Do Selfies Breed Loathing or Love?

Yep, that is me. One of many selfies on my camera. Until this article, when I had to actually count the selfies that I had on my phone, including the ones that weren't true selfies and not counted by my iCloud photos... I had an astounding number.

Pop Quiz!

Before I give my number, I would like you to share your own. So, take a moment to check for me, will ya? I would appreciate it because I have been doing some studies on the topic of selfies. Early in my relationship, my partner said to me, "RumDancer takes pictures of RumDancer". At first, I scoffed. Then I started to pay attention. He was right... but in my defense, he was usually included on these pictures as well.

It is my opinion that selfies tend to get a bad wrap. There seems to be a consensus that people that take selfies are narcissistic insecure types. Well, I guess that I am one of those. Thankfully, recent studies have shown that there is more to selfie-taking than pure self-love and loathing. In fact, while there was one study in 2015 that linked negative personality traits to the number of selfies posted, most studies actually disprove the fact that you can predetermine those negative traits.

Study of the Selfie

Selfies are part of the Western culture, pervasive as a means to collectively showcase individual photography... and discomfort causing for many a social media visitor. The term has been around for over 10 years, with the first recording of the term being “selfy”. They were placed on MySpace long before FB was a thing, but really gaining popularity in and around 2008. It was around 2010 that the actual tests began, as the selfie posting around social media garnered more and more attention from both the news media, as well as online visitors.

Selfies often give the impression that the person posting theme are vapid, vain, boring or desperate. In one recent study, there was a link between the amount of selfies taken and the amount posted. People that tend to dump post selfies are more likely to be linked with negative personality traits. I guess that makes me safe then. The most recent count on my camera phone is over 1,000. I certainly don't post them all and I should be given some credit that I take a lot of selfies, but I also turn them into animations such as the following.

Happy V-Day @Art.Gaming.Magic

:)

For starters, Selfies are unique images, rare gems of photography often catching more personal and intimate moments that we could not otherwise view. Additionally, they are also an opportunity for a completely new view of individual microcosm that is not directly influenced by the male gaze. Well, less than the typical image anyway.

Fade to Black and Back Again

I could post a lot more of these. I can't say that I am enamored with myself or that I take pictures of me because I love looking at me. Part of my own reasons for taking so many selfies is documentation. The fact is... this was a picture of me only a few years ago.

I have come a long way since then and have lost quite a bit of weight. I never really did shy away from the camera, but I can say that I tend to take more pictures now. A lot of the time it is simply a matter of wanting to see how I look now. Sometimes it is in awe that I look so different now. I don't know if I will ever get used to it. That got me thinking though... there has to be some people out there like me. The fact is, it isn't easy to lose that kind of weight and while I didn't do a massive posting, not even weekly or anything like that, I did tend to take more and more pictures, the more weight I lost. I have seemed to hit a plateau now though and it isn't like I don't take pictures anymore. I still do, but the kinds of pictures that I take do tend to vary when I am no longer focused on losing weight.

There Are People Out There Like Me, Right???

Turns out that there is. I found a recent study that exemplified the different reasons that people take selfies and took into account the purposes of posting and the actual act of taking the image. As it turns out, there are indeed a number of reasons beyond a person wanting to see themselves. I think that I knew this already but it is nice to have the facts when people want to talk negatively about when I do happen to post my own.

These are some of the reasons that the study covered for selfies. I wasn't completely satisfied with this. I figured there are other reasons that I know that I personally will post. Quite often, I turn myself into art or I use myself as the basis for my art. For starters, finding a person that will let you change their image without having an opinion about it, or having to meet the approval of others is one. I know that I am a willing participant i the art process.

Here is one that I posted not that long ago. I did it about a month ago maybe and my own image was used as inspiration. For me, it is easy to tell that it is a person there. I drew myself based on a picture and then did the work mostly digital.

The Art of Selfies

As I researched more and more I found that there were a lot of reasons to post selfies, as well as to take them. This form of art is new for many of us and while we are all acclimated to technology, there is a definite art form to selfies. I personally find that there is a difficulty in taking a good selfie. You want the right angle, and that angle will portray a different meaning. As the evolution of selfies took place we have seen a change from the duck lips to the intense male gaze angle to a more natural eye level picture taking the dominant form of the style. Whether you like selfies or not, the fact remains that much like portraits that people have had of themselves for millennia, this new form of picture taking really isn't that new.

Did you know that people used to call people narcissistic for getting their portrait painted as well for getting images did of them and their families.? It seems to me that people are always hating on those that have an interest in the image of the self, but then ultimately everyone comes around. Truthfully, in the case of selfies, it seems to be that the trend is catching on way faster than previous forms of self-imagery... namely because of money. It wasn't cheap, back in the day to get your family photographed, let alone a personal portrait painted by a decent artist.

Selfies are cheap and easy. The cost comes with your self-respect. Of course, I don't post all of my selfies. Not by a long shot. Many of them I just use for my own purposes. I guess, when you think about it, who really cares about your selfies? Who cares about mine? I mean, I do... but whether artsy or not... how long are you going to remember these for?

Through this article research and that which i have been doing on pictures and photographs as of late, I have ound some interesting facts. I realized early on that a lot of people had preconscieved notions of selfies and why they are posted, why people take them and what the art form (yes, I just called selfie taking an artform!) means for the future of photography. I have found that the general consensus says that by and large, so long as you don't post TOO many of them and you are not clogging the social media feed with those continuous pictures of you, you aren't looking like a douche tool when posting, and so long as you are making an effort to share pictures of yourself that tend to be well-received and worthwhile beyond showing your own face that you'll do okay. aIn fact, people will probably even share in the appreciation, which means you can be rewarded for them with those coveted likes, tweets and (my favorite) upvotes (depending on the platform).

So, don't be afraid of the reasons that people attribute to your selfie posting. Thankfully, we live in a world where if they dont like it then they don't have to look. Be smart and responsible with your postings and for future research.....

Please share the number of selfies that you have on your device. I am taking a tally and doing a bit of a statistical analysis of my own!

Thank you for reading!

Feel free to check out my other writings. :)
If you like this post, please make sure to upvote and share!

Oh... and for those that like the facts... here are some sexy resources!

References

Here are some of the places that I got my research and facts from. If you would like to find out more about the studies done on selfies, motivations or linked psychological statistics read on the reader!

What's My Motivation? looks into the reasons for people posting.

Dr. Julie says...