I recently read an interesting article by Erik Mackinnon who wrote about “selfies”. I don’t know a lot about his background, nor do I endorse all his articles. I only read this one article of his and reckoned it as thought provoking.
Urban dictionary defines a selfie as a picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to a social networking website. You can usually see the person’s arm holding out the camera. A selfie is usually accompanied by a kissy face or the individual looking in a direction that is not towards the camera.
In his article, though not a generalization, he calls out the trap of narcissism. In ancient Greek mythology, Narcissus was a man that was incredibly proud of his own beauty.
“One thing that I remember clearly is that until (anti)social networking came about, cameras never had lenses that faced you. The act of taking a picture was largely reserved for capturing memories of somewhere, or someone, or some time – not to snap a photo of yourself for the explicit purpose of having your ego stroked by your social networking contacts. It’s comically sad that a quick tag search on Instagram reveals tens of millions of photos tagged with ‘self’ in some regard, but given how emotionally needy your average young guy or girl is today, it’s not surprising.”
“What’s the point of all of this? It’s pretty simple: if you’re the type of person that relies on the constant admiration of others through #selfies or whatever else – you might need your head examined. Perhaps try using the camera on the other side of your phone for a while.”
Interesting thoughts by Mr. Mackinnon.
Some dismiss his article as old school, others think he’s judgmental while others say that he makes a lot of sense.
Let me know what you think…
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