friends who sent in selfies for me to use while making this book: I truly could not have made this work without your beauttiful faces. As for all my friends and, in particular, my roommates who put up with my ball of stress, who looked at drafts and were content with Snapchat selfies as proof that I was still alive and kicking despite having not been seen outside of studio for weeks on end. You guys made the moments I emerged from Steinberg during those last few weeks completely worth it and supported me every step of the way. And last, but not least, my parents, for a) letting their daughter go to art school, b) loving every piece of strange work I brought home from it, c) supporting me every step of the way and d) believing in me even when I didn’t. I actually mean it when I say I couldn’t have done it without you.
THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 77
IMAGES Page 8: via Instagram search using the hashtag #selfie Page 11: via Instagram search using the hashtag #selfie Page 12: Shutterstock Page 15: digitaltrends.com Page 16-17: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times Page 25: Adriana Lima taking a selfie, W Magazine Page 28: kerstin.kraus@rocketmail.com/FlickrCC Page 30-31: Getty Images Page 32-33: “Selfie” by Flickr user Paško Tomić Page 36: Tara Moore/Getty Images Page 38-39: white iPhone 5s from psdcovers.com, black iPhone 6 by macstories.net, selfies provided by friends Page 42: left selfie from reddit, right selfie provided by a friend Page 44-45: sofieswedding.com Page 48: James Franco Page 50-51: James Franco’s Instagram Profile Page 52: selfie provided by Tessa Page 54-55: selfies provided by Tessa Page 56: photo from the original article on xojane.com Page 59: iphone from designerfirst.com, photo from the original article on xojane.com Page 62: selfie taken by the designer Page 64: Christopher Furlong, Getty Images Page 70: iStockphoto
78 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS
ARTICLES The text used for this book was combined from articles published in a variety of sources. Unless noted in-book (as in the “Reflecting on Selfies” section) the original pieces the text was drawn from can be found as follows: “How Selfies Became a Global Phenomenon” by Elizabeth Day, originally published on theguardian. com on July 13, 2013; “The Return of the Selfie” by Kate Losse, originally published in The New Yorker on May 31, 2013; “Art at Arm’s Length” by Jerry Saltz, originally published on thevulture.com on January 26, 2014; “What Parents and Kids Should Know About Selfies” by Hannah Webster, originally published on the US News and World Report online on July 14, 2014; “The Mind-Blowing Way Selfies Will Change Our Future. Yes, Selfies” by Maseena Ziegler, originally published on forbes.com on July 14, 2014; “The Social Psychology of the Selfie” by by Christine Erickson, originally published on mashable.com on February 15, 2013; “Why Selfies Matter” by Alexandra Sifferlin, originally published on time.com on September 6, 2013; “The Selfie’s Screaming Narcissism Masks and Urge to Connect” by Jonathan Freedland, originally published on theguardian.com on November 19, 2013.
THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 79
This book was created by Casey Federbusch for her senior Communication Design capstone at Washington University in St. Louis in the spring of 2015. It is typeset in Open Sans on 80T Smart White French Paper Co. paper. It also uses Brandon Grotesque in Bold and Black.
THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 81