The 'selfie effect' in regular society

The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society
Literature review of effects in selfie photography trend in day- to-day life.
U. V Vandebona
Index No: 13440722
2014 October
Master of Computer Science (MCS) - University of Colombo School of Computing

2 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore how the 'Selfie' culture deep rooted in present society and what brings it for the future. Specifically more focusing on the question, how this photography technique impact on the regular society in both negative and positive ways. This paper further discusses, would this trend leads for a sociological shift or a psychological problem.
Keywords: Selfie, Social Media, Photography, Sociology, Camera, Smart Phone, Young Generation, Celebrity, Photo Uploading
Introduction
Origin of the term ‘Selfie’ (self + ie) has appeared from the early 21st century. The immense development of social media and smart phones really impact the emergence of this word and being widely used as a general term. In the year 2013 Oxford Dictionaries announced their word of the year as the ‘selfie’, due to this sudden popularity. (1) Oxford dictionary defined this term as, “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media”. But before the rise of this selfie concept, smart phones or social media, the thought of taking self portraits was existed among people with using self-timers on the cameras. But the idea behind the selfie meant to be different than using a self timer, and also it should not take a longer snapping time process as self timer. Most importantly to be a selfie, photograph should be captured with a camera held at arm's length or focused at a mirror.
The other version of the selfie is group selfie, where the subject of the selfie is joined or crowded or at least with one other person. It is also gaining wide popularity in the selfie culture. And now the tendency is called them as ‘usie’, the 'self' replaced by a collective 'us'.
Anyway the whole concept is; wherever you are, whatever you are doing, with whom you are with, taking a snapshot of yourself to express it just as quick as you can.
History
Before coming into photography, the earliest selfie looking painting was done by Parmigianino way back in 1524, and it was named as “Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror”. In the painting, it portrays the artist himself distorted by a convex mirror which made it exactly look like a selfie. (2)
The very first self photograph or somewhat called selfie was taken by Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast, in way back 1839, very early days of photography explorations, experimentations and inventions. (3) Because of the slow capturing process at that time in camera’s, after setting up the camera he was able to run back and sit in front of the camera decently without peeping into it.
After 1900s mirror selfie technique was widely being used even it was not termed as selfie at that time. The first teenager who took a selfie was identified as Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna from the last Tsar family in 1914 when she was 13 years old. She used the mirror technique to capture the photo and says about that experience like this. “I took this

picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling.” (4)
Then the space exploration becomes a notable area of selfies with earth on the background, but they were not expressed as selfies until the term becomes a trend. Thereafter it was coined as astronaut selfies or rover selfies by the person or machine that took it and more generally called as space selfies. The very first known space selfie was captured by the astronaut Buzz Aldrin during the Gemini 12 mission in 1966. (5)
The actual usage of the term was first come into public view in 2002 on an Australian internet forum ABC Online. The forum member Nathan Hope with the username ‘Hopey’, posted a thread on this forum with linking his selfie photograph to seek medical advice for his stitched and injured lips. And there he typed the very first written use of the word ‘selfie’ as "sorry about the focus, it was a selfie." (6)
Selfie and Regular Life
The practical usage of this term was not being widely utilized until 2010, and come into to use in day to day life just from past couple of years. The main reason behind this was the easy access to smart phones gradually among the population. Nowadays it is customary to include a built in camera on every smart phone device. And sometimes it really confuses whether the phone is having a camera option or camera is having a phone option because of the high tech photography technologies it incorporates. And this technology ensured that selfies are more and more easier to produce and share on the web, making even regular people to do photography not only just pros. It was even become trendier after the front facing camera designs were integrated into the smart phones. When the social media sites become apps for the smart phones and introduction of mobile photo sharing apps such like Instagram with incorporated photo retouching features, selfie becomes more and more familiar obsession among the society, specifically among the young generation. Because this immediate photo sharing technology supports the person to say without uttering a word; where he is now, what he is doing now, what he looks like now and most significantly to state “Hello, this is me”.
According to WebSta Instagram Web Viewer, usage of hashtag ‘#selfie’ on Instagram retrieves 180,026,033 posts and on 14th place over top 100 tags in 2014 October. (7) All around world trend for selfie postings on popular social media such like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is average 50 to 99+ selfies per a minute according to analysis. (8)
Selfie and Celebrity Life
Selfie-ism is everywhere, even among the celebrities. It is becoming a way of increasing popularity by sharing their celebrity life directly to the fans, other than to a paparazzi camera. There are even serial selfie uploaders amongst celebrities. All time number one influencer for #selfie is Canadian singer and songwriter Justin Bieber and second place goes to the singer, actress, and songwriter Miley Cyrus. (9) All of these serial uploaders are from the young generation and popular among young generation. Not only the musicians and cinema/TV entertainers, now the sports people, educationists, entrepreneurs and even the politicians are excited with this selfie phenomenon. US President Barack Obama was identified as the most popular politician selfiegrapher after the selfie shot during the funeral of Nelson Mandela in 2013 December, which was coined afterwards as ‘Obama Selfie’. And it was gone virally making wild news

headlines connecting a huge back story. For celebrities, selfie is a fast track to popularity just like the Ellen DeGeneres ‘Oscar Selfie’, fast track to fame just like the Pope Francis ‘Papal Selfie’ and even fast track to bad name just like the ‘Obama Selfie’. Year 2014 fast shaped this moving phenomenon with attaching countless boldface names, sounds just like a self promotion campaign.
Selfie is a trendy topic in the popular culture to create number of lineups in the entertainment industry demonstrating this social behavior. In January 2014 American DJ duo ‘The Chainsmokers’ released a music video named ‘#SELFIE’ and was able peak in the music billboard charts. (10) Thereafter in the same year February another music video released by Nina Nesbitt titled ‘Selfies’ expressing the same phenomenon. (11) Then in 2014 September, an American television sitcom ‘Selfie’ premiered on ABC Television Network, with a story of a woman whose trying to achieve fame through social media. (12)
Sociological Effects
Selfie is perhaps tending to be a greater interest for social scientists. With thorough analysis it is evident that, this becoming more fashionable predominant trend among young generation. In a more detail level it is apparent that teenage girls are more tend to capture their selfie faces when a new hairstyle, makeup or facial going on with them. Taking a selfie when on a special occasion, or else before the participation of the event, becoming a typical scenario among teen girl culture. Most notable selfies have odd angles, kissy faces or looking in a direction that is not towards the camera. In particularly mirror selfies are their habitual behavior to show off when a new outfit wears on. So it is clear that teen girl customary is still not changed from the time period of last Tsar family as we mentioned about 13 years old Anastasia before. (4) When talking about young male generation, more often they like to pose with a newly bought or tried entry; specifically a gadget, tool, pet, place, monument or someone in the opposite gender. Solo selfies are rarely been seen among habitual young male selfiegraphers after the tryout beginner time period. In any occurrence if it is looks like a solo one, they’ll be more apt to describe what the occasion is. Also it is noticeable that they are frequent users of group selfies. (13)
A study which was carried out in year 2013 using Facebook users, claimed that people who are posting selfies as habitual users are more likely to have lower levels of social support, but higher level of closeness among Facebook friends. This study suggests that such happening may risk damaging their real life relationships. (14) According to a study done by Samsung in 2013, 30% of photos taken by people age between 18 and 24 are selfies. And it also reveals that most of the selfies are taken by men than women.
In the episode of ‘Elders React to #selfie’ telecasted on ‘Elders React’ series produced by a American YouTube channel ‘TheFineBros’, expresses how the older generation is unaware about the selfie fascination going on with younger generation, and also elders thoughts of how stupid obsession it is as well as with the amazement of the technology and future. (15) On the same production house ‘TheFineBros’, episode of ‘Teens React to Super Selfie’ of their ‘Teens React’ series proves that, it is no doubt that the two generations have two opposite views about the selfie experience specially when it comes to the situation of privacy and connecting with others and having leisure. (16) But it is a truth fact that embarrassing situations can occur when the pictures are getting spread outside of the person’s boundary.

Now the ‘selfie’ is one of top ten buzzwords in social networking arena according to Times Magazine. (17) The number one purpose of uploading selfies becomes to collect ‘like’s or upbeat comments from its viewers. It is like seeking approval or gaining compliments on the appearance. With more likes, comments and views, it is a certain fact that selfie turn out to be the profile picture which gives him or her, a unique presence in the internet, for a big time until the next profile picture take place. Most of the youth are actually towards for selfies with the thought of to make it as the profile picture in the social networking application they are using. If it got less rating, there is a high probability of having a new one soon enough. If someone observes the behavior of the uploader from the moment after upload of the selfie on social media, he can clearly see how the monitoring process goes with number of refreshing times, gaze at the notification area and counting of likes, comments or views already got. (13)
A new and controversial trend called ‘Selfie Olympics’ (#selfiegame or #selfieolympics) with the concept of taking selfies in unusual situations was bought up on Twitter and other social media in the beginning of 2014. This was clearly showed how tragic the crazy desire of teens to do stunt act show offs publicly even risking their lives, as most of the participants of this contest were teenagers just for publicity. (18)
So does this whole selfie movement describes the weak self esteem have in the younger generation? Was this whole online posting of own self image wherever goes and whatever does means the people need to make sure themselves and also others, that they exists? Or does this means everybody needs one minute of glory per day? There was a time; people and celebs were so afraid and hated of being captured into paparazzi in their regular life. But now posing for a selfie and distributing it to the world resembles, becoming your own paparazzi. According to the Curtin University cultural studies expert Professor Jon Stratton, selfies are more about seeking reassurance. He says “It's people looking for their friends to confirm they look good. You want that reassurance, we all want people to say positive things about us.” Addition to that he strictly mention about privacy. He declares that people’s perception on two distinctions private and public is no longer exists, or on the way for that. The opinion of internet studies lecturer Dr Tama Leaver from the same educational institution about this narcissism behavior is a positive one with regard to the technology and fashion. His thoughts reflect the time period where people sit for a painting which was so time consuming and expensive. (19) Clinical psychologist Dr Anjali Chhabria’s idea of selfies is like creating virtual identities which people wish to be they are but truly what they are not. She termed it as ‘False Image’. (20)
Most of the people use group selfies as a convenient way of removing the annoyance of criticism in narcissism display of a selfie, while subtly reminding the followers that they’re constantly surrounded by friends and loved ones. This is mostly used by couples, families; specifically parents with their new born babies and colleagues or best friends. (21)
Selfies are likely to cause addiction, mental illness and even suicide. In 2014 February, officials of Hong Kong Marathon had to take an initiative to prohibit taking selfies during the running, due to the injuries taken place in the 2013 marathon when runners stopping to snap selfies which causes pile-up and resulted bruises in participants. (22) This evidently shows how the addiction turns to a mania afterwards.
Selfie obsessed teenager Danny Bowman who was attempted suicide says he ended up shooting about 200 pictures trying frantically to catch-up the perfect image. After his medical treatments,

it was identified that he was diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also known as body dysmorphia or dysmorphic syndrome. A mental illness that causes one to sufferer and spend a lot of time worrying about their appearances. After the medical therapies, his thoughts echoed that, this selfie taking addiction was like drugs, alcohol or gambling, which is quickly spiral out of control. (23)
New Trends and Future
Figure 1: Google Trend of Search Topic 'Selfie'
Shown above from the Figure 1 is the search interest on selfie in Google search engine from the year 2004 to 2014 October. (24) It was topped in the day, the ‘Oscar Selfie’ was captured. This graph conveys how increasingly worldwide web search interest for selfie has been developed and on the other hand how increasingly the term was used in the last two years.
Memes
From time to time popular trends, so called memes, appears in the selfie culture. It is a behavior of uploading different types of selfies, sharing it online under the designated hashtag, and then considered to be passed from one individual to another and spread virally among social media users. Sometimes promoted by the social media also. (25)
• Sellotape Selfie: Act of wrapping the face in adhesive tape as to appear monstrous in a crooked and squished manner.
• Selfie Olympics: Also known as Trick Shot Selfie. A photo fad that involves taking a mirror- shoot selfie while posing in a physically challenging manner.
• No Makeup Selfie: Act of showoff without wearing any cosmetics.
• Sign Holding Selfie: Act of participating in a social or political movement by taking a selfie, or posing for a picture, with a handwritten sign featuring a message about the issue and.
Sometimes some memes arise inside geographical bounds. For example SelfieWithModi meme was trending topic on India after Narendra Modi selfied himself after casting his vote demonstrating his inked finger and thereafter inviting other voters to do the same.
Mobile phones, Apps and Technology
According to a Research conducted for the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone reveals that most of the people are no longer using phones primarily for making calls and it is increasingly utilize to share photos of their lives with others. (26) It is no doubt that mobile phone photo sharing apps with integrated retouching features which transforms selfies into glamorous shots, supports the research to reveal such kind of findings.
Imagist Labs iOS application ‘Selfie’ takes the advantage of front facing camera on smartphones and human obsession of taking self portraits. According to creators of this application they describe selfie as a common form of communication which can display moods and surroundings, and a great analytic tool to look at variety and diversity of faces in the world. (27)
Group Selfie technique is a great pusher for mobile phone manufacturers to incorporate new photography and editing technologies in smart phones, because it is the major gainer to win the

competitive advantage in smartphones industry. At the launch of smart phone Huawei Ascend P7, Huawei made an interesting statement that, the phone utilize a quite powerful front camera and features to take awesome group selfies which they trademarked as ‘groufie’ like as the Samsung trademarked their ‘wefie’ . (28)
Digital equipment manufacturer Sony stated that they have introduced a Professional selfie smartphone with real-time selfie apps. According to independent consumer test from Strategy Analytics conducted in June 2014, claims that Sony’s Xperia C3 is the world’s best smart phone for selfies. (29) The images snapped at its front face camera considered better than those from all leading flagship industry competitors, and that was show the way to high consumer preference.
Marketing and Branding
Selfie contests or selfie campaigns are one way of branding products, services and organizations. It directs to divulge creative ways of selfie centered marketing by make involving users or employees. Famous way of branding products is encouraging followers to send their selfies taken with the product in, driving engagement and traffic to the brand site. Other way is generating engagement by leveraging celebrity star selfie power like as the ‘Oscar Selfie’. Most of the organizations encourage its employees to share group selfies among their social networks, as it gives a picture of the friendly working environment which is a one tactic of promoting business. (30)
Selfie Etiquette
Final words to say, selfie is a representation of the current generation which thrives on technology. The digital world which connects everyone virtually with outside world at the click of a button also isolates them in physically. Smartphones attached with social media gives a platform to express the moment but maybe effects of it will be on future. However it is not totally brings out bad deeds. It portrays the love someone feels for themselves. It operates as a tool for empowerment. Clicking selfies at holidays or any other occasion will bring out everlasting visual remembrance that would otherwise get lost in time. So the appropriate way is to deal with the technology without losing yourself on it. The Times of India describes about polite ways of dealing with selfies in regular life. (20)
• Don't be overly dependent on the praise you get from selfies to build your sense of self, as there is a fine line between confidence and over- confidence.
• Be careful to keep the picture uploads in check so that it does not become such an obsession that you upload selfies multiple times a day in order to get a reaction.
• These platforms are used by millions all over the world, and there is a chance of pictures being misused. Make sure your social media profile is set to private, so that only friends and family have access to your photo uploads.
Reference
1. Oxford Dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 is…. OxfordWords blog. [Online] November 18, 2013. [Cited: October 11, 2014.] http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/11/word-of- the-year-2013-winner/.
2. Wikipedia. Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [Online] October 7, 2014. [Cited: October 11, 2014.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- portrait_in_a_Convex_Mirror.
3. Open Knowledge Foundation. Robert Cornelius’ Self-Portrait: The First Ever “Selfie” (1839). The Public Domain Review. [Online] 2013. [Cited: October 11, 2014.]

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/robert- cornelius-self-portrait-the-first-ever-selfie-1839/.
4. Atchison, Bob. Letters of Grand Duchess Anastasia. Alexander Palace Time Machine. [Online] [Cited: October 11, 2014.] http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/adiaries.html.
5. Aldrin, Buzz. Did you know I took the first space selfie during Gemini 12 mission in 1966? BEST SELFIE EVER. Twitter. [Online] July 18, 2014. [Cited: October 11, 2014.] https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/490293546851635201.
6. A. B. C. News. This photo, posted on ABC Online, is the world's first known 'selfie'. ABC News. [Online] November 19, 2013. [Cited: October 11, 2014.] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-19/this-photo- is-worlds-first-selfie/5102568.
7. Websta Intagram Web Viewer. HOT TAGS & INSTAGRAMERS. Websta (Webstagram). [Online] [Cited: October 12, 2014.] http://websta.me/hot.
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11. NinaNesbittMusicVEVO. Selfies. YouTube. [Online] December 15, 2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXh8B4yWVKk.
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16. TheFineBros Teens React. TEENS REACT TO SUPER SELFIE. YouTube. [Online] February 23, 2014. [Cited: October 13, 2014.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC4wfMSJ11M.
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19. McHugh, Jillian. 'Selfies' just as much for the insecure as show-offs. WA Today. [Online] April 3, 2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.watoday.com.au/business/media-and- marketing/selfies-just-as-much-for-the-insecure-as- showoffs-20130403-2h6ow.html.
20. Fernandes, Kasmin and Shah, Shikha. Selfie time. The Times of India. [Online] December 1, 2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life- style/people/Selfie-time/articleshow/27074750.cms.
21. Shontell, Alyson. Selfies Are Dead, It's All About The 'Usie' Now. Business Insider. [Online] January 13, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.businessinsider.com/selfies-are-dead-its- all-about-the-usie-now-2014-1.
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http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/09/18/saying-no-to- selfies-at-the-hong-kong-marathon/. 23. Molloy, Antonia. 'Selfie obsessed' teenager Danny Bowman suicidal after failing to capture 'the perfect selfie'. The Independent. [Online] March 24, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home- news/selfie-obsession-made-teenager-danny- bowman-suicidal-9212421.html. 24. Google Trends. Web Search interest - Worldwide, 2004 - present. Google. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en- US#q=%2Fm%2F0sgh53y&cmpt=q. 25. Know Your Meme. Selfie. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/selfie. 26. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. Men Overtake Women in the Selfie Stakes According to New Research. Samsung UK . [Online] November 28, 2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.samsung.com/uk/news/local/men- overtake-women-in-the-selfie-stakes-according-to- new-research.
27. Mulshine, Molly. New Selfie App Will Be Your New Fave Or Your Worst Nightmare. Molly Mulshine. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://betabeat.com/2013/10/new-selfie-app-will-be- your-new-fave-or-your-worst-nightmare/. 28. Gicheru, Martin. Huawei's Groufie versus Samsung's Wefie, which one's cooler? Techweez. [Online] May 19, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.techweez.com/2014/05/19/huawei- groufie-samsung-wefie/. 29. Xperia™ C3. Sony Smartphones (Global UK English). Sony. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.sonymobile.com/global- en/legal/testresults/xperia-c3/. 30. Griner, David. Infographic: How Brands Became Selfie Obsessed. AdWeek. [Online] February 11, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.] http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/infographic-how- brands-became-selfie-obsessed-155651.

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