The selfie phenomenon is the result of the new digital media age, giving any individual variable and simple tools in hands, acknowledging human first need of feeling more”narcissistic”, more “important” in society.
It became one of the most powerful mean of expression using photographs to encourage self-creativity and promote anyone online. Selfie won the loyalty of the young generation used to communicate, post and share on any social platform. Though, I think it is good to remember what selfie is especially for the generations who never heard about it before and instantly are exposed to a youth avoiding more and more social meetings or direct communication.
First of all, a selfie refers to letting anyone use his/her own phone to take a picture of himself/herself. Once the picture had been taken, three seconds later it is already posted or shared on social platforms. Introduced for the first time on November 19th 2013, the term “selfie” is awarded Word of the Year by The Oxford Dictionnaries. In less than two years, the “selfie” phenomenon spread like wildifre all overo social media by celebrities like Ellen Degeneres who took on her Samsung smartphone during The Academy Awards of March 2014 one of the most retweeted selfie of the history. Indeed, a study published on March 19th 2014 by Shea Bennett on adweek.com registered 48% of Facebook posts shared were seflies, mostly by women (52%) against 50% for men both aged 18 to 24 years old. The difference between the two sex genders is not that big and show how selfie became a common trend.
Even tough, the definition of selfie is clearly settled down in everyone’s mind , the invasion of selfie in social media raise new debates about appropriate situations to take a selfie. For instance, a selfie take by the American President Barack Obama during Nelson Mandela’s memorial day with British Prime Minister David Cameron Danish Prime M inister Helle Thorning-Schmidt became the center of strong dislikes toward selfie movement. Besides, the use of social media also became very tricky, indirectly pushing people into collecting more likes when they are sharing pictures, Posting an original selfie is the new need; to be “loved” and “supported” by the crowd she/he must be creative, different.
As a conclusion on this first article, I would like to say selfie is the best illustration to illustrate the perfect transition made by new technologies in our society; however, we are slowly letting digital tools transforming us into slaves, asking for more attention, likes, retweets, etc. Selfie entertains self-confidence, narcissim and lack of communication between young people. The downside of the coin is I can see how my genertation accepted the use of new digital tools and how younger people are getting completely obsessed by what is going on their phone or laptop screen.