R7: Frames of Life

For this selfie, this is an obscure sense of my identity. I typically never have straight hair, but when I do, I tend to glamorize my appearance. As a result, I am showing to others the idealized version of myself that I like. I want to look like this on a daily basis, but it is hard work and to a certain extent I want others to understand that I put a lot of effort to look like this and that I want them to “like” the effort. But in terms of my parent’s generation, pictures were meant to capture important occasions not your look of the day or how well you look with you hair straightened. My parents will appreciate the picture but after a while they will not remember it. They will however remember the picture taken years ago, like my first Christmas as an important milestone marker. They do no put as much meaning or memory into my selfies. They see it as just an image of me, while I see the selfies I take of myself much more differently, I put attribute a lot more meaning to photo as it is representation of an idealized me. Most of my selfies either have a plain background or something minimal in the backgrounds. Therefore, it is much harder for people to guess where I am from or my origin. My gender can be deciphered from this photo as that of a female. A socio-economic factor that could be gleaned from the photo is that I have some source of income that I use to purchase makeup products like eyeliner and eye shadow featured in the photograph. Aesthetically this picture is very clean and there is not much going on in the photo, would could be a cultural link to my family as most of them prefer a simple picture, with not much going on. But there is not much to use to classify the picture in terms of ethnicity, origin, or nationality.

My selfie showcases part of my identity as a soccer fan and a diehard fan of Real Madrid, especially Cristiano Ronaldo. The part of my identity that is not visible is actually what player’s name is on my jersey. But from all of my social media posts and the amount of times I have posted about Cristiano, most people can automatically tell who it is. Sexuality markers, could be seen in the way that I am positioning my body. I want others to see my sporty side but that I can also be attractive at the same time. But in terms of my nationality or origins, there are no specific markers besides my skin color, but even then one has to guess at where I’m from. But because soccer is not as popular here in the USA, especially La Liga, they can assume that I have some other background besides being American. Not only are that but the official jerseys expensive so it could allude to my socio-economic status that I am doing alright for myself, but again that is an assumption. The cultural identity marker in this photo would be the use of the term bae, as most Millennials use that to describe a person they love. Not only that the bar of text that goes across the screen is a notable feature of Snapchat another popular app among Millennials; therefore, I am linking myself through speech and app usage to a particular cultural marker of the stereotypical “Millennial”. I am part of the affinity groups of La Liga, Real Madrid, and if we are being more specific a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.   

My selfie showcase part of my relationship with my sister. It shows that we are not afraid to be a little goofy for others to see. But again in terms of my nationality or origins, there are no specific markers besides my skin color, but even then one has to guess at where I’m from. The cultural identity marker in this photo would be the use of the Snapchat filter, so I am linking myself to the culture of taking selfies with filters. Regardless, filtering is a way of hiding part of one’s identity. I believe in this photo I was having a bad day, but the cute filter hides my facial expression and forces me to smile for

it to be cute. It obscures my identity as in most of the photos posted online are of me smiling, but I’m not always happy. So having candid selfies or photos taken of me help form my identity or showcase to others that there are other sides of my personality not typically seen on social media. They serve as a point of contrast. In the selfie, one of the main parts visible about my identity is the closeness I have with my family. You can see with the way I lean into her, I am comfortable and at ease with her. I am so comfortable, that I allow her to take the selfie. I never let people take the selfies of me, because I am very picky about the angels but with her taking the selfie she has full reign. Another part that is address is my socio-economic status, which is on display through the jewelry I am wearing. Jewelry is typically synonymous with females, so that is a sexuality marker, but is a visible part of my identity. I always wear that necklace, every single day.