R7: Selfies

I have a certain aversion to sharing selfies that stems not just from me being a private person or shy but more so from my embarrassment at confessing I am part of the "selfie culture." I am, however, a big fan of taking photographs and have often been reprimanded for taking too many pictures instead of reveling in the moment. Going along with this, I am also usually the type to take many photographs of the same thing, and then go back to delete them, singling out the one that I like best instead of working to achieve the perfect shot the first time. In this way, digital camera technology has turned me into a terrible photographer, much like how Nicholas Carr argues Google makes us stupid. This generation's obsession with selfies has raised important questions in media and communications studies. I believe selfies can occasionally have artistic merit and may even be considered "artwork" in some cases, particularly if the selfie is an embodiment of an individual's self-expression. On the other hand, I certainly do not think any selfie (or anything I have ever done in my life, come to think of it) merits being called "artwork." Nevertheless, selfies can be beneficial by capturing emotions, deepening ties and allowing for self exploration which ultimately gives people self-confidence. Conversely, many selfies are constructed performances which do not represent authentic or genuine emotions. This is particularly the case with the sensational phenomenon known as the Snapchat filter. I usually appear more in the selfies of others than I take selfies myself, but I have found three distinct cases of selfie. Each class pertains to a different focus: the first is spatial, concentrated on where you are at the time; the second is personal, concentrated on who (if anybody) you are with; and the third is operative, emphasizing what you are doing at a particular time. Though all selfies inherently convey all three of these criteria, I present three of my selfies demonstrating each, shown below.

Rare selfie with whole face shown and
no filter, only geotag.

This first example is quite unusual in that not only does it show my face in its entirety, it does not employ any sort of filter, and was taken "at a whim." Fortunately, much of the attention is drawn away from my face by the geotag. While many selfies are meant to convey emotions, the point of this selfie was not to establish any depth of sensation, but just to emphasize where I was at the time.

A demonstration of the "filter." Can't
make me look any better anyways.

In this second example, I demonstrate the use of the deer filter. The idea behind this selfie (if there is such a thing) is completely the opposite of before - I wanted to completely take the attention off of where I was (in the car sitting in the garage slowly poisoning myself) and instead focus it on my face. While the filter smooths out facial features and skin tones supposedly making you look better, the sunglasses are paradoxically enlarged and block my face. This is actually a very unusual example of me using a filter. Though postprocessing, photoshop, and ease of modifications are attractive advantages to digital media, this is not the main appeal to me when I take a selfie. In my experience, the thing I take advantage of with Snapchat and digital camera technology in general is that you can keep taking pictures until you find one you like as opposed to trying to get one perfect shot and editing it in Photoshop afterwards or using a filter to make it look just right. This is why I usually do not resort to filter manipulations but I often find myself spending a lot of time getting many "takes" of a selfie before sending one I think looks good. Knowing that I have this behavior, I often take the "#nofilter" earmark with a grain of salt. Sure, the picture might not have been digitally edited. I might take your word for it. But I question if it was candid and wonder about the authenticity and intimacy of its gestalt.

Chilling at the pool. By now you have diagnosed me with, shall
we say, "inability to smile syndrome."

This last "buddy cop" selfie of my and my mate at the pool is different from the previous two in that it is focused not on an individual or a place but on the specific moment of action. In other words, it was posted on my Snapchat story merely to convey who I was hanging out with at the time and what we were doing. While my first selfie was focused entirely on where I was, and the second selfie on my facial demeanor, this third selfie emphasizes action and is I think most interesting of the three. At any rate, I tend to use the outward camera more than the selfie camera, preferring to show people where I am and what I am doing rather than just send a picture of my mug. I do, however, very much enjoy receiving selfies from other people as these are often quite amusing, encouraging them to send more.