What do you do when you have a new outfit or your makeup is looking good but no one is around to see it?…Take a selfie and put it on social media of course!
Ever since social media has become a big part of society the trend Selfies have also been well-known. Through our online personas on social media it has become easier for people to lose touch of reality. With celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Ashley Benson it is easy to see why selfies are the biggest trend around social media.
Through our online personas we create an image of ourselves that we want people to see and love.
This raises the question are selfies another way of controlling our self-image or are we being narcissistic?
According to techinfographic over 1 million
people take selfies each day and 36% of them are digitally enhanced to look more appealing.
There are many different types of selfies that people can take. These are the:
- Duckface selfie
- Gym selfie
- The bathroom selfie
- and the abs selfie
This selfie phenomena is just the tool to help people portray an image of themselves that they will feel confident about.We are constantly being monitored through our social media through what we post, what we like and through our photos. People today often use social media and their selfies to gain status and recognition among others. Our Identity is then created through the way we interact on social media forming by the opinions of our friends, family and people around the world. We also tend to ‘mirror’ ourselves through interacting on social media, as a way of reflecting our self-worth and status.
Marwick (2013) states that “Status is a powerful tool that reveals the values and assumptions shared by a group; it shows power dynamics and egalitarian ideals”
https://instagram.com/p/-urefpnxgt/
Evelina, famous for having a fashion channel on YouTube and also famous from her Instagram (Instafamous!) shows he followers what she uses in her beauty routine. This photo shows that unlike all her other photos she is exposed by not wearing makeup or big amounts of jewellery. Although she is not dressed up fashionably her picture still achieved 19.4K likes. This is an example of a controlled photo. Although she is wearing a face mask she still has some control on how she wants her followers to view her photo. Her hair is still perfectly neat, the lighting is flattering and the background is neutral.
We spend hours getting ready and taking various photos just to find the best photo to put online. We desperately want to be approved and liked by people all around the world and sit anxiously waiting for the likes on Facebook or Instagram to rocket up. By being famous online it sets a status to uphold as status is not just about intelligence or wealth anymore but is this why we all take selfies?
References:
Suk, T. (2014), ‘Seflie infographic: Sefliegraphic facts and statistics’, techinfographics, accessed 16/ 03/16, http://techinfographics.com/selfie-infographic-selfiegraphic-facts-and-statistics/
Gallagher, B. (2013), ‘The 15 types of selfies’, Pop culture, accessed 16/03/16, http://au.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/10/the-15-types-of-selfies/
MARWICK, A, E. (2013), Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age. Yale University Press.
SarahCario 