R7: Selfies

With my sister in Kennebunkport, Maine.

I chose this selfie in Maine with my sister. It’s not a very good picture but I feel like it reflects the relationship my sister and I have with each other. We don’t really take pictures together that much because she’s older than me and feels ‘dumb’ doing it. I wanted to share this one especially though because it shows the beach which I’ve been going to for a huge family reunion every summer since I was a baby. Additionally, I’m usually the one in my family that forces my parents and siblings to take pictures because I know I’ll want them in the future, and even though they always complain about it I know they’ll appreciate it eventually.

Selfie with my roommate

I chose this picture with my roommate because we almost always take a “going out” selfie and we’ve been roommates for the last four years. I thought this was interesting because we only take these selfies after we’ve had a drink or two (yes - we are both over 21) because we find them obnoxious if we aren’t going out. I think we always take a selfie like this to document the fact that we did our hair and makeup - after not putting much effort into our appearance during the week. One thing I’ve noticed, I have similar selfies of us from the past four years and I can see a difference in our faces. Not only do we do our makeup better than we used to but we really do look older, or more mature. I think that's an interesting difference between our selfie taking culture today compared to the past. We can essentially watch ourselves age and we’re more aware of the process.

Puppy Filter

I chose this picture with my cat because it’s a joke and it uses a Snapchat filter. I actually never use this Snapchat filter because I find when people use it seriously it’s kind of annoying to look at - so in that aspect taking this photo isn’t showing my identity by using this filter. On the contrary, anyone who knows me knows that I like cats, but I joke about liking them because I know most people hate them - so in this way I am showing an aspect of my ‘identity’ by using the ‘obnoxious basic filter’ on my cat. I didn’t post this on my story or online because - obviously- it’s a dumb picture but I sent to my close friends on Snapchat. Even though I didn’t post it anywhere I still saved it to my photos because I was pretty proud of my accomplishment of getting the puppy filter on my cat - that is no easy task.