What’s goin’ on lads?
Here it is. Via the Twitter account of Ellen DeGeneres, the image that is the face of the Academy Awards 2014, the snap that was retweeted over 2.5 million times (last time I went checking), the picture that launched a thousand blog posts. You’ve probably seen it more times than you’d like, so I’m not giving you anything new by showing it to you. But there’s a bigger issue at play here than whether Liza Minelli got in the shot or didn’t, and who EXACTLY that guy with the glasses is (for those of you way ahead of me, no I do NOT mean Meryl Streep.)
But here’s the thing. And can I JUST ask.
When did the word ‘photo’ get replaced with the word ‘selfie’?
Is this not just a photo, taken by Bradley Cooper? What defines a selfie? What defines a photo? SOMEONE HELP ME WITH THIS I’M STRUGGLING.
For serious though. As an avid selfie taker (I don’t mind admitting that I indulge in a spot of light selfie-ing from time to time. I know my reason for taking them is that on those RARE occasions where I put daycent make-up on, brush my hair and/or happen to dress myself in a way that’s deemed acceptable by society, I like to capture it and remind myself that I’m not a total ming bag all the time. And I know the insecure place that need for validation comes from, because I LIVE there), I always thought a selfie was a picture taken of yourself, by yourself, with some kind of reverso camera, featuring MAXIMUM one extra person, preferably making a duckface or some sort of cleverly angled pose. Is this not what it is??
I’d like to go back to a time where every single solitary picture on Instagram wasn’t branded with the (now almost meaningless) hashtag ‘#selfie’. I’d like to see a clear separation between selfies and mere photos once again. I’d like to stop sounding like I’m trying to run for Insta-Office, so I’ll end this post with a question.
What’s a selfie, again?
Think What You Like 