R7: Selfies

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of posting pictures of myself on my social media accounts. I generally feel really self-conscious about posting anything on social media especially images of myself. Though there is the rare occasion that I will post a picture of myself and when I do I am generally with someone else in the picture. When I do take a selfie of myself I am usually with family or friends.

The selfies I do post of myself show other members of my family. For a selfie, an image that represents my identity on social media, it represents my core values in life, family being one of them. I have a strong relationship with each member of my family and maintaining these relationships is important to me. Spending time with my grandfather, who lives in another country and I get to see only once a year during the summer is important to me. The selfie I took with him while we were in New York shows how much I cherish the time I spend with him.

Selfies aren't really pictures of myself that I spend time thinking and composing to post on my social media. So taking the time to actually post an image of myself like this is rare.

Taking selfies and posting them in regards to how I represent my "performance" of gender, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status isn't a big factor for me. In fact, these elements of "performance" in regards to what I post doesn't come to mind for me. I don't think about those factors when posting an image on my social media accounts.

In regards to my identity that is visible in my posts are like I said before. Most images I post are of me with members of my family or places I've been to, things I've made, or things I like. Very rarely will I post a picture/selfie of myself because I am so self-conscious. The one rare image where I posted a selfie on my Instagram account was when I was at Disney World, celebrating and enjoying a treat at the "happiest place on earth". These images I post represent my identity to others as a person who is young at heart with a love for animation and Disney and a person who strongly values the importance of family.