PSA: Cease the Selfie
(A blogging project for my Promotional Writing Class)
Selfie [Sel-fee]: (noun) a photo posted to any form of social media in which the photographer doubles as the subject of the photo.
The selfie craze that has been going on is a growing epidemic that must be addressed and terminated. Every day millions of innocent people log into their social networking platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, only to be bombarded by a plethora of selfies. Is it just me, or does scrolling down your newsfeeds and finding close ups of your friends’ faces feel invasive? Especially when it’s the same people broadcasting their face on a daily basis, as if we’ve forgotten what they look like. The infatuation with posting selfies perplexes me, what drives a person to follow in this annoying trend? How can we make it stop?
There are many reasons people may feel compelled to independently take a picture of themselves and share it online. Maybe they were having a good hair day, maybe they thought their outfit was ‘on point’, or maybe they were seeing body progress with their new gym regimen. Whatever the reason, and trust me there are many, doesn’t this all seem a little narcissistic? Depending on their privacy settings, these people are posting this picture for the views and validation from either all of their followers, or the entire world. For what? To show themselves off? Pretentious. To receive self-assurance from the amount of likes and comments they receive? Insecure. To me it just seems like a nonchalant way to rack up compliments from friends and strangers, and that astonishes me. They’re relying on the buzz from social media to confirm their appearance and feel satisfied about themselves. No matter the reason these people say they post selfies, what it really comes down to is these people are either completely self-absorbed or covertly self-conscious, both not good looks to advertise to your followers. My advice? Keep the selfies to your selfie.
I’m not saying that a selfie should never be taken, or that all selfies are bad. In fact, I’ve found a few exceptions to my extreme opposition towards selfies. I deem them acceptable if the selfie is used as a profile picture, if the selfie is taken with a humorous or even interesting element added in, if they’re taken while using SnapChat, or if the selfie/collection of selfies are not posted onto the web.
So please people, next time you're thinking of popping into everyones newsfeed all by yourself getting up close and personal with your camera, just ask yourself, "do people out there really care to see my face?". (No, the answer is no.)
The selfie craze that has been going on is a growing epidemic that must be addressed and terminated. Every day millions of innocent people log into their social networking platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, only to be bombarded by a plethora of selfies. Is it just me, or does scrolling down your newsfeeds and finding close ups of your friends’ faces feel invasive? Especially when it’s the same people broadcasting their face on a daily basis, as if we’ve forgotten what they look like. The infatuation with posting selfies perplexes me, what drives a person to follow in this annoying trend? How can we make it stop?
There are many reasons people may feel compelled to independently take a picture of themselves and share it online. Maybe they were having a good hair day, maybe they thought their outfit was ‘on point’, or maybe they were seeing body progress with their new gym regimen. Whatever the reason, and trust me there are many, doesn’t this all seem a little narcissistic? Depending on their privacy settings, these people are posting this picture for the views and validation from either all of their followers, or the entire world. For what? To show themselves off? Pretentious. To receive self-assurance from the amount of likes and comments they receive? Insecure. To me it just seems like a nonchalant way to rack up compliments from friends and strangers, and that astonishes me. They’re relying on the buzz from social media to confirm their appearance and feel satisfied about themselves. No matter the reason these people say they post selfies, what it really comes down to is these people are either completely self-absorbed or covertly self-conscious, both not good looks to advertise to your followers. My advice? Keep the selfies to your selfie.
I’m not saying that a selfie should never be taken, or that all selfies are bad. In fact, I’ve found a few exceptions to my extreme opposition towards selfies. I deem them acceptable if the selfie is used as a profile picture, if the selfie is taken with a humorous or even interesting element added in, if they’re taken while using SnapChat, or if the selfie/collection of selfies are not posted onto the web.
So please people, next time you're thinking of popping into everyones newsfeed all by yourself getting up close and personal with your camera, just ask yourself, "do people out there really care to see my face?". (No, the answer is no.)