S is for Selfie

The Selfie.   Nearly all of us  have taken one at one time or another, either it was to try it out and see what all the hype was about or to share a photo with someone – it has become the way we share our lives with others.

There is some concern, however, in some circle that selfies may actually lead to some sort of mental illness.  Now, before you start to panic, there are many schools of thought on this and I am going to explain just a couple of them. 

According to Psychcentral.com,  taking too many selfies is not a mental disorder.  Some may see the overuse of the photos as a problem, but its not a mental illness.  They have simply become all the rage the updated smartphones and cameras.  There was a recent article out of the Philippines that called the obsessive selfies, “Selfitis.”  What people did not realize is that they were reading a parody site and never bothered to check the facts of the article. 

The question remains, however, is there actually any research in the phenomenon?  Could it one day be considered a mental disorder?   It is doubtful unless it is linked to a person’s pre-existing illness and narcissism. 

This leads me to my second article on Selfies.  Psychology Today says in an article about, Facebook – Selfies  - and narcissism, selfies generate strong emotion in us.  We enjoy seeing ourselves, which many will relate to being narcissistic and simply enjoying the idea of seeing oneself in pictures and sharing them with the world on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. 

A study was done with over 400 people who were asked about their Facebook behaviors, one of the main questions was about how they would rate their profile picture.  This is where the narcissism came out in most people.   They see themselves as their profile picture, how it is seen by others, are they attractive, etc.  According to the test, however, women tended to be more narcissistic when it came to how they were perceived in their profiled picture.  It reflected much of their identity, more so than men. 

So, there are many thoughts on what selfies are doing to us as a culture, is it good or bad, no one can say for sure.  It is a personal opinion as to what you do with the pictures, how often you take them and what they are used for.  For those already living with mental illness, it can affect the perception of ourselves if the pictures are not received as we think they should be.

It’s a fine line to be walked by us all.  As technology develops  I am sure we will be faced with another “habit” before long.

How many selfies do you take?  Do you think it can lead to bad behaviors and thoughts? 

“S” is for Selfies #atozblogchallenge

It’s the new word for the 21^st century; the selfie has taken on a life of its own, and everyone is on board.  As I thought about what write for the letter S, this is what came to mind; pictures of ourselves that we share with the world.  The official definition of a selfie is, “ A selfie is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr. They are often casual, and are typically taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror.”

Today, everything is digital and we use that to our advantage.  There is the ability to touch up a picture before it is seen by anyone else, and lets us control how we are portrayed to the public.  The most popular photo now is the one we take of ourselves, or with us in a group we show who we are at that particular moment in time, no waiting anymore.  Surprisingly, though, this generation did not invent the selfie as we know it, the first photo was taken in 1839.  In 1900 with dawn of what was then new  technology, self-portraits  were taken by using a mirror, sound familiar?  

I think back to our amazement when Polaroid pictures were introduced, the idea of having instant pictures was more than we could have imagined then, and we took advantage of this new technology, yet the idea of taking photos of ourselves didn’t really come to mind.  First of all, there was no easy way to take a selfie then, and if you did it didn’t look right   No, I am from the days of the old 110 film and eventually 35mm, waiting days for the photos to come back from the developer and hoping they developed the way I had expected.  For me, there was a time of excitement and wonder as to what I would see when I opened the envelope and looked at each photo, remembering the moment in the time that it was taken. 

I am a fan of the digital, don’t get me wrong; I love having the ability to edit my photographs in various software programs until it looks just the way I want.  I do not think I would go back to regular film at this point; I have been spoiled.  I can wonder now what we will see in the future in term's photography, with the advances already made the sky seem to be the limit.