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What is the obsession with selfies?

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NeoGiff said:
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Largely. The obsession with selfies is just an extension of our obsession with ourselves. It's a very self-affirming, self-congratulating era.

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.
 
Guiberu said:
Narcissism.
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Yup.

I have no problem with selfies. I used to do them all the time and sometimes still do... in a group. Like this:

oscarselfielqul0.jpg


Don't see a problem with that.

But when it's one person shooting their face... with the same expression and the same angle in the same place multiple times I just don't understand the point.
 
Given that 99% of the human population has a camera phone these days I can see why. When I was in high school nobody carried cameras on them.
 
if you had smartphone cameras as good as the ones today at 13, youd be doing the same thing op.

edit: im also not sure why this is a cloud worth yelling at.
 
Anth0ny said:
Yup.

I have no problem with selfies. I used to do them all the time and sometimes still do... in a group. Like this:

oscarselfielqul0.jpg


Don't see a problem with that.

But when it's one person shooting their face... with the same expression and the same angle in the same place multiple times I just don't understand the point.
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But that's not what a selfie is. Don't hate on selfies just because someone you know takes way too many of them.
 
Nothing new. Picasso, for instance, wasn't the first artist to create a flattering self portrait. So, if it's good enough for Picasso...

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I don't think the act of taking pictures of oneself is in of itself bad or annoying or whatever.

What I find annoying is the need to post them everywhere all the time. Another picture of your face. AWESOME!! /rolleyes
 
What is the obsession with the obsession with selfies?

Self-portraits are not new. It's a means of self-affirmation that does nothing to harm others. It's a way of becoming more comfortable in one's skin. And it's a novel way of communicating with your friends. If you don't like it, unfollow some people as you post about how shitty music is these days and how kids just don't respect their elders like they used to.
 
D'ultimate said:
I don't think the act of taking pictures of oneself is in of itself bad or annoying or whatever.

What I find annoying is the need to post them everywhere all the time. Another picture of your face. AWESOME!! /rolleyes
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It's only certain people but unfortunately most people know at least a few. These are usually the kind of people that also take pictures of their meals when they eat out and feel the need to index the picture for future generation e.g. #nomnom
 
People.... "Selfies" in itself isn't bad. It's the people who feel the need to take10-20 pictures a day. The over saturation aspect of the whole selfie craze is what bothers me and countless other people.
 
Meh. Who cares?

If a relatively harmless thing that people do on social media bothers you, you can take 2 seconds to block them.

When it bothers you to the extent that you need to post on other social media sites about it, and take the opportunity to throw around insults like narcissism, or vanity, just because someone is doing something they enjoy, then you start sounding like an unpleasant person, and ironically enough, like you just want to put someone down to feel better about yourself for not doing that. Almost a form of narcissism.
 
I either wanna show people that I'm out and have a life, how good my hair looks, or both.

That said I don't really post them anymore, I grew out of it a bit after the myspace days lol
 
It's just human nature. Only now we have tools to take those selfies easily and share them instantly. You are not better than those teens just because you don't make the duckface.
 
people are just REALLY into themselves. I agree that it's bullshit and insanely narcissistic.

what really fuels it is people "Liking" selfies on FB or whatever service. Constant approval from friends.
 
On my campus in 2002 taking a selfie at the bar with a crappy film camera was considered the "girls night" thing to do. You would see (real) flashes going off to the sound of gleeful screams every 5 minutes. My wife still has a dusty college scrapbook of her friends just getting wasted, hanging around campus, going to concerts, and spring break.

Within a very short timespan those same girls were doing selfies with flip phones and bulky 3.2 megapixel Canons.

Now everyone does this shit with a phone. I think its fine.
 
We're very self consumed these days. You can go online and find what people eat, where they shop, and what they think about any sort of topic. I think privacy has been breached in general. Which makes me think that one day someone will get offended by all this and this whole social media craze will be a thing of the past.

It's creating modern eccentrics IMO. It builds drama, it creates a space for social judgement, and we're creating problems if we make some simple typo or extra click of the mouse. It's limiting freedom by making a person having to explain their every single action.
 
Hilbert said:
When it bothers you to the extent that you need to post on other social media sites about it, and take the opportunity to throw around insults like narcissism, or vanity, just because someone is doing something they enjoy, then you start sounding like an unpleasant person, and ironically enough, like you just want to put someone down to feel better about yourself for not doing that. Almost a form of narcissism.
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Narcissism and vanity are not insults.
 
Northeastmonk said:
We're very self consumed these days. You can go online and find what people eat, where they shop, and what they think about any sort of topic. I think privacy has been breached in general. Which makes me think that one day someone will get offended by all this and this whole social media craze will be a thing of the past.

It's creating modern eccentrics IMO. It builds drama, it creates a space for social judgement, and we're creating problems if we make some simple typo or extra click of the mouse. It's limiting freedom by making a person having to explain their every single action.
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It's almost as if people didn't take pictures/have artwork commissioned to make them look flattering years before social media!

This isn't modern, just expanded, unless you'd like to say that this is merely a modern form of selfie-ism, because other eras did the same thing, just with janky tech/paintbushes. Hell, look above.
 
Saw a Time magazine headline about the Wonder Years cast reuniting and "taking a bunch of selfies."

It made me cringe because they actually just took a bunch of photos together. This whole "selfie" thing reminds me of "Obamacare" where professional news outlets prefer hashtag-style slang over actual words. Stop the planet, I want off, etc. Idiocracy in the making.
 
I used to take photos of myself since 2006 just to keep a record of how I looked or if I felt good that day.

Not sure why the whole thing imploded since the Oscars.
 
The Lamonster said:
Saw a Time magazine headline about the Wonder Years cast reuniting and "taking a bunch of selfies."

It made me cringe because they actually just took a bunch of photos together. This whole "selfie" thing reminds me of "Obamacare" where professional news outlets prefer hashtag-style slang over actual words. Stop the planet, I want off, etc. Idiocracy in the making.
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Misuse of the term is more offensive than people actually doing the thing.

Like this: https://twitter.com/EarthBeauties/status/469485448579256320/photo/1 Not at all a selfie.
 
you look like a jerk standing there holding your phone up in front of a mirror

i have my mom take all my pictures while i strike a cool pose
 
BumblebeeCody said:
What? That's like saying smoking is good for your health on the account that one person survived 40 years of heavy smoking.
(In case my shite analogy fails...) that one piece of evidence doesn't overall the majority.

Also, the try and become famous.
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The article was pretty terrible, I was just linking to it because that's where I got the image from. Like others have mentioned, people have always liked getting cave paintings/paintings/drawings/photos of them done, and it's not really surprising that as cameras become more and more widely available self portraits do as well.
 
jiji said:
Misuse of the term is more offensive than people actually doing the thing.

Like this: https://twitter.com/EarthBeauties/status/469485448579256320/photo/1 Not at all a selfie.
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Agreed. But I don't even think taking one is offensive, and whether or not most of the people in this thread realize it, what is actually offensive to them is multiple selfies. Everyone loves to hate on the selfie, but when pressed they actually mean they hate too many selfies. Personally I just hate the word selfie. I like photos of people's faces, even if they were taken by that person.

Director Irvin Kershner famously said, "I like to fill up the frame with the characters' faces. There's nothing more interesting than the landscape of the human face."
 
TheSpoiler said:
It's almost as if people didn't take pictures/have artwork commissioned to make them look flattering years before social media!

This isn't modern, just expanded, unless you'd like to say that this is merely a modern form of selfie-ism, because other eras did the same thing, just with janky tech/paintbushes. Hell, look above.
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I guess it's the language barrier that comes with it and the way we just exploit ourselves. The fact that we just collide words with photos for some personal benefit. Like we abuse our opinions and views on subjects. It's creative, but it doesn't last long. It's a cheap form of creativity.

Take imgur for example. Of course the pictures are entertaining, but who are we entertaining? An entire audience with burst of the moment ideas and mentalities? Where does that lead us in the long run? The selfie is nothing more than a moment, caught on camera. I personally feel its overall tone is a tad belittling. In other words, "does it turn us into @ssh*les?"

Portraits from ages ago were hard to make and an artist had to make them, then technology turned the camera into an advancement for our time. Now almost 3/4 of the world (maybe less) own a phone with an HD camera?
 
I have some tumblr porn that's nothing but selfie nudes so I'd be a hypocrite if I was like "why all these people gotta take pics of themselves."
 
Its the age of self indulgence. For the most part Facebook and Twitter MySpace kicked it off.

Im not that into selfies either
 
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