To Selfie or Not to Selfie?

     selfie:  A self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a hand-held digital camera or camera phone. Selfies are often shared on social networking services such as Instragram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Tumblr. They are often casual, and are typicaly taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror. (Wikipedia)

and to that description, Urban Dictionary adds this hilarious note:

   You can usually see the person's arm holding out the camera in which case you can clearly tell that this person does not have any friends to take pictures of them so they resort to Myspace to find internet friends and post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves.

    Selfies are such a modern phenomena that Emily Post has an etiquette guide for them and there are even children's books on selfie etiquette.  (clearly the birds haven't read up on that yet)

     I became curious about the 'State of Selfies' when I saw that NASA posted the mind-boggling 'Global Selfie' in honor of Earth Day 2014: 

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/globalselfie/#.U4uN9PmwLYg

(p.s. I didn't spot Atlas' arm, did you?)

     I wonder if the infamous Kim Kardashian, did she-or didn't she enhance the photo, 'butt-selfie' is in the mosaic.

www.thedailybeast.com

     I agree that Kim's photo isn't in the best of taste, but at least she has a friend with her, which clearly redefines the Urban Dictionary definition of selfie.

    The first selfie was reportedly taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography.  Because the daguerreotype process was slow, Robert was able to uncover the lens, run into the shot, and then replace the lens cap.  

      ^{I personally like his version better than Kim's, but that's just me.  Maybe if he had lived in 2014, he would have posted a photo of himself crushing beer cans on his forehead.}

     ^{Just for the record, I think selfies were around way before the camera was invented.  Poor Van Gogh didn't have an iphone to Instagram his heartbroken self to the world.... he had to painstakingly paint it.  (You'll have to research yourself if you want to know why he cut off part of his ear.)}

    ^{When I initially starting 'investigating', I had a pre-determined judgment that selfies were just that: SELFISH. (If you want a real eye-opener, Google search 'selfie images'....  warning: set your filter to strong)} 

^{'It's All About Me"....  right?  The age-old PRIDE issue.}  The 'look at me!....aren't I great!?..... don't you wish you were here!?... don't you envy me!?.... Look how much fun I am having!'....  is certainly there.

     However, the more selfies I see, the more I am ashamed of my prior conviction.  Yes, pride is definitely one reason that people post photos of themselves.  But, on the whole, I think there is something much deeper going on.

    ^{There isn't a human being on the planet who doesn't want to be loved, admired, and accepted. Selfie's are really just our way of saying, "Hey, I'm here!.... don't you love me?"}

     ^{Unfortunately, with the inherently superficial tendencies of social media along with instant images (and everything else 'instant'), I fear that a vicious cycle is going on:}

^{We want to be loved, admired, and accepted, so we do what the rest of society is doing} 

 ^{and turn to social media.....}

^{but social media actually makes relationships and real conversations superficial....}

^{so we end up feeling like we aren't loved for who we truly are.......}

^{so we turn to social media ......}

    

     What's the answer?  How about this... next time you send a selfie or one is sent to you, send this message back:  "Hey, I miss seeing you!  Let's get together and talk over dinner."

     Here is a selfie of me and my gal pal in the 1980's.  It used to be fun to squeeze into a small photo booth and change your poses as the camera clicked a photo every 5 seconds. Then, when a strip of very small photos dispatched at the end, you would tear it in half, so that both you and your friend could keep part of a treasured memory.

     There wasn't internet back then, or I suppose we we would have posted those selfies.  Probably with the line, 

'We are having fun!.... don't you love us?.... 

Wish you were here!"