Articles and Stories

March 17, 2014

Originally coined in Australia, the word “selfie” was the Oxford English Dictionary word of the year for 2013.  Here is the definition:

“A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website: occasional selfies are acceptable, but posting a new picture of yourself every day isn’t necessary”

The selfie has become an international obsession and people all over the world are posting them not just daily, but in some cases, hourly throughout their day…every day. They are tweeted and posted on Facebook and Instagram. They are the new way to share experiences with others as well as a new way to document one’s life.

The “selfie-est” city in the world, according to a Time magazine ranking is Makati City in the Philippines. The city, which is part of Metro Manila and boasts a population of more than 500,000, has 258 self-proclaimed selfie takers per every 100,000 people, the Time database showed.

Second in line are the Manhattanites, although the figures don’t differentiate between tourists posting pictures from Manhattan and residents sharing their selfies.

So, where did this phenomenon come from and why is it now an obsession?

Some claim that it’s just more evidence of our narcissistic society. However, the selfie is not exactly new. It’s an evolution of the self-portrait, whether photographed, sculpted or painted, made much more accessible and easy to share.

One of the first selfies that we know of is one taken by Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, who produced a daguerreotype of himself in 1839, which is also one of the first photographs of a person.  After 175 years, his selfie is still being used in various articles and blogs about the selfie. Is he turning over in his grave?

Later, in the 1900’s when Kodak debuted the portable brownie box camera, the selfie evolved toward taking photos of oneself in a mirror. Many of these mirror selfies have had unfortunate and undesirable results.

We have come a long way since then, thanks to advances in technology. We have seen selfies taken by astronauts in space, leaders of nations, the Pope and even a Celebes crested macaque (Macaca nigra) in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, who picked up a photographer’s camera and photographed herself with it.

The celeb selfie may be the most re-tweeted, certainly true of the one by Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars with some of the biggest celebs in the film industry. But it seems that part of the allure of the selfie is that it is a bit of an equalizer. Anyone can do it. And as it turns out, it is a common language among cultures. Smile!