SELF(IE)

PERCEPTION

REFLECTING ON SELFIES

REFLECTING ON SELFIES

caseyfederbusch

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caseyfederbusch attempting to change how we
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SELF(IE)
PERCEPTION

VIA THE OXFORD

ENGLISH DICTIONARY
A photograph that one has taken of oneself,
typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam
and shared via social media:

VIA URBANDICTIONARY.COM
A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be

The taking of a picture of yourself and posting

uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort

it on Facebook because you have extremely low

of social networking website. You can usually see

self-esteem and you need people to comment

the persons arm holding out the camera in which

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

case you can clearly tell that this person does not

you just look desperate for attention. And no

have any friends to take pictures of them so they

matter how attractive you might be, you still look

resort to Myspace to find internet friends and

pathetic. See also duck face/kissy face makes

post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves.

you look retarded.

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 beginning of the end of intelligent civilization.

THE HISTORY
OF THE SELFIE 7
THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF THE SELFIE 21
CONNECTING
WITH SELFIES 35
REFLECTING
ON SELFIES 47
SURVEYING
SELFIES 61
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

FIRST RECORDED USE

OF THE WORD SELFIE
2002

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

2003

MYSPACE LAUNCHED
AUGUST 1, 2003

SECTION ONE

THE HISTORY OF
THE SELFIE

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 9

2004

FACEBOOK LAUNCHED
FEBRUARY 4, 2004

FIRST DEFINED
2005

An early definition of selfie

appears on the website
urbandictionary.com

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 youre not taking it too
seriously. A doe-eyed stare and mussed-up hair
denotes natural beauty, as if youve just woken
up and cant 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 ofwhat, exactly? Approbation?
Reassurance? Existential calm? Whatever it is, its

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

addictive. Soon, you repeat the whole process,

trying out a different pose. Again and again, you
offer yourself up for public consumption.

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 11

2006

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

2007

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 dont 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 arent for the
ages. Theyre like the cartoon dog who, when asked
what time it is, always says, Now! Now! Now!
Setting aside the formal dissimilarities between these
two formsof framing, of techniquetraditional
photographic self-portraiture is far less spontaneous
and casual than a selfie is. This new genre isnt
dominated by artists. When made by amateurs,
traditional photographic self-portraiture didnt
become a distinct thing, didnt 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. Its possible that the selfie is the
most prevalent popular genre ever.

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

THE HISTORY OF SELFIES

13

2008

2009

THE SELFIE IS
REVOLUTIONIZING
HOW WE GATHER
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
INFORMATION
ABOUT OURSELVES
AND OUR FRIENDS
Lets 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 mirrorsa distinct subset of this universe
selfies are nearly always taken from within an arms
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 nearconstant visual presence of one of the photographers
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 its not a
mirror shot, technically, its not a selfieits a portrait.

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.

THE HISTORY OF SELFIES 15

2010

IPHONE 4 AVAILABLE
FOR PRE-ORDER
JUNE 15, 2010

The latest version of Apples immensely

popular iPhone adds a front-facing
camera to its list of new features

INSTAGRAM
LAUNCHED

OCTOBER 6, 2010

Selfies are usually casual, improvised, fast; their

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

2011

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. Cmon:
The moral sky isnt falling. Marina Galperina, who with
fellow curator Kyle Chayka presented the National
#Selfie Portrait Gallery, rightly says, Its less about
narcissismnarcissism is so lonely!and its more
about being your own digital avatar. Chayka adds,

SNAPCHAT
LAUNCHED

SEPTEMBER 2011

Smartphone selfies come out of the same impulse

as Rembrandts...to make yourself look awesome.
Franco says selfies are tools of communication more
than marks of vanityMini-Mes that we send out to
give others a sense of who we are.

THE HISTORY OF SELFIES

17

WORD OF THE YEAR

2013

Oxford Dictionaries declares selfie

the Word of the Year and includes
it in upcoming editions

2014

THE OSCAR SELFIE

MARCH 2, 2014

While hosting the Oscars, Ellen

DeGeneres takes a selfie that is
retweeted over 2 million times.

Selfies are our letters to the world. They

are little visual diaries that magnify, reduce,
dramatizethat say

IM
HERE,
LOOK
AT
ME

THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE 19

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."

SELFIES
COME
FROM
ALL OF US
They are a folk art that is already expanding the

language and lexicon of photography. Selfies are a

photography of modern lifenot 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.

THE HISTORY OF THE SELFIE

22 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

SECTION TWO

THE PSYCHOLOGY
OF THE SELFIE

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 23

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 muchbeloved millennial.

24 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

BUT THERE
IS MORE TO
THE SELF
PORTRAIT
THAN SHEER
NARCISSISM
Indeed, perhaps the selfie and its wordless ability to

inform an audience isnt 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 transparentthings that digital
connectivity encourages.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 25

THERE IS A PRIMAL
HUMAN URGE TO STAND
OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES
AND LOOK AT OURSELVES
said 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 Showtimes 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 frontfacing 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.

26 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

28

TAKING A
PHOTOGRAPH IS
A WAY OF TRYING
TO UNDERSTAND
HOW PEOPLE SEE
YOU, WHO YOU
ARE, AND WHAT
YOU LOOK LIKE.

AND THERES NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT

30 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

At times, it feels largely performative, another way to

polish public-facing images of who we are, or who wed
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 thats not about the selfie.
Thats 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 lets be real: the most common selfie is the one where
you look cute, particularly becausae its 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, its a mini boost of confidence.
Sure, showing off a new outfit or that youre at a cool
event is fun, but it can be a slippery slope. Psychologist Jill
Weber, Ph.D., says theres 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 arent based on who you
aretheyre based on what you look like.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 31

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 youre having
a good day or opening a dialogue or line of
communication using an image the same way
you might simply text hi or whats up?
Teenage years involve forming your identity
through socializing, and in todays 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.

32 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

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 hundredsno,
thousandsof 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 couldnt 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 havent 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 doesnt
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.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 33

34 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE

Rather than dismissing the trend as a side effect of digital

culture ot a sad form of exhibitionism, maybe were
better off seeing selfies for what they are at their best

A KIND OF
VISUAL DIARY,
A WAY TO MARK
OUR SHORT
EXISTENCE
AND HOLD
IT UP TO
OTHERS AS
PROOF
THAT WE
WERE
HERE.
The rest, of course, is open to interpretation.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELFIE 35

36 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

SECTION THREE

CONNECTING
WITH SELFIES

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 37

38 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 preferonline
conversations and interactions that revolve around
images and photos. They are often more effective
at conveying a feeling or reaction than text. Plus,
weve 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 youre 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 thats how the
human brain works.

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 39

WE ARE HARDWIRED TO RESPOND

TO FACES,
she said. Its unconscious. Our brains process

visuals faster, and we are more engaged when

we see faces. If youre 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 youre trying to explain a
moment or tell a story, said Frdric della Faille,
the founder and designer of Frontback, a popular
new photo-sharing application that lets users
take photographs using both front- and rearfacing cameras. Its much more of a moment and
a story than a photo. And more often than not,
he added, Its not about being beautiful.
Above all, and this might be the selfies
redeeming feature: they are not designed to be
looked at solely by the subject. The selfies 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.

Katie

Made it back to STL

40 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

VS

Kari

Look, Im a minion at an
ultimate tournament!
Ahh it looks like its so
much fun!!!!!!!!!

VS

Rachel

Hows Paris?? Did you

find the Eiffel Tower??
Oui oui!

VS

Jocelyn

Guess what?? We found

another bunny!!

VS

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 41

WHAT SELFIES DO FOR US IS THEY HELP

42 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

BRING
US BACK
INTO THE
CONVERSATION
CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 43

What history has shown time and time again

what has remained a constant through the ages,
remarkably, is:

OUR DESIRE FOR

CONNECTION

44 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

When youre 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, VoIand
of course social media. When we created Facebook
profiles using our real identities, and when we
did it in the hundreds of millionseven though
skepticism abounded, we were allowing ourselves
as individuals and as a society to become more
intimate with technologymerging more of our real
selves with our virtual selves.
Whether you think thats a good thing or bad thing,
its 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.

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 45

46 CONNECTING WITH SELFIES

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

CONNECTING WITH SELFIES 47

48 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

SECTION FOUR

REFLECTING
ON SELFIES

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 49

50 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

THE MEANINGS
OF THE SELFIE
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.

Selfies are something new to me, but as I have

But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems

become increasingly addicted to Instagram, I have

to get attention. And attention seems to be

been accused of posting too many of them. I was

the name of the game when it comes to social

called out on the Today show, and have even

networking. And if you are someone people are

been called the selfie king.

interested in, then the selfie provides something

Maybe this is so, but only because Ive learned

that the selfie is one of the most popular ways to

very powerful, from the most privileged

perspective possible.

post and garner the most likes from followers.

We speak of the celebrity selfie, which is its

The likes spin out of control for selfies of me and

own special thing. It has value regardless of

my two handsome brothers, especially Dave, the

the photos quality, because it is ostensibly an

other actor, whose image pulls in its own legion of

intimate shot of someone whom the public

teenage fans.

is curious about. It is the prize shot that the

I can see which posts dont 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.

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.

(Warning: Post your own, and youll see how

These stars know the power of their image,

fast people become poetry specialists and offer

and how it is enhanced when garnished with

critiques like I hate you, you should die.)

privileged material anything that says, Here is

a bit of my private life.

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 51

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
youre feeling, where you are, what youre 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-Mes that we
send out to give others a sense of who we are.

I AM ACTUALLY TURNED
OFF WHEN I LOOK AT AN
ACCOUNT AND DONT SEE
ANY SELFIES, BECAUSE I
WANT TO KNOW WHOM
IM DEALING WITH.
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.

52 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 53

My sister and I.

54 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

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

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

Most of my old family photos are one person

everything that is wrong with the me generation.

short. Someone is usually behind the camera in

The selfie upholds the image of the self-centered

situations where there wasnt a third party around

millennial, walking through life with her phonean

to click the shutter. Even once self-timers became

extensions of her brain!perpetually focused on

standard-issue, my parents were reluctant to

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

spoil the moment by going through the motions

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

of setting up a Family Photobalancing the

the documentation of a life that belongs to you?

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

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

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.

of our cabins, the woods or even the high ropes

I value the selfie for its intimacy. The selfies Ive

courses we conquered wouldnt mean much to us in

taken with my little sister are more precious to

the future, unless those photos also contained faces.

me than any of the pictures I have ever snapped

After that, I went from photographing things, to

of her, and most of the pictures third parties

photographing the people with whom Id experienced

have taken of the two of us together. Our selfies

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

document the many times that we were spending

After all, wasnt I there, experiencing those things

time alone together, and wanted to remember

and enjoying the company of those people? Why

that feeling of togetherness.

shouldnt I be present in those visual memories?

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 55

Group selfie birthday celebration

at a bar on the North Side of
Chicago

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!

56

My friend Calvin and I went out

to brunch in downtown Chicago,
and we walked through Grant
Park, where it was snowing
REFLECTING ONapple-blossom
SELFIES
petals. He lives in

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

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. Ive told him that it
probably will confuse his potential
dates, but he doesnt care.

The same thing goes for larger groups of people.

When Im with my friends, photographing them
conventionally would be to take a break from
being with themto 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
armseffectively creating an imaginary thirdparty photographeror 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, Im 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.

FOR ME, SELFIES ARE

PARTICIPATORY, NOT
NARCISSISTIC
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

A snapchat from my 23rd birthday.

I love that snapchat allows you
to add non-indexical material to
your images. I think this photo

people with whom we share those experiences.

And when we document those moments, let us
not be ashamedof our selfies or of ourselves.

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 57

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

58 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

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

There's a reason a woman like Tess Munster has

feminist, pro-woman act. My personal interest

over 85,000 followers on Instagram -- because the

in feminism is not real invested in the individual

opportunities to see women who deviate markedly

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

from the fashion-model norm are so precious

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

to those women who feel invisible in the world.

actually go about my day asking myself whether

See Tess' #effyourbeautystandards hashtag on

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

Instagram for more examples of this, and a bit of

I guess many other folks do, and hey, Godspeed

evidence in how selfies have helped a lot of women

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

to accept themselves as they are, and to stop hating

more conscientious person than I.

themselves for how they look.

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

For many women, the gratification of posting a selfie

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

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

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.

ITS 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.

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 59

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.

60 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS

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.

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 61

62 SURVEYING SELFIES

SECTION FIVE

SURVEYING
SELFIES

SURVEYING SELFIES 63

64 SURVEYING SELFIES

TELL ME ABOUT
YOURSELF(IE)
A note from the designer

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 mothers), 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.

SURVEYING SELFIES 65

WHAT DO YOU
THINK OF WHEN
YOU THINK OF
SELFIES?

MEASURING TONE
One 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.

9%

Positive
Neutral
Negative

25%

66 SURVEYING SELFIES

66%

I either think of someone really basic (even

A selfie is a completely unabashed picture

though I hate that word) taking pictures for

that someone takes of themself either to

Instagram or some girl/guy taking mirror

keep personal or share with others. Selfies

pics for their profile picture. They're either

are a great way of promoting a positive

flexing their muscles (how much confidence

self-image, and frankly the hate that they

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

get is probably from people who think badly

pushing up their boobs and taking the selfie

about themselves, which they translate into

from above *sigh*

a generalized hate of others.

KIM KARDASHIAN
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.
Someone taking a picture of themselves
with their cellphone alone
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.

DUCK FACE IS
THE WORST AND
PLEASE STOP USING
HORRIBLE FILTERS
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.

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.

People taking pictures of themselves.

Its 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.

LOOKING REALLY
GOOD/HAVING GOOD
TIMES AND WANTING
TO TAKE A PHOTO
Girls trying to get attention, insecurities
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

Instagram, how hard it is to take a good

line where you start to seem like you have

selfie, perfect lighting, selfie Sunday

an ego if you post selfies to social media?)

I also think of selfie sticksthose things are
weird but effective.

SURVEYING SELFIES 67

LETS TALK STATS

SO WHO EVEN
ANSWERED THIS SURVEY?

Responses to the survey

Age with the most responders

Youngest responder

Oldest responder

Two-thirds of responders identified

themselves as female

1%

13%
8%

HOW OFTEN DO YOU

TAKE SELFIES?
31%

18%
16%

Daily

A Few Times a Month

A Few Times a Day

Weekly

Other

A Few Times a Week

13%
18%
68 SURVEYING SELFIES

Once a Year

WHERE DO YOU
USUALLY SHARE
SELFIES?

1%
3%

Facebook

Via Text

Instagram

Other

Snapchat

Nowhere

OTHER

10%

WHAT IS YOUR
FAVORITE PLATFORM
FOR TAKING SELFIES?

11%

Facebook

Via Text

Instagram

Other

Snapchat

75%

WHY IS THAT
PLATFORM YOUR
FAVORITE?

FACEBOOK
I don't use any of these other ones except
Instagram but I feel awk posting a selfie on
Instagram

INSTAGRAM
As 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

ITS THE ONLY FORM

OF SOCIAL MEDIA
THAT I DO.
Im technically challenged and that is my
only social media. Its easy to do on my
iPhone.
Most of my friends are on it.

and approval, which I often (perhaps

inadvisably) use to calculate my self-worth.

70 SURVEYING SELFIES

Because I dont have an Instagram.

SNAPCHAT
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?
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

IT CAN ONLY BE SEEN

BY THE PEOPLE I
SPECIFICALLY CHOSE
TO SHARE IT WITH,
AND IT DISAPPEARS
AFTER 5 SECONDS.
NOT THAT IM HIDING
ANYTHING, BUT WHY
DOES EVERYONE IN
THE WORLD NEED TO
SEE MY FACE?

doing it on those formats. Also, cause

I wouldn't want a bunch of selfies to be

I feel like if you're posting a selfie on

somewhere permanent because then

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

I'd look self indulgent. And snapchat

But with snapchat, it's more of a quick

is basically made for selfies, it's about

communication device so the selfies don't

connecting people face to face.

have to be quality. Plus, they go away!

And fewer people see them.

BECAUSE ITS
TEMPORARY. I
GENERALLY FEEL
UNCOMFORTABLE
POSTING SELFIES
ON PLATFORMS
LIKE FACEBOOK
WHERE THEY DONT
GO AWAY BECAUSE
I JUDGE PEOPLE
WHO POST SELFIES
SO I WORRY PEOPLE
JUDGE ME FOR
DOING THE SAME.

Because snapchat is pretty much designed

FOR selfies, so no one can judge you for
sending them!
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 sharingunless it's a
selfie on top of Mt. Everest, the whole
world doesn't need to see it.
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

SURVEYING SELFIES 71

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 its
about DOCUMENTING BEING AROUND OTHER PEOPLE,
maybe BEING IN A SPECIFIC PLACE. Or if another
person isnt there its 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 SELFIETAKER LOOKS GOOD. But whats the true harm in that?

72 SURVEYING SELFIES

Never alone unless its specific or extreme

For snapchat conversations mostly, but

situations (vacation or my snapchat story

also definitely on days when I think my

is gonna be really good if I include a selfie)

hair/makeup/face look really good and

also with other people if it's weird to ask

I want to remember it. Looking back on

someone else to take a photo for us.

those pictures can really give you a selfconfidence boost. And I think it's really

To express my mood to another person, or

great when you're confident to share

to prove that I was somewhere

them on other social media platforms like

Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Usually to take pictures with friends, and

then sometimes to check my teeth/hair/
makeup, etc.

Usually ironically, but also just to make

funny faces at people to better get my point
across. Sometimes with texts stuff gets lost

Usually when I'm really just feeling myself

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

and want a way to tangibly document the

funny picture along with it.

emotions that I am feeling at the time. Or

when I need a quick photo for a project or

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

club I'm involved in.

really good pun but nothing else to be the

subject of my photo.

To mark memorable moments or

communicate with my friends.

Usually it's when I'm being stupid with

my friends and feel like sharing that

90% of my selfies have other people in

ridiculousness with my other friends on

them. I want to document being with those

Snapchat.

other people in a particular place. I take

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

Just for funsies. Sometimes in response

a particularly lovely place (I've taken a bunch

to other selfies. Sometimes just to

when I find myself in beautiful secluded

communicate when I dont have anything to

places while on walks), and occasionally to

take a picture of. Sometimes just to make

document good hair/makeup days. A lot

fun of myself to someone.

of times I send these to my mom, because

she usually sees me stressed out, zitty, and

On vacations when I have access to other

in need of a haircut when I'm home during

peoples' smartphones (I use a primitive

breaks. She likes seeing me put-together

phone by choice).

and happy-looking.
When I look different than other days
To show off how I look and maybe fish for

different make up, tried something new

some compliments. To learn more about my

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

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

having one of those "good" daysgood hair

that often).

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

SURVEYING SELFIES 73

74 REFLECTING ON SELFIES

SECTION SIX

THANK YOUS
AND WRAP UPS

REFLECTING ON SELFIES 75

76 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS

ALL THE THANK

YOUS IN THE
WORLD GO TO...
Wow, its 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 14 really wont be the
same without yall.
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 didnt. I actually mean
it when I say I couldnt have done it without you.

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 77

IMAGES
Page 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 Pako Tomi
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 Francos 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

78 THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS

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 Arms 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 Selfies
Screaming Narcissism Masks and Urge to Connect
by Jonathan Freedland, originally published on
theguardian.com on November 19, 2013.

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 79

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.

THANK YOUS AND WRAP UPS 81