What is the word selfie

A selfie ()^[1] is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram.

They are often casual in nature (or made to appear casual). A «Selfie» typically refers to self-portrait photos that are taken with the camera held at arm’s length, as opposed to those taken by using a self-timer or remote. A selfie, however, may include multiple subjects however; as long as the photo is being taken by one of the subjects featured, it is considered a selfie. However, some other terms for selfies with multiple people include usie, groufie, and wefie. Alternatively, one can take a mirror selfie, with the camera pointed at a mirror instead of directly at one’s face, often to get a full-body shot.^[2]

Etymology

«Selfie» is an example of hypocorism – a type of word formation that is popular in Australia^[3] where it was in general use before gaining wider acceptance.^[4]

The first known use of the word selfie in any paper or electronic medium appeared in an Australian internet forum on 13 September 2002 – Karl Kruszelnicki’s ‘Dr Karl Self-Serve Science Forum’ – in a post by Nathan Hope.^[5][6] Although Hope later dismissed the notion that he coined the term, describing it as «something that was just common slang at the time, used to describe a picture of yourself», he wrote the following: «Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.»

By 2013, the word «selfie» had become commonplace enough to be monitored for inclusion in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary, which announced it as the «word of the year» in November and gave it an Australian origin.^[7][8][9]

In August 2014, «selfie» was officially accepted for use in the word game Scrabble.^[10][11]

Early history of self-portraits

In 1839, Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, produced a daguerreotype of himself which ended up as one of the first photographs of a person. Because the process was slow, he was able to uncover the lens, run into the shot for a minute or more, and then replace the lens cap.^[12] He recorded on the back «The first light picture ever taken. 1839.»^[12][13] A copy of his «first selfie» graces his tombstone at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1900, the debut of the portable Kodak Brownie box camera led to photographic self-portraiture becoming a more widespread technique. The method was usually by mirror and stabilizing the camera either on a nearby object or on a tripod while framing via a viewfinder at the top of the box.^[14] Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, at the age of 13, was one of the first teenagers to take her own picture using a mirror to send to a friend in 1914. In the letter that accompanied the photograph, she wrote, «I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling.»^{[15][self-published source]} In 1934, a Swedish couple used a wooden stick to take the photo of themselves, which The New York Times called «the original selfie stick».^[16]

During the 1970s, photographic self-portraiture flourished when affordable instant cameras birthed a new medium of self-expression, capturing uncharacteristically personal insight into otherwise conservative individuals^[17] and allowing amateurs to learn photography with immediate results.^[18] This practice transitioned naturally across to digital cameras as they supplanted film cameras around the turn of the millennium.

Origins and development of selfie-taking

Japanese selfie culture

The modern selfie has origins in Japanese kawaii (cute) culture, which involves an obsession with beautifying self-representation in photographic forms, particularly among females.^[19] By the 1990s, self-photography developed into a major preoccupation among Japanese schoolgirls, who took photos with friends and exchanged copies that could be pasted into kawaii albums. This inspired a young photographer, Hiromix (Hiromi Toshikawa), to publish a photo diary album called Seventeen Girl Days, which included a number of self-posing photos. One of these was a pioneering selfie that was shot while holding the camera in front of herself. She rose to fame in Japan when her album received recognition from camera manufacturer Canon in 1995.^[20]

The 1983 Minolta Disc-7 camera had a convex mirror on its front to allow the composition of self-portraits, and its packaging showed the camera mounted on a stick while used for such a purpose.^[21] A «telescopic extender» for compact handheld cameras was patented by Ueda Hiroshi and Mima Yujiro in 1983,^[22] and a selfie stick was featured in a 1995 book of 101 Un-Useless Japanese Inventions. While dismissed as a «useless invention» at the time, the selfie stick later gained global popularity in the early 21st century.^[23]

The digital selfie originates from the purikura (Japanese shorthand for «print club»), which are Japanese photo sticker booths,^[19][24] introduced by the Japanese video game arcade industry in the mid-1990s.^[20] It was conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho, inspired by the popularity of girl photo culture and photo stickers in 1990s Japan. She worked for a game company, Atlus, where she suggested the idea, but it was initially rejected by her male bosses.^[25] Atlus eventually decided to pursue Miho’s idea,^[25] and developed it with the help of a leading Japanese video game company, Sega,^[26] which later became the owner of Atlus.^[20] Sega and Atlus introduced the Print Club (Purinto Kurabu), the first purikura,^[20] in February 1995, initially at game arcades, before expanding to other popular culture locations such as fast food shops, train stations, karaoke establishments, and bowling alleys.^[26] The success of the original Sega-Atlus machine led to other Japanese arcade game companies producing their own purikura, including SNK’s Neo Print in 1996 and Konami’s Puri Puri Campus (Print Print Campus) in 1997.^[20]

Purikura produced what would later be called selfies.^[19][20] A purikura is essentially a cross between a traditional license/passport photo booth and an arcade video game, with a computer that is connected to a colour video camera and colour printer,^[26] and which allows the manipulation of digital images.^[24] It involves users posing in front of a camera within the compact booth, having their images taken, and then printing the photos with various effects designed to look kawaii.^[19] It presents a series of choices, such as desired backdrops, borders, insertable decorations, icons, text writing options, hair extensions, twinkling diamond tiaras,^[20] tenderized light effects, and predesigned decorative margins.^[19] Purikura became a popular form of entertainment among youths in Japan, and then across East Asia, in the 1990s.^[19] These photographic filters were similar to the Snapchat filters that later appeared in the 2010s.^[27] Photographic features in purikura were later adopted by smartphone apps such as Instagram and Snapchat, including scribbling graffiti or typing text over selfies, adding features that beautify the image, and photo editing options such as cat whiskers or bunny ears.^[28]

To capitalize on the purikura phenomenon in East Asia, Japanese mobile phones began including a front-facing camera, which facilitated the creation of selfies.^[19][29] Perhaps the first front-facing camera on a hand-held device was the Game Boy Camera, released in Japan in February 1998. The Game Boy Camera was an attachment for Game Boy. The 180°-swivel camera was specifically marketed to allow users to take self-portraits.^[30] The first front-facing camera phone was the Kyocera Visual Phone VP-210, released in Japan in May 1999.^[31] It was called a «mobile videophone» at the time.^[32] It stored up to 20 JPEG images, which could be sent over e-mail, or the phone could send up to two images per second over Japan’s Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) wireless cellular network.^[31] This led to a transition in Japanese selfie culture from purikura to mobile phones.^[19]

International popularity

Selfie culture became popular in Japan and then other East Asian countries in the 1990s, starting with purikura booths and then front-facing camera phones. However, it was not until the 2000s that selfie culture was popularized outside of East Asia.^[19]

Outside of East Asia, the concept of uploading group self-taken photographs to the Internet, albeit with a disposable camera instead of a smartphone, dates back to a webpage created by Australians in September 2001, including photos taken in the late 1990s (captured by the Internet Archive in April 2004).^[33][34][35]

In the early 2000s, before Facebook became the dominant online social network, self-taken photographs were particularly common on MySpace. However, writer Kate Losse recounts that between 2006 and 2009 (when Facebook became more popular than MySpace), the «MySpace pic» (typically «an amateurish, flash-blinded self-portrait, often taken in front of a bathroom mirror») became an indication of bad taste for users of the newer Facebook social network. In 2009 in the image hosting and video hosting website Flickr, Flickr users used ‘selfies’ to describe seemingly endless self-portraits posted by teenagers.^[36] According to Losse, improvements in design—especially the front-facing camera of the iPhone 4 (2010), mobile photo apps such as Instagram and Snapchat led to the resurgence of selfies in the early 2010s.^[37]

The Sony Ericsson Z1010 mobile phone, released in late 2003, introduced to Western markets the concept of a front-facing camera, which could be used for selfies and video calls.^[38] These cameras became common on mobile devices, such as the iPhone 4 (2010).^[8] The iPhone 4, which adopted the front-facing camera feature from earlier Japanese and Korean phones, helped popularize the selfie internationally, outside of East Asia.^[19]

In 2011, the Instagram photo-sharing and social networking service introduced auto filters, allowing users to easily alter their photos.^[8] Initially popular with young people, selfies gained wider popularity over time.^[39][40] Life and business coach Jennifer Lee, in January 2011, was the first person to coin it as a hashtag on Instagram.^[41][42] By the end of 2012, Time magazine considered selfie one of the «top 10 buzzwords» of that year; although selfies had existed long before, it was in 2012 that the term «really hit the big time».^[43] According to a 2013 survey, two-thirds of Australian women age 18–35 take selfies—the most common purpose for which is posting on Facebook.^[40] A poll commissioned by smartphone and camera maker Samsung found that selfies make up 30% of the photos taken by people aged 18–24.^[44]

Selfies have also been taken beyond Earth. Selfies taken in space include those by astronauts,^[47] an image by NASA’s Curiosity rover of itself on Mars,^[48] and images created by an indirect method, where a self-portrait photograph taken on Earth is displayed on a screen on a satellite, and captured by a camera.^[49]

In 2011, a crested black macaque pressed a trigger on a wildlife photographer’s camera, set up in an Indonesian jungle for that specific purpose; when the camera was later recovered it was found to contain hundreds of selfies, including one of a grinning female macaque. This incident set off an unusual debate about copyright.^[50] In April 2013, the Wikipedia’s Selfie page started. In 2016, a federal judge ruled that the monkey cannot own the copyright to the images.^[51]

In October 2013, Imagist Labs released an iOS app called Selfie, which allows users to upload photos only from their front-facing smartphone camera.^[52]
The app shows a feed of public photos of everyone’s selfies and from the people they follow. The app does not allow users to comment and users can only respond with selfies. The app soon gained popularity among teenagers.

In describing the popularity of the «foot selfie», a photograph taken of one’s feet while sunbathing at exotic locations, The Hollywood Reporter said that it could be «2014’s social media pose to beat».^[53]

In January 2014, during the Sochi Winter Olympics, a «Selfie Olympics» meme was popular on Twitter, where users took self-portraits in unusual situations.^[54] The spread of the meme took place with the usage of the hashtags #selfiegame and #selfieolympics.^[55]

In April 2014, the advertising agency iStrategyLabs produced a two-way mirror capable of automatically posting selfies to Twitter, using facial recognition software.^[56]

Social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat encourage people to take selfies with features like Geofilters, hashtag linking of related topics, and picture stories. Geofilters allow people to take selfies with overlays that can be comedic, altering your selfie image with the ability to show where you are located. In September 2017, Instagram boasted 500 million daily active users of its self-promotion, selfie-sharing app and 800 million monthly active users.^[57][58] Snapchat reports 178 million daily active users of its service. As of July 2017, in order of popularity, the four most popular social networking services are Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat.^[59]

Selfies have been popular on social media.^[60] Instagram has over 53 million photos tagged with the hashtag #selfie. The word «selfie» was mentioned in Facebook status updates over 368,000 times during a one-week period in October 2013. During the same period on Twitter, the hashtag #selfie was used in more than 150,000 tweets.

Sociology

The appeal of selfies comes from how easy they are to create and share, and the control they give people over how they present themselves. Many selfies are intended to present a flattering image of the person, especially to friends whom the photographer expects to be supportive.^[39][40] Those selfies would be taken on trips, during activities that are considered interesting or as a group selfie with interesting or attractive people. However, a 2013 study of Facebook users found that posting photos of oneself correlates with lower levels of social support from and intimacy with Facebook friends (except for those marked as Close Friends).^[61] The lead author of the study suggests that «those who frequently post photographs on Facebook risk damaging real-life relationships.»^[62] The photo messaging application Snapchat is also largely used to send selfies. Some users of Snapchat choose to send intentionally-unattractive selfies to their friends for comedic purposes.

Posting intentionally unattractive selfies has also become common in the early 2010s—in part for their humor value, but in some cases also to explore issues of body image or as a reaction against the perceived narcissism or over-sexualization of typical selfies.^[63]

The practice of taking selfies has been criticised not only for being narcissistic, preventing assessment and appreciation of what is happening in the present, but also for being mindlessly conformist behaviour, when everyone does what everyone else is doing, «like that scene in The Life of Brian – where the crowd gathers outside Brian’s window and enthusiastically chants in unison: ‘Yes, we’re all individuals! … Yes, we are all different!‘«^[64] However, this has been disproved by more nuanced and detailed analyses of the genre.^[65]

The pop-up museum called The Museum of Selfies is scheduled to open its doors to all selfie lovers in the year 2018 in Glendale, a suburb of Los Angeles County, California.^[66][67][68]

Gender roles, sexuality, and privacy

Selfies are popular among both genders; however, sociologist Ben Agger describes the trend of selfies as «the male gaze gone viral», and sociologist and women’s studies professor Gail Dines links it to the rise of «porn culture» and the idea that sexual attractiveness is the only way in which a woman can make herself visible.^[69] Feminist writer Megan Murphy has pointed out that posting images publicly or sharing them with others who do so may have a dramatic effect in the case of revenge porn, where ex-lovers post sexually explicit photographs or nude selfies to exact revenge or humiliate their former lovers.^[69] Nonetheless, some feminists view selfies as a subversive form of self-expression that narrates one’s own view of desirability. In this sense, selfies can be positive and offer a way of actively asserting agency.^[70]

In 2013 in the blog Jezebel, author Erin Gloria Ryan criticized selfies, believing that the images they often portray, as well as the fact that they are usually posted to social media with the intent of getting positive comments and «likes», reinforce the «notion that the most valuable thing [a young woman] has to offer the world is her looks.»^[71] The Jezebel post provoked commentary on Twitter from users arguing that selfies could be positive for women by promoting different standards of beauty.^[72] Media critic Jennifer Pozner saw selfies as particularly powerful for women and girls who did not see themselves portrayed in mainstream media.^[73]

Research shows that there is a particular difference between perspectives of youngsters and adults. «While not all representative of all young people’s experiences of digital picture-sharing cultures, these discussions point to a significant gap between young people’s own interpretations of their ordinary or everyday digital practices and adults’ interpretations of these practices.»^[74]

Celebrity selfies

Many celebrities – especially sex symbols – post selfies for their followers on social media, and provocative or otherwise interesting celebrity selfies are the subject of regular press coverage. Some commentators, such as Emma Barnett of The Telegraph, have argued that sexy celebrity selfies (and sexy non-celebrity selfies) can be empowering to the selfie-takers but harmful to women in general as they promote viewing women as sex objects.^[75] Actor and avid selfie poster James Franco wrote an op-ed for The New York Times defending this frequent use of selfies on his Instagram page.^[76] Franco defends the self-portrait stating they should not be seen as an egocentric act, but instead a journalistic moment as the selfie «quickly and easily shows, not tells, how you’re feeling, where you are, what you’re doing» in a way that a text communication might fail to convey.^[76]

A selfie orchestrated during the 86th Academy Awards by host Ellen DeGeneres was, at one point, the most retweeted tweet ever.^[77][78] DeGeneres said she wanted to pay homage to Meryl Streep’s record 18 Oscar nominations by setting a new record with her, and invited twelve other Oscar celebrities to join them, which included Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Channing Tatum, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong’o, Jared Leto, and Jennifer Lawrence. The resulting photo of the celebrities broke the previous retweet record within forty minutes, and was retweeted over 1.8 million times in the first hour.^[79][80][81] By the end of the ceremony it had been retweeted over 2 million times, less than 24 hours later, it had been retweeted over 2.8 million times.^[78][79] It beat the previous record, 778,801, which was held by Barack Obama, following his victory in the 2012 presidential election.^[81][82][83]

Politician selfies

U.S. President Barack Obama made news headlines during Nelson Mandela’s memorial celebration at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium with various world leaders, as he was snapped taking a selfie and sharing smiles with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, and later with British Prime Minister David Cameron, as they gathered to pay tribute to Mandela.^[84] The decision to take the selfies was considered to be in poor taste, as British political columnist Iain Martin critiqued the behaviour as «clowning around like muppets».^[84] The photos also depict the First Lady Michelle Obama sitting next to them looking «furious and mortified».^[84] Despite the criticism, Roberto Schmidt, the photographer who captured the photos taken at the celebration, reported to the Today show it was taken at «a jovial, celebratory portion of the service».^[85]

In India, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi posted a selfie on Twitter after voting in Gandhinagar, India. The post became a major trending item on the micro-blogging platform.^[86] In July 2014, the Swiss government became the first to take and post a picture of an entire national government (the picture was taken by one of the seven members of the government, Alain Berset).^[87]

The Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is known to pose for several selfies in public appearances, once even claiming to have posed for «over 1500 selfies» in three days, during which he estimated to have greeted about four thousand people – the social media phenomenon has coined the term «Marcelfie» to refer to these.^[88] Most notably, the President posed for a selfie with Prime Minister António Costa in the Paris City Hall, during the Portugal Day ceremonies there on 10 June 2016.^[89]

Group selfies

In January 2014, Business Insider published a story referring to selfies of groups as usies.^[90] A photograph of Pope Francis with visitors to the Vatican was called an usie by The Daily Dot,^[91][92] and TMZ has used the term to describe a selfie taken of celebrity couple Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez.^[90][93]

The term «groufie» has been trademarked by Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei Technologies in China, France, Germany, Russia, and the U.S.^[94][95] The word was introduced during the launch of its Ascend P7 smartphone in 2014.^[96] Huawei defines the groufie as a panoramic selfie involving multiple subjects, as well as background scenery, captured using the front facing, 8-megapixel camera and panorama capabilities of its phones.^[97][98][99]

Another term for a group selfie is «wefie», originally trademarked by Samsung in the U.S. to promote the wide-angle lens of its NX series of cameras.^{[95][100][101][102]}

Accessories

Devices for holding smartphones or compact cameras called selfie sticks are often used when taking group selfies, as they allow a wider, more panoramic image capture.

Another option for taking selfies from a distance beyond one’s arm is a drone. Selfies made with a drone are also called dronies. The concept of taking a dronie first entered the mainstream in 2014 and coincided with a relatively sudden increase in the availability of relatively cheap, camera bearing multicopter drones.^[103] In 2014, the Nixie drone was designed to serve as a «personal photographer».^[104]

Psychology and neuroscience

First, Farace, van Laer, de Ruyter, and Wetzels^[105] describe three photography techniques with which people are more likely to engage: first-person perspective, action, and person rather than ‘just’ selfies and adaptation into artfulness.

According to a study performed by Nicola Bruno and Marco Bertamini at the University of Parma, selfies by non-professional photographers show a slight bias for showing the left cheek of the selfie-taker.^[106] This is similar to observations of portraits by professional painters from many historical periods and styles,^[107] indicating that the left cheek bias may be rooted in asymmetries of brain lateralization that are well documented within cognitive neuroscience. In a second study, the same group tested if selfie takers without training in photography spontaneously adhere to widely prescribed rules of photographic composition, such as the rule of thirds. It seems that they do not, suggesting that these rules may be conventional rather than hardwired in the brain’s perceptual preferences.^[108]

A 2016 study examining the relationship between personality and selfie-posting behaviors suggests that extroversion and social exhibitionism positively predict frequency of selfie posting, whereas self-esteem is generally unrelated to selfie-posting behaviors.^[109]

Selfitis is a condition described as the obsessive taking of selfies,^[110] although it is currently not listed as a mental disorder in the DSM-5.^[111]

Obsessive taking of selfies and posting to social media has been found to be linked to many symptoms common to mental disorders. These include narcissism, low self-esteem, loneliness, self-centeredness, and attention-seeking behaviors.^[112]

Types

Since its popular usage, the term selfie has often been referred to describe self-portraits taken with the front camera of a mobile device.^[113] Because of this, the term «selfie camera» has also been used by some to describe the front-facing camera of mobile devices.^[114][115]

A self photo taken against a mirror is sometimes known specifically as a «mirror selfie»,^[116] distinguishing it from an otherwise standard selfie.

Injuries while taking photos

The first known selfie-related death occurred 15 March 2014, when a man electrocuted himself on top of a train.^[117]

2014, ‘The Year of the Selfie’, was also the year Makati and Pasig, ‘Selfie Capital of the World’, saw their first selfie-related death when a 14-year-old girl fell from the 3rd floor staircase landing to the 2nd.^{[118][119][120][121]}

In 2015 it was reported that more people had been killed taking selfies that year than by shark attacks.^[122] Other publications have debated that analysis.^{[123][124][125]} Takers of selfie photographs have fallen to their deaths while losing their balance in a precarious position,^[126][127] and others have been wounded or killed while posing with handguns which have accidentally fired.^[128][129]

Concerned about the increasing number of incidents in Russia where attempts to set up a unique selfie had led to injuries and deaths, the Russian Ministry of the Interior released a «Selfie Safety Guide» in 2015 that warned selfie enthusiasts about some common dangerous behaviors.^[130][131] Moscow, Russia’s most active selfie-taking city, is estimated to have 8 selfie-takers per 100,000 people, and ranks 301st among cities worldwide.^[118]

A 2015 study showed that 20% of young Britons had taken selfies while driving a car.^[132] Manchester has the highest amount of selfie-takers per capita in Great Britain with 114 per 100,000 people, and ranks 7th internationally.^[118] The Italian chief of state police expressed concern over the same phenomenon in Italy on the occasion of the launch of a short film with the title «Selfie».^[133][134] Milan is the 8th most active selfie-taking city in the world with 108 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.^[118]

According to Professor Amanda du Preez, there are least three types of selfie pictures documenting death, selfies unknowingly taken before death, where the taker’s death is almost witnessed, or where the taker stands by while someone else dies.^[135]

In 2019 a teen left an imprint on the ground where he landed after falling more than four stories while attempting to take a selfie with his friends on a bridge in Dallas, TX. He had multiple serious injuries, but he survived.^[136]

Facial distortion effect

Because they are typically taken much closer to the subject’s face than a conventional photograph, phone selfies tend to distort the subject’s face. When conventional photographers take headshots, they typically use a narrower lens (or zoom in) and stand at a normal distance, instead of getting physically closer to the subject’s face. Front-facing cell phone cameras, on the other hand, feature wide-angle lenses and are held closer to the face, since the human arm is only so long. This results in extension distortion, where objects closer to the camera appear much larger than they actually are. Though this distortion has a slimming effect, it also exaggerates the auto-photographer’s nose and chin, since those parts are closer to the camera than the rest of the face.

A study published by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has found that selfies have altered people’s perception of their faces to the point where they increased the demand for rhinoplasties (nose jobs). 42% of surgeons surveyed have noticed that patients are seeking surgeries to improve their appearance in photographs, especially selfies taken at close distance.^[137] Another study found that selfies taken at a distance of 12 inches (30 cm) can exaggerate nasal size by as much as 30%, and recommends that people take pictures from a standard distance of 5 feet (1.5 meters) to minimize perspective distortion.^[138]

See also

References

External links

• Media related to selfies at Wikimedia Commons

It seems almost certain the selfie originated in Australia with a young drunk first using the word to describe a self-portrait photograph more than a decade ago. Oxford Dictionaries revealed this week the earliest known usage is from a 2002 online ABC forum post.

When did selfie become a word?

‘Selfie’ named by Oxford Dictionaries as word of 2013. “Selfie” has been named as word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries. The word has evolved from a niche social media tag into a mainstream term for a self-portrait photograph, the editors said.

What is the real meaning of selfie?

Definition of selfie
: an image that includes oneself (often with another person or as part of a group) and is taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks.

Who said selfie first?

Sasaki Miho
It was conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho, inspired by the popularity of girl photo culture and photo stickers in 1990s Japan. She worked for a game company, Atlus, where she suggested the idea, but it was initially rejected by her male bosses.

Did Australians invent the word selfie?

Australia has proudly laid claim to inventing the term “selfie” – named 2013 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries – after its first known use was revealed to be by an Australian describing a photograph taken while drunk at a 21st birthday party.

What country did the term selfie originate?

It seems almost certain the selfie originated in Australia with a young drunk first using the word to describe a self-portrait photograph more than a decade ago. Oxford Dictionaries revealed this week the earliest known usage is from a 2002 online ABC forum post.

Who named selfie?

In fact, the picture considered by many to be the first photographic portrait ever taken was a “selfie”. The image in question was taken in 1839 by an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast from Philadelphia named Robert Cornelius.

What is the Bengali meaning of selfie?

নিজের তোলা occasional selfies are acceptable, but posting a new picture of yourself everyday isn’t necessary.

What is the Tamil meaning of selfie?

Tamil Translation. சுயபடம் Cuyapaṭam.

What is the selfie culture?

The discovery of selfie cameras and social media platforms led to a new phenomenon, namely the fondness of doin self-photos and then uploading them to social media so that self-photos will be seen and commented on by friends. This selfie phenomenon quickly developed into a kind of new culture, namely selfie culture.

What do Brits call selfies?

Selfie was named ‘word of the 2013’ by Oxford Dictionaries but now there’s a new term on the block: the usie. Pronounced ‘uss-ee’ – and rhyming with ‘fussy’ – the word marks the growing trend for people squeezing their friends into their camera frame, as well as themselves.

Did Britney Spears invent the selfie?

No, Hilton and Spears didn’t actually invent the selfie—hey, even the 1991 movie Thelma and Louise showed Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon posing for one. Hilton and Spears also never trademarked the term “selfie” (although Hilton does own the trademark for the phrase “that’s hot” to be used on clothing.)

However, the word ‘selfie’ was only founded in 2002, when an Australian man, Nathan Hope, got drunk at his 21st birthday and posted a picture of his stitched lip with the caption “sorry about the focus, it was a selfie”.

Who took the first Taj Mahal selfie?

This week’s Friday Photo comes from Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison when he clicked a selfie at Taj Mahal during his India visit in 1966. This photo is regarded as the First ever selfie taken before the launch of modern day camera phones.

When did selfie started in India?

When Maharaja Bir Chandra pulled it, he took what is one of the earliest-known self-portraits, or ‘selfies’ by an Indian. This was around 40 years after cameras made their way into India in the 1840s.

What’s another word for selfie?

What is another word for selfie?

picture	image
photo	photograph
shot	portrait
snap	still
snapshot	frame

Is selfie still a thing?

Selfies may not be cool anymore, but their spirit lives on—just as it always has. The duck face, the fish gape, the smize—these are just a few of the time-honored poses that celebrities, influencers, and the Instagram-happy masses have relied upon to create perfect selfies.

What’s App meaning in Tamil?

எல்லாரும் முதல் விசிட் பார்த்தவுடன் பதிவு செய்யவும்

What is the Tamil meaning of Facebook?

முகநூல் Mukanūl. More Tamil words for facebook. கீச்சிடு Kīcciṭu facebook, squeak, chirp, screech.

Why are Millennials obsessed with selfies?

According to The New Yorker, the self-esteem movement led to the obsession with selfies (and with “self”) that we have today. The idea was to free ourselves from all kinds of social problems by believing that we were special and amazing.

Are selfies making us narcissistic?

New research published in Psychology of Popular Media casts doubt on the link between taking selfies and narcissism.The study of 276 college students found that there was no significant difference between how many selfies those high in narcissism and those low in narcissism reported taking over the past week.

Last Updated:
7 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

This article is about self-photographs. For other uses, see Selfie (disambiguation).

File:Ameily radke es vato!!.jpg

A selfie is 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 Instagram, Snapchat, and Tumblr. They are often casual, and are typically taken either with a camera held at arm’s length or in a mirror.

History[]

File:RobertCornelius.jpg

Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, produced a daguerreotype of himself in 1839 which is also one of the first photographs of a person. Because the process was slow he was able to uncover the lens, run into shot for a minute or more, and then replace the lens cap. He recorded on the back «The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.»^[1][2]

File:Unidentified woman taking her own photograph using a mirror and a box camera, roughly 1900.jpg

File:Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna self photographic portrait.jpg

The debut of the portable Kodak Brownie box camera in 1900 led to photographic self-portraiture becoming a more widespread technique. The method was usually by mirror and stabilizing the camera either on a nearby object or on a tripod while framing via a viewfinder at the top of the box.^[3] Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna at the age of 13 was one of the first teenagers to take her own picture using a mirror to send to a friend in 1914. In the letter that accompanied the photograph, she wrote, «I took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was very hard as my hands were trembling.»^[4]

The modern concept of taking selfies as it is understood today largely originated from Nintendo’s Game Boy Camera, released in 1998. It was the first digital camera marketed as a self-picture device, with its marketing campaign emphasizing taking self-pictures and sharing them with friends and family. [1]

The concept of uploading group self-taken photographs (now known as super selfies) to the internet, although with a disposable camera not a smartphone, dates to a webpage created by Australians in September 2001, including photos taken in the late 1990s (captured by the Internet Archive in April 2004).^[5][6][7] The earliest usage of the word selfie can be traced as far back as 2002. It first appeared in an Australian internet forum (ABC Online) on 13 September 2002.

Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.^[8]

Popularity[]

The term «selfie» was discussed by photographer Jim Krause in 2005,^[9] although photos in the selfie genre predate the widespread use of the term. In the early 2000s, before Facebook became the dominant online social network, self-taken photographs were particularly common on MySpace. However, writer Kate Losse recounts that between 2006 and 2009 (when Facebook became more popular than MySpace), the «MySpace pic» (typically «an amateurish, flash-blinded self-portrait, often taken in front of a bathroom mirror») became an indication of bad taste for users of the newer Facebook social network. Early Facebook portraits, in contrast, were usually well-focused and more formal, taken by others from distance. In 2009 in the image hosting and video hosting website Flickr, Flickr users used ‘selfies’ to describe seemingly endless self-portraits posted by teenage girls.^[10] According to Losse, improvements in design—especially the front-facing camera copied by the iPhone 4 (2010) from Korean and Japanese mobile phones, mobile photo apps such as Instagram, and selfie sites such as ItisMee—led to the resurgence of selfies in the early 2010s.^[11]

File:Macaca nigra self-portrait.jpg

Initially popular with young people, selfies gained wider popularity over time.^[12][13] By the end of 2012, Time magazine considered selfie one of the «top 10 buzzwords» of that year; although selfies had existed long before, it was in 2012 that the term «really hit the big time».^[14] According to a 2013 survey, two-thirds of Australian women age 18–35 take selfies—the most common purpose for which is posting on Facebook.^[13] A poll commissioned by smartphone and camera maker Samsung found that selfies make up 30% of the photos taken by people aged 18–24.^[15]

By 2013, the word «selfie» had become commonplace enough to be monitored for inclusion in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.^[16] In November 2013, the word «selfie» was announced as being the «word of the year» by the Oxford English Dictionary, which gave the word itself an Australian origin.^[17]

Selfies have also taken beyond the earth. A space selfie is a selfie that is taken in space. This include selfies taken by astronauts,^[18] machines^[19] and by an indirect method to have self-portrait photograph on earth retaken in space.^[20]

In January 2014, during the Sochi Winter Olympics, a «Selfie Olympics» meme was popular on Twitter, where users took self-portraits in unusual situations.^[21] The spread of the meme took place with the usage of the hashtags, #selfiegame, and #selfieolympics.^[22]

A selfie orchestrated by 86th Academy Awards host Ellen DeGeneres during the 2 March 2014 broadcast is the most retweeted image ever.^[23][24] DeGeneres said she wanted to homage Meryl Streep‘s record 18 Oscar nominations by setting a new record with her, and invited other Oscar celebrities to join them. The resulting photo of twelve celebrities broke the previous retweet record within forty minutes, and was retweeted over 1.8 million times in the first hour.^[25][26][27] By the end of the ceremony it had been retweeted over 2 million times, less than 24 hours later, it had been retweeted over 2.8 million times.^[24][25] Template:As of, it has been retweeted 3,400,395 times.^[24] It beat the previous record, 778,801, which was held by Barack Obama, following his victory in the 2012 presidential election.^[27][28][29]

In April 2014, the advertising agency iStrategyLabs produced a two-way mirror capable of automatically posting selfies to Twitter, using facial recognition software.^[30]

In popular culture[]

• In August 2013, the Guardian produced a film series titled Thinkfluencer^[31] exploring selfie exposure in the UK.
• American dance music duo The Chainsmokers released a single #SELFIE in 2014.
• In March 2014, a no-makeup selfie meme was started in the UK in aid of cancer charities for women to take selfies without makeup.^[32]

Psychology and neuroscience[]

According to a study performed by Nicola Bruno and Marco Bertamini at the University of Parma, selfies by non-professional photographers show a slight bias for showing the left cheek of the selfie-taker.^[33]
This is similar to what has been observed for portraits by professional painters from many different historical periods and styles,^[34] indicating that the left cheek bias may be rooted in asymmetries of brain lateralization that are well documented within cognitive neuroscience. In a second study,^[35]
the same group tested if selfie takers without training in photography spontaneously adhere to widely prescribed rules of photographic composition, such as the rule of thirds. It seems that they do not, suggesting that these rules may be conventional rather than hardwired in the brain’s perceptual preferences.

In April 2014, a man diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder recounted spending ten hours a day attempting to take the «right» selfie, attempting suicide after failing to produce what he perceived to be the perfect selfie.^[36] The same month brought several scholarly publications linking excessive selfie posting with body dysmorphic disorder.Template:Cn

References[]

External links[]

Selfie is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”.

What is a two person selfie called?

An “usie” is a group selfie, where someone takes a picture of themselves with other people in the shot.

What kind of word is selfie?

hypocorism

Are selfies harmful?

There have been a variety of studies to take a look at the mental health impact of taking and posting selfies regularly. One done at the Department of Psychology at York University found that posting selfies increases anxiety, and decreases self-confidence in comparison to those who don’t post selfies.

What do selfies say about a person?

Selfies help people portray a version of themselves to the world. This is a statement that says “Look at me. This is who I am.” At times, it can be a very powerful statement and inspire people on to great things in their lives, while at other times, it is simply something that helps them get through the day.

What is the psychology behind selfies?

Weirdly enough, the researchers found selfies were actually associated with lower grandiose narcissism and that posting a photo taken by another person is more clearly connected to self-reported narcissism. And the same pattern was found for the ‘fear of missing out’, aka FoMo.

What does Photoholic mean?

Noun. photoholic (plural photoholics) (informal) A keen photographer.

What is a Photophile?

photophile (plural photophiles) (biology) Any organism that thrives in bright sunlight.

What do you call the person being photographed?

Traditionally, they’re called the ‘subject’ if they’re sitting for a portrait. However – if they’re being photographed for wearing a specific outfit, or shoes etc – they could be referred to as the ‘model’.

What is a person who loves sky called?

a person who loves the sky that is the stars ; astronomy is called as “ ASTROPHILE ”

What is it called when you don’t like taking pictures?

Scopophobia, scoptophobia, or ophthalmophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen or. stared at by others. Scopophobia can also be associated with a pathological fear of drawing attention to oneself.

What is a photoshopper?

Generally, You can call a Photoshopper as: Graphic Artist. Digital Artist.

What are the features of Photoshop?

In some newer versions hovering along the tools gives a small Video glimpse of the tool.

• Pen tool. Photoshop includes a few versions of the pen tool.
• Clone stamp tool.
• Shape tools.
• Measuring and navigation.
• Selection tools.
• Video editing.
• 3D extrusion.
• Mobile integration.

Why is Photoshop so important?

Adobe Photoshop enables you to create website layouts and attractive graphic designs. What’s more, using the same skills, you can create posters, business cards, greeting cards, and many others. Adobe Photoshop is essential in both image editing and graphic design and hence the reason you need to learn it.

Content

• What is Selfie:
• History of the selfie
• Selfie according to psychology
• Types selfie
• Selfie stick
• National day of selfie
• Day of selfie in the museums

What is Selfie:

Selfieis a neologism of English, used to refer to a selfie or self portrait made with a smartphone (or smartphone), a webcam or a digital camera, to be shared through social networks or platforms of microblogging, like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

The selfie It is commonly used as a message, either to get other people’s attention, to show achievement, or for fun. In general terms, the objective of the selfie It is the exhibition of the person in a special moment of his life, through social networks or other digital platforms.

The term selfiebecame popular from the 21st century as a result of the massification of new communication technologies, to the point that the Oxford dictionary considered it the word of the year 2013 and incorporated it into the English language. In this sense, the word selfie is a noun composed of the words “self«, Which means ‘auto’, and» —ie«, Which translates ‘I’ or ‘myself’; for this reason, the suggested usage in Spanish is ‘selfie’ or ‘self-portrait’.

The first use of the word selfie of record dates back to 2002, when it was used in an online forum in Australia.

History of the selfie

Today we see the selfie As a phenomenon of social networks that has become fashionable in recent years, although, strictly speaking, the concept of the selfie is as old as cameras.

The first selfie of which there is record is a self-portrait made by photographer Robert Cornelius in 1839. Later, a possible beginning of the culture selfie in the photo booth, a cabin closed by a curtain, which consisted of a photographic camera, and which was used to take photos for personal consumption.

With the creation of the social network MySpace, in 2003, the selfie in the digital realm. And the appearance of Facebook, in 2004, ended up popularizing this way of taking pictures. Its use became so common that it prompted the creation of a device that would allow more comfortable taking selfies: the selfie stick, I know colloquially as «selfie stick» or «selfie stick», a support that allows placing the phone at a certain distance to take self-portraits.

The most common poses to take a selfie, especially among the younger population are: fish mouth, duck trunk (duck face), showing the tongue, sending a kiss, raising an eyebrow, among others. However, many people choose to take self-portraits without posing, in which they can be appreciated in a more natural way.

Its popularization has been greatly influenced by the profusion of selfies between celebrities and politicians, like the president of the United States, Barack Obama, or the Pope Francisco.

The selfie most media to date has been the presenter Ellen Degeneres, who took a photo during the Oscar awards ceremony, in 2014, and later uploaded to his Twitter account. The photo had more than 3,329,000 retweets.

However, although it is the most popular selfie, it is not the most shared. A teenager named Carter Wilkerson challenged a fast food company in 2017 in the United States, raising a selfie in which he asked for a year of free food. The company responded by saying that to achieve this, it had to reach 18 million retweets. Currently, she has more than 3,400,000 retweets, for which she surpassed the record of the North American presenter.

Selfie according to psychology

For psychology, selfie can constitute a self-assertion mechanism where a certain narcissistic compulsion is manifested in the individual. The excessive exposure of personal life reveals, according to this discipline, a low self-esteem and an ongoing need for approval and acceptance.

At younger ages, it is considered that selfie It is part of a mechanism for the construction of one’s identity, to the extent that it is shown to others to receive validation and feedback.

According to studies that have been carried out in this regard, selfie it is more characteristic in youth, from adolescence to 23 years, and more common among women than men.

See also Narcissism.

Types selfie

The selfie has evolved into other genres of selfies, including:

• The helfie, which is an image of our own hair.
• The belfie, which is a photo intended to show our butt.
• The drelfie, which is a photograph of us in a drunken state.
• The shelfie or bookshelfie, which is a selfie with books or book furniture.
• The usie or groufie, where the selfie is made up of several people.

A groufie, or group selfie.

Selfie stick

The selfie stick, also known as «stick for selfies«It is an extendable tube designed to take pictures from a distance, used as a complement to mobile phones, iPads, cameras, among other devices. They first appeared in the Asian market, and became popular among fans of selfies in the rest of the world. world.

The selfie stickThey are characterized by having a metal stick, extendable, with a handle at one end and a clamp at the other in order to hold the electronic device. There are different models, colors, and prices, but it differs by its operation, some work through the timer of the electronic device, and others have the integrated bluethooth on the handle that connects to the mobile.

These accessories allow users to take photos in groups, of themselves or panoramas in a more practical way, without the need to reach out or ask another to take a picture. By virtue of this tool, there was created the hashtag #selfiestick on social media.

Two tourists wear a selfie stick to take a photo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

There are public places (concert halls, museums, galleries, sporting events, among others) that prohibited the use of the rod to selfies for different reasons, among which are: to avoid possible damages that may be caused to property or an individual, and in the case of shows, to avoid illegal recordings.

For these reasons, and given the technological advances of mobile devices, the use of the selfie stick it has been decreasing with the passage of time.

National day of selfie

In 2014, an American DJ named Rick Mcneely promoted the creation of a day of the selfie to support charities. His idea found rapid acceptance on the internet and on June 21 of that same year the first «National Selfie Day«(National Day of Selfie). Although its name shows a local reach, many people around the world celebrate this day on the networks using the hashtag #NationalSelfieDay.

Day of selfie in the museums

Since 2014, every January 16 is celebrated the Day of Selfie in the museums (Museum Selfie Day), a UNESCO initiative to promote public attendance at these venues, and establish new dialogues around the use of new technologies in art. The idea is that attendees take a selfie inside a museum and share the image on social media using the hashtag #MuseumSelfieDay

See also:

• Social media
• Blog
• Blogger
• Influencer
• Facebook
• Hashtag

«Selfie» here, «selfie» there … Surely you’ve heard or read this word dozens of times lately, right? And it is not something new, but a fashionable phenomenon practiced by all, celebrities and celebrities included. The truth is that it is not about anything else but a selfie, that is, a photograph taken by oneself, but if you want to know in more detail what a selfie is, do not miss this article from.

What is a selfie: origin of the word

The term selfie or selfy — it can be written both ways — comes from English, and is that the word «self» can be translated as «same», so a selfie becomes a photo to oneself or what would be the same : a selfie

It seems that the word selfie was used for the first time in 2002 by an Australian in the waiting room of a hospital, when taking a photo of the wounds that had been made because of a fall while he was drunk. The truth is that in 2013 has become part of the Oxford Dictionary.

What is a selfie? What is it?

As a general rule, the selfie is taken with the camera of a smartphone — either front or rear — or with a digital camera. Being a photo taken by the person in the image, it is common to see the arm with which the camera is holding the photo. There is also the possibility of taking it in front of a mirror, so that in the photograph the person making the photo will appear through the reflection.

Another feature of these self-portraits is the fact that they are shared on social networks, so it is very common to see selfies on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr …

What is a selfie: group selfies

Although selfies originally include only the photographer, the tendency to take group selfies in which the person taking the photo appears surrounded by other people has also been created.

One of the group selfie that has created more excitement was the one taken at the 2014 Oscars gala, when presenter Ellen DeGeneres took a picture with her mobile phone along with many Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Badley Cooper, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey …

How to make a good selfie

As you can see, the selfie does not have much mystery, but it is true that some recommendations should be taken into account to take a perfect selfie and get out as much as possible.

That is why we want to explain some tips so you can make a good selfie and then share it on all social networks.

Variants of the selfie

We know that it is possible that in addition to asking you what a selfie is, you are also questioning other similar concepts arising from this phenomenon of self-portraits. We tell you then:

— Belfie: it consists of a selfie of the butt, which does not necessarily have to be without clothes.

— Welfie : you take your selfie through the gym mirror.

— D relfie : the self-portrait you do while you’re drunk.

— Sexselfie : selfies during the sexual act.

— Aftersex : the new fashion of making a self-portrait after having sex.

— Topless: it is also extending the taking of photos without a shirt, both between men and women, obviously without underwear.