The 'selfie effect' in regular society

Literature Review Assignment on MCS2103 Research Methods - University of Colombo School of Computing

1. The 'Selfie Effect'
in regular society
Literature review of effects in
selfie photography trend in day-
to-day life.
U. V Vandebona
Index No: 13440722
2014 October

Master of Computer Science (MCS) - University of Colombo School of Computing

2. 2 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how the 'Selfie' culture deep rooted in present society and what
brings it for the future. Specifically more focusing on the question, how this photography technique
impact on the regular society in both negative and positive ways. This paper further discusses, would this
trend leads for a sociological shift or a psychological problem.
Keywords: Selfie, Social Media, Photography, Sociology, Camera, Smart Phone, Young Generation,
Celebrity, Photo Uploading
Introduction

Origin of the term ‘Selfie’ (self + ie) has
appeared from the early 21st century. The
immense development of social media and smart
phones really impact the emergence of this word
and being widely used as a general term. In the
year 2013 Oxford Dictionaries announced their
word of the year as the ‘selfie’, due to this
sudden popularity.
(1)
Oxford dictionary defined
this term as, “A photograph that one has taken
of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone
or webcam and shared via social media”. But
before the rise of this selfie concept, smart
phones or social media, the thought of taking
self portraits was existed among people with
using self-timers on the cameras. But the idea
behind the selfie meant to be different than using
a self timer, and also it should not take a longer
snapping time process as self timer. Most
importantly to be a selfie, photograph should be
captured with a camera held at arm's length or
focused at a mirror.
The other version of the selfie is group selfie,
where the subject of the selfie is joined or
crowded or at least with one other person. It is
also gaining wide popularity in the selfie culture.
And now the tendency is called them as ‘usie’,
the 'self' replaced by a collective 'us'.
Anyway the whole concept is; wherever you are,
whatever you are doing, with whom you are
with, taking a snapshot of yourself to express it
just as quick as you can.
History

Before coming into photography, the earliest
selfie looking painting was done by
Parmigianino way back in 1524, and it was
named as “Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror”. In
the painting, it portrays the artist himself
distorted by a convex mirror which made it
exactly look like a selfie.
(2)

The very first self photograph or somewhat
called selfie was taken by Robert Cornelius, an
amateur chemist and photography enthusiast, in
way back 1839, very early days of photography
explorations, experimentations and inventions.
( 3 )

Because of the slow capturing process at that
time in camera’s, after setting up the camera he
was able to run back and sit in front of the
camera decently without peeping into it.
After 1900s mirror selfie technique was widely
being used even it was not termed as selfie at
that time. The first teenager who took a selfie
was identified as Russian Grand Duchess
Anastasia Nikolaevna from the last Tsar family
in 1914 when she was 13 years old. She used the
mirror technique to capture the photo and says
about that experience like this. “I took this

3. 3 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

picture of myself looking at the mirror. It was
very hard as my hands were trembling.”
(4)
Then the space exploration becomes a notable
area of selfies with earth on the background, but
they were not expressed as selfies until the term
becomes a trend. Thereafter it was coined as
astronaut selfies or rover selfies by the person or
machine that took it and more generally called
as space selfies. The very first known space
selfie was captured by the astronaut Buzz Aldrin
during the Gemini 12 mission in 1966.
( 5 )

The actual usage of the term was first come into
public view in 2002 on an Australian internet
forum ABC Online. The forum member Nathan
Hope with the username ‘Hopey’, posted a
thread on this forum with linking his selfie
photograph to seek medical advice for his
stitched and injured lips. And there he typed the
very first written use of the word ‘selfie’ as
"sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."
(6)

Selfie and Regular Life

The practical usage of this term was not being
widely utilized until 2010, and come into to use
in day to day life just from past couple of years.
The main reason behind this was the easy access
to smart phones gradually among the population.
Nowadays it is customary to include a built in
camera on every smart phone device. And
sometimes it really confuses whether the phone
is having a camera option or camera is having a
phone option because of the high tech
photography technologies it incorporates. And
this technology ensured that selfies are more and
more easier to produce and share on the web,
making even regular people to do photography
not only just pros. It was even become trendier
after the front facing camera designs were
integrated into the smart phones. When the
social media sites become apps for the smart
phones and introduction of mobile photo sharing
apps such like Instagram with incorporated
photo retouching features, selfie becomes more
and more familiar obsession among the society,
specifically among the young generation.
Because this immediate photo sharing
technology supports the person to say without
uttering a word; where he is now, what he is
doing now, what he looks like now and most
significantly to state “Hello, this is me”.
According to WebSta Instagram Web Viewer,
usage of hashtag ‘#selfie’ on Instagram retrieves
180,026,033 posts and on 14
th
place over top
100 tags in 2014 October.
(7)
All around world
trend for selfie postings on popular social media
such like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is
average 50 to 99+ selfies per a minute according
to analysis.
(8)

Selfie and Celebrity Life

Selfie-ism is everywhere, even among the
celebrities. It is becoming a way of increasing
popularity by sharing their celebrity life directly
to the fans, other than to a paparazzi camera.
There are even serial selfie uploaders amongst
celebrities. All time number one influencer for
#selfie is Canadian singer and songwriter Justin
Bieber and second place goes to the singer,
actress, and songwriter Miley Cyrus.
(9)
All of
these serial uploaders are from the young
generation and popular among young
generation. Not only the musicians and
cinema/TV entertainers, now the sports people,
educationists, entrepreneurs and even the
politicians are excited with this selfie
phenomenon. US President Barack Obama was
identified as the most popular politician
selfiegrapher after the selfie shot during the
funeral of Nelson Mandela in 2013 December,
which was coined afterwards as ‘Obama Selfie’.
And it was gone virally making wild news

4. 4 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

headlines connecting a huge back story. For
celebrities, selfie is a fast track to popularity just
like the Ellen DeGeneres ‘Oscar Selfie’, fast
track to fame just like the Pope Francis ‘Papal
Selfie’ and even fast track to bad name just like
the ‘Obama Selfie’. Year 2014 fast shaped this
moving phenomenon with attaching countless
boldface names, sounds just like a self
promotion campaign.
Selfie is a trendy topic in the popular culture to
create number of lineups in the entertainment
industry demonstrating this social behavior. In
January 2014 American DJ duo ‘The
Chainsmokers’ released a music video named
‘#SELFIE’ and was able peak in the music
billboard charts.
(10)
Thereafter in the same year
February another music video released by Nina
Nesbitt titled ‘Selfies’ expressing the same
phenomenon.
(11)
Then in 2014 September, an
American television sitcom ‘Selfie’ premiered
on ABC Television Network, with a story of a
woman whose trying to achieve fame through
social media.
(12)

Sociological Effects

Selfie is perhaps tending to be a greater interest
for social scientists. With thorough analysis it is
evident that, this becoming more fashionable
predominant trend among young generation. In a
more detail level it is apparent that teenage girls
are more tend to capture their selfie faces when a
new hairstyle, makeup or facial going on with
them. Taking a selfie when on a special
occasion, or else before the participation of the
event, becoming a typical scenario among teen
girl culture. Most notable selfies have odd
angles, kissy faces or looking in a direction that
is not towards the camera. In particularly mirror
selfies are their habitual behavior to show off
when a new outfit wears on. So it is clear that
teen girl customary is still not changed from the
time period of last Tsar family as we mentioned
about 13 years old Anastasia before.
(4)
When
talking about young male generation, more often
they like to pose with a newly bought or tried
entry; specifically a gadget, tool, pet, place,
monument or someone in the opposite gender.
Solo selfies are rarely been seen among habitual
young male selfiegraphers after the tryout
beginner time period. In any occurrence if it is
looks like a solo one, they’ll be more apt to
describe what the occasion is. Also it is
noticeable that they are frequent users of group
selfies.
(13)

A study which was carried out in year 2013
using Facebook users, claimed that people who
are posting selfies as habitual users are more
likely to have lower levels of social support, but
higher level of closeness among Facebook
friends. This study suggests that such happening
may risk damaging their real life relationships.

(14)
According to a study done by Samsung in
2013, 30% of photos taken by people age
between 18 and 24 are selfies. And it also
reveals that most of the selfies are taken by men
than women.
In the episode of ‘Elders React to #selfie’
telecasted on ‘Elders React’ series produced by a
American YouTube channel ‘TheFineBros’,
expresses how the older generation is unaware
about the selfie fascination going on with
younger generation, and also elders thoughts of
how stupid obsession it is as well as with the
amazement of the technology and future.
(15)
On
the same production house ‘TheFineBros’,
episode of ‘Teens React to Super Selfie’ of their
‘Teens React’ series proves that, it is no doubt
that the two generations have two opposite
views about the selfie experience specially when
it comes to the situation of privacy and
connecting with others and having leisure.
(16)
But it is a truth fact that embarrassing situations
can occur when the pictures are getting spread
outside of the person’s boundary.

5. 5 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

Now the ‘selfie’ is one of top ten buzzwords in
social networking arena according to Times
Magazine.
(17)
The number one purpose of
uploading selfies becomes to collect ‘like’s or
upbeat comments from its viewers. It is like
seeking approval or gaining compliments on the
appearance. With more likes, comments and
views, it is a certain fact that selfie turn out to be
the profile picture which gives him or her, a
unique presence in the internet, for a big time
until the next profile picture take place. Most of
the youth are actually towards for selfies with
the thought of to make it as the profile picture in
the social networking application they are using.
If it got less rating, there is a high probability of
having a new one soon enough. If someone
observes the behavior of the uploader from the
moment after upload of the selfie on social
media, he can clearly see how the monitoring
process goes with number of refreshing times,
gaze at the notification area and counting of
likes, comments or views already got.
( 1 3 )

A new and controversial trend called ‘Selfie
Olympics’ (#selfiegame or #selfieolympics)
with the concept of taking selfies in unusual
situations was bought up on Twitter and other
social media in the beginning of 2014. This was
clearly showed how tragic the crazy desire of
teens to do stunt act show offs publicly even
risking their lives, as most of the participants of
this contest were teenagers just for publicity.
( 1 8 )

So does this whole selfie movement describes
the weak self esteem have in the younger
generation? Was this whole online posting of
own self image wherever goes and whatever
does means the people need to make sure
themselves and also others, that they exists? Or
does this means everybody needs one minute of
glory per day? There was a time; people and
celebs were so afraid and hated of being
captured into paparazzi in their regular life. But
now posing for a selfie and distributing it to the
world resembles, becoming your own paparazzi.
According to the Curtin University cultural
studies expert Professor Jon Stratton, selfies are
more about seeking reassurance. He says “It's
people looking for their friends to confirm they
look good. You want that reassurance, we all
want people to say positive things about us.”
Addition to that he strictly mention about
privacy. He declares that people’s perception on
two distinctions private and public is no longer
exists, or on the way for that. The opinion of
internet studies lecturer Dr Tama Leaver from
the same educational institution about this
narcissism behavior is a positive one with regard
to the technology and fashion. His thoughts
reflect the time period where people sit for a
painting which was so time consuming and
expensive.
(19)
Clinical psychologist Dr Anjali
Chhabria’s idea of selfies is like creating virtual
identities which people wish to be they are but
truly what they are not. She termed it as ‘False
Image’.
(20)

Most of the people use group selfies as a
convenient way of removing the annoyance of
criticism in narcissism display of a selfie, while
subtly reminding the followers that they’re
constantly surrounded by friends and loved ones.
This is mostly used by couples, families;
specifically parents with their new born babies
and colleagues or best friends.
(21)
Selfies are likely to cause addiction, mental
illness and even suicide. In 2014 February,
officials of Hong Kong Marathon had to take an
initiative to prohibit taking selfies during the
running, due to the injuries taken place in the
2013 marathon when runners stopping to snap
selfies which causes pile-up and resulted bruises
in participants.
(22)
This evidently shows how the
addiction turns to a mania afterwards.
Selfie obsessed teenager Danny Bowman who
was attempted suicide says he ended up shooting
about 200 pictures trying frantically to catch-up
the perfect image. After his medical treatments,

6. 6 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

it was identified that he was diagnosed with
body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), also known
as body dysmorphia or dysmorphic syndrome. A
mental illness that causes one to sufferer and
spend a lot of time worrying about their
appearances. After the medical therapies, his
thoughts echoed that, this selfie taking addiction
was like drugs, alcohol or gambling, which is
quickly spiral out of control.
(23)

New Trends and Future


Figure 1: Google Trend of Search Topic 'Selfie'
Shown above from the Figure 1 is the search
interest on selfie in Google search engine from
the year 2004 to 2014 October.
(24)
It was topped
in the day, the ‘Oscar Selfie’ was captured. This
graph conveys how increasingly worldwide web
search interest for selfie has been developed and
on the other hand how increasingly the term was
used in the last two years.
Memes
From time to time popular trends, so called
memes, appears in the selfie culture. It is a
behavior of uploading different types of selfies,
sharing it online under the designated hashtag,
and then considered to be passed from one
individual to another and spread virally among
social media users. Sometimes promoted by the
social media also.
(25)

• Sellotape Selfie: Act of wrapping the face in
adhesive tape as to appear monstrous in a
crooked and squished manner.
• Selfie Olympics: Also known as Trick Shot
Selfie. A photo fad that involves taking a mirror-
shoot selfie while posing in a physically
challenging manner.
• No Makeup Selfie: Act of showoff without
wearing any cosmetics.
• Sign Holding Selfie: Act of participating in a
social or political movement by taking a selfie,
or posing for a picture, with a handwritten sign
featuring a message about the issue and.
Sometimes some memes arise inside
geographical bounds. For example
SelfieWithModi meme was trending topic on
India after Narendra Modi selfied himself after
casting his vote demonstrating his inked finger
and thereafter inviting other voters to do the
same.
Mobile phones, Apps and Technology
According to a Research conducted for the
Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom smartphone reveals
that most of the people are no longer using
phones primarily for making calls and it is
increasingly utilize to share photos of their lives
with others.
( 2 6 )
It is no doubt that mobile phone
photo sharing apps with integrated retouching
features which transforms selfies into glamorous
shots, supports the research to reveal such kind
of findings.
Imagist Labs iOS application ‘Selfie’ takes the
advantage of front facing camera on
smartphones and human obsession of taking self
portraits. According to creators of this
application they describe selfie as a common
form of communication which can display
moods and surroundings, and a great analytic
tool to look at variety and diversity of faces in
the world.
(27)

Group Selfie technique is a great pusher for
mobile phone manufacturers to incorporate new
photography and editing technologies in smart
phones, because it is the major gainer to win the

7. 7 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

competitive advantage in smartphones industry.
At the launch of smart phone Huawei Ascend
P7, Huawei made an interesting statement that,
the phone utilize a quite powerful front camera
and features to take awesome group selfies
which they trademarked as ‘groufie’ like as the
Samsung trademarked their ‘wefie’ .
(28)

Digital equipment manufacturer Sony stated that
they have introduced a Professional selfie
smartphone with real-time selfie apps.
According to independent consumer test from
Strategy Analytics conducted in June 2014,
claims that Sony’s Xperia C3 is the world’s best
smart phone for selfies.
(29)
The images snapped
at its front face camera considered better than
those from all leading flagship industry
competitors, and that was show the way to high
consumer preference.
Marketing and Branding
Selfie contests or selfie campaigns are one way
of branding products, services and organizations.
It directs to divulge creative ways of selfie
centered marketing by make involving users or
employees. Famous way of branding products is
encouraging followers to send their selfies taken
with the product in, driving engagement and
traffic to the brand site. Other way is generating
engagement by leveraging celebrity star selfie
power like as the ‘Oscar Selfie’. Most of the
organizations encourage its employees to share
group selfies among their social networks, as it
gives a picture of the friendly working
environment which is a one tactic of promoting
business.
(30)

Selfie Etiquette
Final words to say, selfie is a representation of
the current generation which thrives on
technology. The digital world which connects
everyone virtually with outside world at the
click of a button also isolates them in physically.
Smartphones attached with social media gives a
platform to express the moment but maybe
effects of it will be on future. However it is not
totally brings out bad deeds. It portrays the love
someone feels for themselves. It operates as a
tool for empowerment. Clicking selfies at
holidays or any other occasion will bring out
everlasting visual remembrance that would
otherwise get lost in time. So the appropriate
way is to deal with the technology without
losing yourself on it. The Times of India
describes about polite ways of dealing with
selfies in regular life.
(20)

• Don't be overly dependent on the praise you get
from selfies to build your sense of self, as there is
a fine line between confidence and over-
confidence.
• Be careful to keep the picture uploads in check
so that it does not become such an obsession that
you upload selfies multiple times a day in order
to get a reaction.
• These platforms are used by millions all over the
world, and there is a chance of pictures being
misused. Make sure your social media profile is
set to private, so that only friends and family
have access to your photo uploads.
Reference

1. Oxford Dictionaries. The Oxford Dictionaries
Word of the Year 2013 is…. OxfordWords blog.
[Online] November 18, 2013. [Cited: October 11,
2014.]
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/11/word-of-
the-year-2013-winner/.
2. Wikipedia. Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [Online] October 7,
2014. [Cited: October 11, 2014.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-
portrait_in_a_Convex_Mirror.
3. Open Knowledge Foundation. Robert Cornelius’
Self-Portrait: The First Ever “Selfie” (1839). The
Public Domain Review. [Online] 2013. [Cited:
October 11, 2014.]

8. 8 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/robert-
cornelius-self-portrait-the-f i r s t-ever-selfie-1839/.
4. Atchison, Bob. Letters of Grand Duchess
Anastasia. Alexander Palace Time Machine. [Online]
[Cited: October 11, 2014.]
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/adiaries.html.
5. Aldrin, Buzz. Did you know I took the first space
selfie during Gemini 12 mission in 1966? BEST
SELFIE EVER. Twitter. [Online] July 18, 2014.
[Cited: October 11, 2014.]
https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/49029354685
1635201.
6. A. B. C. News. This photo, posted on ABC Online,
is the world's first known 'selfie'. ABC News. [Online]
November 19, 2013. [Cited: October 11, 2014.]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-19/this-photo-
is-worlds-first-selfie/5102568.
7. Websta Intagram Web Viewer. HOT TAGS &
INSTAGRAMERS. Websta (Webstagram). [Online]
[Cited: October 12, 2014.] http://websta.me/hot.
8. Tagboard. #selfie on Tagboard. Tagboard.
[Online] [Cited: October 12, 2014.]
https://tagboard.com/selfie/search.
9. Hashtagify. #selfie: Popularity, Trend, Related
Hashtags. Hashtagify. [Online] [Cited: October 12,
2014.] http://hashtagify.me/hashtag/selfie.
10. The Chainsmokers. #SELFIE (Official Music
Video). YouTube. [Online] January 29, 2014. [Cited:
October 22, 2014.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdemFfbS5H0.
11. NinaNesbittMusicVEVO. Selfies. YouTube.
[Online] December 15, 2013. [Cited: October 22,
2014.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXh8B4yWVKk.
12. American Broadcasting Company. Watch
Selfie TV Show. abc. [Online] [Cited: October 22,
2014.] http://abc.go.com/shows/selfie.
13. Sifferlin, Alexandra. Why Selfies Matter. Time.
[Online] September 6, 2013. [Cited: October 22,
2014.] http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/06/why-
selfies-matter/.
14. Houghton, David, et al. Tagger's delight?
Disclosure and liking in Facebook: the effects of
sharing photographs amongst multiple known social
circles. ePapers Repository. [Online] June 05, 2013.
[Cited: October 12, 2014.]
http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/1723/.
15. TheFineBros Elders React. ELDERS REACT
TO #SELFIE. YouTube. [Online] 4 October, 2014.
[Cited: October 13, 2014.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yLdCwzL42A.
16. TheFineBros Teens React. TEENS REACT TO
SUPER SELFIE. YouTube. [Online] February 23,
2014. [Cited: October 13, 2014.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC4wfMSJ11M.
17. Steinmetz, Katy. News and Trends. Time.
[Online] December 04, 2012. [Cited: October 22,
2014.] http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/12/04/top-10-
news-lists/slide/selfie/.
18. Durrell, Rhys. Teen Found Dead After
Attempted Selfie Olympic Picture Goes Wrong. Tha
Produce Section. [Online] January 5, 2014. [Cited:
October 13, 2014.]
http://www.thaproducesection.com/selfie-olympic-
teen-dies-after-attempt-selfieolympics/.
19. McHugh, Jillian. 'Selfies' just as much for the
insecure as show-offs. WA Today. [Online] April 3,
2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.watoday.com.au/business/media-and-
marketing/selfies-just-as-m u c h-for-t h e-insecure-as-
showoffs-20130403-2h6ow.html.
20. Fernandes, Kasmin and Shah, Shikha. Selfie
t i m e . The Times of India. [Online] December 1, 2013.
[Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-
style/people/Selfie-time/articleshow/27074750.cms.
21. Shontell, Alyson. Selfies Are Dead, It's All
About The 'Usie' Now. Business Insider. [Online]
January 13, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.businessinsider.com/selfies-are-dead-its-
all-about-t h e-usie-now-2014-1.
22. Subramanian, Courtney. Saying No to Selfies
at the Hong Kong Marathon. Time. [Online]
September 18, 2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]

9. 9 The 'Selfie Effect' in regular society

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/09/18/saying-no-to-
selfies-at-the-hong-kong-marathon/.
23. Molloy, Antonia. 'Selfie obsessed' teenager
Danny Bowman suicidal after failing to capture 'the
perfect selfie'. The Independent. [Online] March 24,
2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-
news/selfie-obsession-m a d e-teenager-danny-
b o w m a n-suicidal-9212421.html.
24. Google Trends. Web Search interest -
Worldwide, 2004 - present. Google. [Online] [Cited:
October 22, 2014.]
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en-
US#q=%2Fm%2F0sgh53y&cmpt=q.
25. Know Your Meme. Selfie. [Online] [Cited:
October 22, 2014.]
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/selfie.
26. Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. Men Overtake
Women in the Selfie Stakes According to New
Research. Samsung UK . [Online] November 28,
2013. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.samsung.com/uk/news/local/men-
overtake-women-i n-the-selfie-stakes-according-to-
new-research.
27. Mulshine, Molly. New Selfie App Will Be Your
New Fave Or Your Worst Nightmare. Molly
Mulshine. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://betabeat.com/2013/10/new-s e l f i e-app-will-be-
your-new-fave-or-y o u r-worst-nightmare/.
28. Gicheru, Martin. Huawei's Groufie versus
Samsung's Wefie, which one's cooler? Techweez.
[Online] May 19, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.techweez.com/2014/05/19/huawei-
groufie-samsung-wefie/.
29. Xperia™ C3. Sony Smartphones (Global UK
English). Sony. [Online] [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.sonymobile.com/global-
en/legal/testresults/xperia-c3/.
30. Griner, David. Infographic: How Brands
Became Selfie Obsessed. AdWeek. [Online] February
11, 2014. [Cited: October 22, 2014.]
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/infographic-how-
brands-became-selfie-obsessed-155651.