Self(ie) Perception

1REFLECTING ON SELFIES

SELF(IE)PERCEPTION

2 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

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look at selfies, one page at a time (a senior capstone)

SELF(IE)PERCEPTION

A photograph that one has taken of oneself,

typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam

and shared via social media:

VIA THE OXFORD

ENGLISH DICTIONARY

A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be

uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort

of social networking website. You can usually see

the person’s arm holding out the camera in which

case you can clearly tell that this person does not

have any friends to take pictures of them so they

resort to Myspace to find internet friends and

post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves.

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 taking of a picture of yourself and posting

it on Facebook because you have extremely low

self-esteem and you need people to comment

to tell you how hot or pretty you look. In reality

you just look desperate for attention. And no

matter how attractive you might be, you still look

pathetic. See also duck face/kissy face makes

you look retarded.

The beginning of the end of intelligent civilization.

VIA URBANDICTIONARY.COM

7CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE CONNECTING WITH SELFIES REFLECTING ON SELFIES SURVEYING SELFIES

21

35

47

7

61

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”

2002

FIRST RECORDED USE OF THE WORD “SELFIE”

MYSPACE LAUNCHEDAUGUST 1, 2003

2003


SECTION ONE

THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE

2004

FACEBOOK LAUNCHEDFEBRUARY 4, 2004

FIRST DEFINED2005

An early definition of “selfie” appears on the website urbandictionary.com

11THE HISTORY OF SELFIES

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

addictive. Soon, you repeat the whole process,

trying out a different pose. Again and again, you

offer yourself up for public consumption.

FILTER (NOUN)A particular effect that can be applied to an image or a piece of an image. Most commonly used on Instagram.

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 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 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.

2006

2007


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

2008

2009


THE SELFIE IS REVOLUTIONIZING HOW WE GATHER AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ABOUT OURSELVES AND OUR FRIENDS

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.

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 near-constant 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.

Selfies are usually casual, improvised, fast; their

primary purpose is to be seen here, now, by other

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,

“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.”

INSTAGRAM LAUNCHEDOCTOBER 6, 2010

SNAPCHAT LAUNCHEDSEPTEMBER 2011

The latest version of Apple’s immensely popular iPhone adds a front-facing camera to its list of new features

IPHONE 4 AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDERJUNE 15, 2010

2011

2010

Oxford Dictionaries declares “selfie” the “Word of the Year” and includes it in upcoming editions

WORD OF THE YEAR2013

While hosting the Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres takes a selfie that is retweeted over 2 million times.

THE OSCAR SELFIEMARCH 2, 2014

2014

19THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE

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 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."

THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE

SELFIES COME FROM

They are a folk art that is already expanding the language and lexicon of photography. Selfies are a photography of modern life—not 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.

ALL OF US

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE22

23THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

SECTION TWO

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE


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 much-beloved millennial.


BUT THERE IS MORE TO THE SELF PORTRAIT THAN SHEER NARCISSISMIndeed, 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.


THERE IS A PRIMAL HUMAN URGE TO STAND OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES AND LOOK AT OURSELVESsaid 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 front-facing 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.

28

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


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.


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.


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.


A KIND OF VISUAL DIARY, A WAY TO MARK OUR SHORT

EXISTENCE AND HOLD IT UP TO

OTHERS AS PROOF

THAT WE WERE HERE.

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–

The rest, of course, is open to interpretation.

36 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES


SECTION THREE

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.


Katie

Made it back to STL

WE ARE HARD-WIRED 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 rear-

facing 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.

VS


VSOui oui!

How’s Paris?? Did you find the Eiffel Tower??

Rachel

VS

Jocelyn

Guess what?? We found another bunny!!

VS

Kari

Ahh it looks like it’s so much fun!!!!!!!!!

Look, I’m a minion at an ultimate tournament!


WHAT SELFIES DO FOR US IS THEY HELP


BRING US BACK INTO THE CONVER-SATION


OUR DESIRE FOR CONNECTION

What history has shown time and time again–

what has remained a constant through the ages,

remarkably, is:


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.


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”


SECTION FOUR

REFLECTING ON SELFIES


Selfies are something new to me, but as I have

become increasingly addicted to Instagram, I have

been accused of posting too many of them. I was

called out on the “Today” show, and have even

been called the selfie king.

Maybe this is so, but only because I’ve learned

that the selfie is one of the most popular ways to

post — and garner the most likes from followers.

The likes spin out of control for selfies of me and

my two handsome brothers, especially Dave, the

other actor, whose image pulls in its own legion of

teenage fans.

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.

(Warning: Post your own, and you’ll see how

fast people become poetry specialists and offer

critiques like “I hate you, you should die.”)

THE MEANINGS OF THE SELFIE

But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems

to get attention. And attention seems to be

the name of the game when it comes to social

networking. And if you are someone people are

interested in, then the selfie provides something

very powerful, from the most privileged

perspective possible.

We speak of the celebrity selfie, which is its

own special thing. It has value regardless of

the photo’s quality, because it is ostensibly an

intimate shot of someone whom the public

is curious about. It is the prize shot that the

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.

These stars know the power of their image,

and how it is enhanced when garnished with

privileged material — anything that says, “Here is

a bit of my private life.”

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.


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.

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.

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.”

My sister and I.


It is easy to point to the selfie as an artifact of

everything that is wrong with the “me generation.”

The selfie upholds the image of the self-centered

millennial, walking through life with her phone—an

extensions of her brain!—perpetually focused on

herself. In many ways, the selfie is indeed narcissistic,

but I say: is it really a bad thing to insert yourself in

the documentation of a life that belongs to you?

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

of our cabins, the woods or even the high ropes

courses we conquered wouldn’t mean much to us in

the future, unless those photos also contained faces.

After that, I went from photographing things, to

photographing the people with whom I’d experienced

those things. To me, selfies are simply the next step.

After all, wasn’t I there, experiencing those things

and enjoying the company of those people? Why

shouldn’t I be present in those visual memories?

THE MUSINGS OF A SELFIE APOLOGISTTessa Huttenlocher is a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Chicago. In her spare time, Tessa enjoys overthinking things.


Most of my old family photos are one person

short. Someone is usually “behind the camera” in

situations where there wasn’t a third party around

to click the shutter. Even once self-timers became

standard-issue, my parents were reluctant to

spoil the moment by going through the motions

of setting up a Family Photo—balancing the

camera on a pile of books or a tree-branch, and

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.

I value the selfie for its intimacy. The selfies I’ve

taken with my little sister are more precious to

me than any of the pictures I have ever snapped

of her, and most of the pictures third parties

have taken of the two of us together. Our selfies

document the many times that we were spending

time alone together, and wanted to remember

that feeling of togetherness.


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!

Group selfie –birthday celebration at a bar on the North Side of Chicago

My friend Calvin and I went out to brunch in downtown Chicago, and we walked through Grant Park, where it was snowing apple-blossom petals. He lives in Singapore, and I haven’t seen him in over a year. This is one of the few photos of us together.

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 that is exactly what we did. And I have no regrets.


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 third-party 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.

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 people with whom we share those experiences. And when we document those moments, let us not be ashamed—of our selfies or of ourselves.

FOR ME, SELFIES ARE PARTICIPATORY, NOT NARCISSISTIC

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.

A snapchat from my 23rd birthday. I love that snapchat allows you to add non-indexical material to your images. I think this photo accurately sums up how I felt about turning 23.


LEAVE SELFIES ALONELesley Kinzel is a deputy editor at xojane.com. This piece was originally published in its unedited form on November 22, 2013 on xojane.com.


I don't actually give a shit whether the selfie is a

feminist, pro-woman act. My personal interest

in feminism is not real invested in the individual

expression, vadge-shaving, should-I-let-a-dude-

hold-the-door-for-me stuff. Truth is, I don't

actually go about my day asking myself whether

every little thing I individually do is "feminist," but

I guess many other folks do, and hey, Godspeed

to those who walk that path, sincerely. You're a

more conscientious person than I.

I'm definitely interested in what we all do as self-

expression online, but I can't honestly say I spend

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.

There's a reason a woman like Tess Munster has

over 85,000 followers on Instagram -- because the

opportunities to see women who deviate markedly

from the fashion-model norm are so precious

to those women who feel invisible in the world.

See Tess' #effyourbeautystandards hashtag on

Instagram for more examples of this, and a bit of

evidence in how selfies have helped a lot of women

to accept themselves as they are, and to stop hating

themselves for how they look.

For many women, the gratification of posting a selfie

is not simply about being told you're "pretty,"

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.

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS60

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.


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.

SURVEYING SELFIES62

SURVEYING SELFIES 63

SECTION FIVE

SURVEYING SELFIES

SURVEYING SELFIES64

3


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.

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF(IE)

A note from the designer

SURVEYING SELFIES66

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF “SELFIES”?

66%

9%

25%

Negative

Neutral

Positive

MEASURING TONEOne 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.


Someone taking a picture of themselves

with their cellphone alone

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

line where you start to seem like you have

an ego if you post selfies to social media?)

I also think of selfie sticks–those things are

weird but effective.

I either think of someone really basic (even

though I hate that word) taking pictures for

Instagram or some girl/guy taking mirror

pics for their profile picture. They're either

flexing their muscles (how much confidence

do you have to lack to need to do that?) or

pushing up their boobs and taking the selfie

from above *sigh*

LOOKING REALLY GOOD/HAVING GOOD TIMES AND WANTING TO TAKE A PHOTO

DUCK FACE IS THE WORST AND PLEASE STOP USING HORRIBLE FILTERS

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.

A selfie is a completely unabashed picture

that someone takes of themself either to

keep personal or share with others. Selfies

are a great way of promoting a positive

self-image, and frankly the hate that they

get is probably from people who think badly

about themselves, which they translate into

a generalized hate of others.

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.

KIM KARDASHIAN

Girls trying to get attention, insecurities

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.

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.

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.

Instagram, how hard it is to take a good

selfie, perfect lighting, selfie Sunday

SURVEYING SELFIES68

LET’S TALK STATS

18%

HOW OFTEN DO YOU TAKE SELFIES?

Weekly

A Few Times a Week

Daily

A Few Times a Day

Other

A Few Times a Month

Once a Year

31%

13%

16%

8%

13%

1%

Youngest responder Oldest responder

Age with the most responders

Two-thirds of responders identified

themselves as female

Responses to the survey

18%

SO WHO EVEN ANSWERED THIS SURVEY?

OTHER

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM FOR TAKING SELFIES?

WHERE DO YOU USUALLY SHARE

SELFIES?

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Via Text

Other

Facebook

Instagram

Snapchat

Via Text

Other

Nowhere

11%

10%

75%

1%

3%

SURVEYING SELFIES70

INSTAGRAMAs 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

and approval, which I often (perhaps

inadvisably) use to calculate my self-worth.

I don't use any of these other ones except

Instagram but I feel awk posting a selfie on

Instagram

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.

Because I don’t have an Instagram.

FACEBOOK

WHY IS THAT PLATFORM YOUR

FAVORITE?


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.

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

doing it on those formats. Also, cause

I feel like if you're posting a selfie on

social media, it should be a "pretty" selfie.

But with snapchat, it's more of a quick

communication device so the selfies don't

have to be quality. Plus, they go away!

And fewer people see them.

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?I wouldn't want a bunch of selfies to be

somewhere permanent because then

I'd look self indulgent. And snapchat

is basically made for selfies, it's about

connecting people face to face.

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.

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?

Because snapchat is pretty much designed

FOR selfies, so no one can judge you for

sending them!

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

SNAPCHAT

SURVEYING SELFIES72

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 SELFIE-TAKER LOOKS GOOD. But what’s the true harm in that?


Never alone unless it’s specific or extreme

situations (vacation or my snapchat story

is gonna be really good if I include a selfie)

also with other people if it's weird to ask

someone else to take a photo for us.

To express my mood to another person, or

to prove that I was somewhere

Usually to take pictures with friends, and

then sometimes to check my teeth/hair/

makeup, etc.

Usually when I'm really just feeling myself

and want a way to tangibly document the

emotions that I am feeling at the time. Or

when I need a quick photo for a project or

club I'm involved in.

To mark memorable moments or

communicate with my friends.

I did my makeup or hair well... Or I have a

really good pun but nothing else to be the

subject of my photo.

Usually it's when I'm being stupid with

my friends and feel like sharing that

ridiculousness with my other friends on

Snapchat.

Usually ironically, but also just to make

funny faces at people to better get my point

across. Sometimes with texts stuff gets lost

in translation, so it's more fun to send a

funny picture along with it.

For snapchat conversations mostly, but

also definitely on days when I think my

hair/makeup/face look really good and

I want to remember it. Looking back on

those pictures can really give you a self-

confidence boost. And I think it's really

great when you're confident to share

them on other social media platforms like

Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Just for funsies. Sometimes in response

to other selfies. Sometimes just to

communicate when I don’t have anything to

take a picture of. Sometimes just to make

fun of myself to someone.

On vacations when I have access to other

peoples' smartphones (I use a primitive

phone by choice).

90% of my selfies have other people in

them. I want to document being with those

other people in a particular place. I take

"true selfies" (just me) to document being in

a particularly lovely place (I've taken a bunch

when I find myself in beautiful secluded

places while on walks), and occasionally to

document good hair/makeup days. A lot

of times I send these to my mom, because

she usually sees me stressed out, zitty, and

in need of a haircut when I'm home during

breaks. She likes seeing me put-together

and happy-looking.

When I look different than other days–

different make up, tried something new

with my hair, etc. When I realize that i'm

having one of those "good" days–good hair

day, good make up day, good skin day, etc.

To show off how I look and maybe fish for

some compliments. To learn more about my

own face (I feel like I don't really get to see it

that often).


SECTION SIX

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 77

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.


IMAGESPage 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: [email protected]/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


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.

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.

Self(ie) Perception

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