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View Full Version : Why All the "Selfies" People Take/Post?



Rich Riddle
08-07-2016, 10:54 PM
Have we become so self-consumed that everywhere we go people feel the need to take pictures of themselves and post them? I have one picture of myself, and the wife took it and migrated it to my phone.

Bruce Page
08-07-2016, 11:04 PM
I can proudly say that I have never taken a selfie. Who'd want to see it anyway?

Rich Riddle
08-07-2016, 11:13 PM
Bruce, well then there is that part of no one wanting to see it. I am not versed in how to take a selfie and don't feel the need to know.

Mike Henderson
08-08-2016, 12:10 AM
It's a mystery to me, also. If you take a selfie without a selfie stick, your head (and anyone else in the picture) is going to fill the frame (your arm is only so long). So it's really a picture of yourself and not the area around you. Maybe people who take selfies don't have a friend they can put in a regular picture. Or maybe they just want a head shot of themselves.

Mike

Malcolm Schweizer
08-08-2016, 3:16 AM
I can proudly say that I have never taken a selfie. Who'd want to see it anyway?

So that's not you in your avatar?

Brent Cutshall
08-08-2016, 6:22 AM
There might be a setting for it on these new fangled cell phones, that's the only thing I can think of but there ain't nothing for on my ol' flip phone. Glad to say I've never took one. If somebody has figured it out more power to 'em. It's a strange world out there!

Larry Frank
08-08-2016, 7:28 AM
I get selfies that my daughter sends of her and the kids doing things. I love them. The cell phone and the pictures are the greatest thing for staying in touch with my kids and grand kids. I would rather be there to see them but the pictures and a selfie are the next best thing.

My avatar is a selfie my dog took of herself.

Matt Day
08-08-2016, 8:00 AM
Some people overdo it (like way overdo it) but why not every now and again? I take selfies of me and my kids and send to my wife or parents and they love it.
My wife and I will take them if we go somewhere fun and want to share it with friends and family. .
I took a simple one yesterday of me, my son (2yo) and our cat sitting on the couch. My wife had a long day away from our son and would much rather see a pic of him than hear me tell her or text her "we're sitting on the couch".
If go on a long bike ride, hike, go fishing somewhere really beautiful... I'll take a selfie with a great view in the background and send it to my wife or a friend.

If you take a selfie and all you see is you're big face, you are doing it wrong or have really short arms.

Why the hate?

glenn bradley
08-08-2016, 9:02 AM
Another indicator of the sad decline of western society?

Prashun Patel
08-08-2016, 9:12 AM
What's the difference between selfies and going on a trip and taking a picture of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower? Perfect moments of intimacy and awe are ruined by posing for a picture.

Down with duck face too.

Erik Loza
08-08-2016, 9:58 AM
My wife and I are pretty hip, for being middle-aged, and the appeal of the whole selfie-thing likewise mystifies us. Put your phone away and enjoy the moment. Nobody will care about your selfie tomorrow. No matter what you think. Maybe only you.

Erik

Ken Fitzgerald
08-08-2016, 10:15 AM
While I have never taken a selfie, my wife and I travel a bit and do enjoy having photographs to remind us of our trips. I don't like having my photograph taken as I am seldom satisfied with the smile on my face but married to the camera queen, I do have to allow it periodically but not as often as she would like.

It's called subjective. It's simply a matter of personal taste. The world would be a boring place if all of us liked the same things.

As far as another sign of the failure of Western society? In Yellowstone, in Australia, in New Zealand I saw lots of people from Eastern societies taking selfies. I am old enough to remember when my parents said that "Rock and Roll ....and the Beatles " were a Communist plot to take over the world.:confused::eek:

Harry Hagan
08-08-2016, 10:20 AM
I can proudly say that I have never taken a selfie. Who'd want to see it anyway?


Ditto!

And . . . It's unlikely that I'll fall off a cliff or wander into harm's way while mugging for my camera held at arm's length.

Steve Peterson
08-08-2016, 10:26 AM
I don't understand the fascination either. I am trying to filter out 4 years of photos from my wife's phone before sending them to the printer. Around 10% of them are selfies. I can't find a single good quality in any of them. The front camera has a lower resolution. The camera can either focus up close or far away, but never both at the same time. Her head is tilted at a weird angle and the closeness exaggerates the size of her nose. She is way prettier than what shows up in the selfie pictures. I end up deleting most of them.

Steve

fran tarkenton
08-08-2016, 12:25 PM
It's a byproduct of the human condition. Nothing has changed for the most part. Artists have painted self portraits for millennia. Technology now just gives every human being the "talent" to take and publish self portraits instantly. Van Gogh would have taken selfies, too... He probably wouldn't have gone with the pouty lips pose, though.

Those of us who have never taken a selfie probably don't spend too much time in front of a mirror, either. We can get ready for a nice dinner out in about 15 minutes. And don't really need a mirror...

"Selfie people" are also the ones who take a look in department store windows to see their own reflection. Not necessarily for narcissistic reasons, just to "check themselves out" and see that things are a-ok.

there are the extremeists who take 100 selfies a day and post them for the world to see all over the Internet. This is a slippery slope towards narcissism, self indulgence, and self obsession. These are the folks who need constant reassurement, praise, and "hand-holding" to get through life. Frequently, they can't get it often enough for their own satisfaction from the outside world so they give themselves self satisfaction and approval via the selfie. We all knew people like that way before the Internet....

and finally, celebrities and the like post selfies constantly because it is part of their branding. In essence, they get paid to post them.

Technology and the Internet have not changed human beings at all. They have just given humans the ability to publish their innermost thoughts and tendencies instantly. I'm pretty sure a young Elvis would have taken a picture of "little Elvis" and texted it to Priscilla... I would not have wanted to look too deeply into J Edgar Hoover's browser history.... And I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson, while an American hero, was just a little nuts. Who knows what would he would have been into at 2:00am alone with the Internet.....

Humans are much the same as they've always been, the technology is what has empowered and exposed all of our tendencies. We used to be able to hide our predilections. Now they are published, instantly and permanently. There's no putting this genie back in the bottle...

Pat Barry
08-08-2016, 12:46 PM
Why do we have mirrors anyway?

Bruce Page
08-08-2016, 1:04 PM
So that's not you in your avatar?

Yeah, but I didn't take it, my sister did after she kept poking me with a stick! :mad::)

Mel Fulks
08-08-2016, 2:21 PM
I remember when photos showed you in a special place...
Now they mostly prove you have a face .
Author Unknown ( but talented!)

Rich Riddle
08-08-2016, 2:27 PM
Why do we have mirrors anyway?

Pat, a fellow physician asked my wife what dye I used to keep my hair looking so natural. She retorted, "I don't even think he looks in a mirror twice a year." I have a mirror in the bathroom but don't look at it. Don't want it to shatter.

paul cottingham
08-08-2016, 2:44 PM
Got goaded into taking one last night for a group I've belonged to online for about 4 years, I was the last person who remained faceless. Felt very strange.

John K Jordan
08-08-2016, 6:57 PM
I remember when photos showed you in a special place...
Now they mostly prove you have a face .
Author Unknown ( but talented!)

Selfie photo quality is usually horrible.

When I see a couple trying to put themselves in the frame with the Eiffel tower or somesuch I often volunteer to take the picture for them. I can't tell you how many photos I've taken like this, maybe hundreds, in at least ten counties. I probably I took 10 in Venice alone this year. I guarantee they will have a far better picture this way - lighting, composition, and such! Sometimes families get to have them all in the picture instead of the usual, missing the photographer. Most people are very happy to get the picture but are just too shy to ask a stranger. I'm not.

It is a fantastic way to meet interesting people. I've learned a bit about where they are from, what they like to do, the interesting things they've seen (and some I then went and saw myself). Sometimes we had no common language but that was OK too. Some people are thrilled to have someone to talk to for a few minutes since they are traveling by themselves. We met one couple at the very top of a castle in Soave Italy, took some pics and chatted, then ran into them in four other places that afternoon!

It's a great hobby. It's gotten to where my wife will point out interesting people I didn't notice. Good fun! Certainly livens up the day and perhaps makes someone else's day.

JKJ

Dan Kirkland
08-08-2016, 9:03 PM
Why a selfie? Because narcissistie doesn't sound as hip.

My generation (young 20-30 somethings) seems to be obsessed with the ideas of self "victory" things, programs like instagram and twitter are perfect examples of this. I recall reading a post by an acquaintance that literally spelled out the words "I am special and I am important". Lot of weird things in our world, oh well.

Greg Peterson
08-08-2016, 9:31 PM
Hey you kids, get off my lawn!

Brent Cutshall
08-08-2016, 9:33 PM
I was the last person who remained faceless. Felt very strange.
You know what, Paul's got me thinking, we all ought to show pictures of our selves just for the sake of it. We don't know what most of the people we talk to look like on here. Paul, if that's a picture of you I ain't posting on here anymore.:D

Kev Williams
08-09-2016, 1:33 AM
I'm old enough to remember when it was hard to get anyone to let you take their picture. Not that way these days...

I ran into this picture online awhile back, pretty much how I see it... :D

http://www.engraver1.com/pictures/socialmedia.jpg

Luke Dupont
08-13-2016, 10:08 PM
It's a byproduct of the human condition. Nothing has changed for the most part. Artists have painted self portraits for millennia. Technology now just gives every human being the "talent" to take and publish self portraits instantly. Van Gogh would have taken selfies, too... He probably wouldn't have gone with the pouty lips pose, though.

Those of us who have never taken a selfie probably don't spend too much time in front of a mirror, either. We can get ready for a nice dinner out in about 15 minutes. And don't really need a mirror...

"Selfie people" are also the ones who take a look in department store windows to see their own reflection. Not necessarily for narcissistic reasons, just to "check themselves out" and see that things are a-ok.

there are the extremeists who take 100 selfies a day and post them for the world to see all over the Internet. This is a slippery slope towards narcissism, self indulgence, and self obsession. These are the folks who need constant reassurement, praise, and "hand-holding" to get through life. Frequently, they can't get it often enough for their own satisfaction from the outside world so they give themselves self satisfaction and approval via the selfie. We all knew people like that way before the Internet....

and finally, celebrities and the like post selfies constantly because it is part of their branding. In essence, they get paid to post them.

Technology and the Internet have not changed human beings at all. They have just given humans the ability to publish their innermost thoughts and tendencies instantly. I'm pretty sure a young Elvis would have taken a picture of "little Elvis" and texted it to Priscilla... I would not have wanted to look too deeply into J Edgar Hoover's browser history.... And I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson, while an American hero, was just a little nuts. Who knows what would he would have been into at 2:00am alone with the Internet.....

Humans are much the same as they've always been, the technology is what has empowered and exposed all of our tendencies. We used to be able to hide our predilections. Now they are published, instantly and permanently. There's no putting this genie back in the bottle...

Actually, while I think that is an intelligent take and I can see how you arrived at it, I would argue that technology has changed human tendencies, or, rather, reinforced and encouraged a trend towards certain tendencies that already existed.

Think of this in terms of psychology, for example. We all have a full range of psychological functions, and we have certain preferences for some functions over others, which define our personality. But when we take one function too far, it becomes psychosis. It's unhealthy, and disfunctional.

In the same way, technology can encourage us to over-exercise certain human tendencies to the point of them being unhealthy.

Social media has certainly contributed to narcissism, and I would argue that we live in a society that trends more towards that direction than ever before. Social media is all about the ego, and creating an image of yourself to portray to the world. It is, by its very nature, not private, after all. However, it contributes to narcissism in more than just that way. Perhaps the most destructive trait is the way social media caters your feed to the people and content that it knows you prefer; this creates and encourages "echo chambers" in which there are no dissenting ideas or opinions. If, for example, you are a very liberal activist, the posts, memes, and friends that appear in your feed will all be mostly in alignment with your own views, because those are the profiles, posts, and groups who you visit and communicate with the most, and who's content you share. Likewise if you are a conservative, or what have you. This is a well studied phenomenon that is contributing to the ever more polarized political and cultural views and identities which characterize modern society. It also means that people are more accustomed to environments that cater to their beliefs and opinions, and are more resistant to any challenging views to the point of, more and more, seeking censorship. It's an unhealthy, and dangerous trend that is being reinforced, and creates something of a feedback loop for itself.

This difference is apparent when you take a look at countries with very different cultures, I think. It becomes apparent the psychosis' which afflict our society and culture when you step outside of it, or if you never really bothered to partake in it yourself.

Richard McComas
08-14-2016, 2:31 AM
I can proudly say that I have never taken a selfie. Who'd want to see it anyway?

So, that Avatar isn't really you?

Rod Sheridan
08-14-2016, 6:29 AM
342291Here's the only selfie I've ever taken.

It's a photograph of me with a Cat transfer switch in the background.

I was away at a site, the new transformer had been commissioned so I took a photo of me in front of the transfer switch, to show that the lights on the switch were on.

This was the condensed weekly trip report for my manager to show that everything was fine and on line.......Rod.

Tim Boger
08-14-2016, 7:21 AM
What's fun and worth while to one is sometimes curious and of no value to others .... if just one person in the world is happier because of the selfie phenomenon then it's a good thing.

Jason Roehl
08-14-2016, 8:55 AM
We went to see a band at a local dive bar last night. My neighbors went with us. They took some selfies, then proceeded to take my wife and I's picture. My neighbor growled at me about not smiling. I responded, "Why would I smile? I'm having my picture taken!"

That said, I have taken some selfies, and I don't mind seeing others' selfies when they're traveling, particularly when it's people I don't see very often. It's good to see them out and about and enjoying themselves. And, being a very visual person, the reminder of what they look like is nice. John has a good approach, though--offering to take photos for other people when they're visiting landmarks.

I definitely don't want to see duckface photos from the bathroom, though.

Frederick Skelly
08-14-2016, 10:10 AM
Have we become so self-consumed that everywhere we go people feel the need to take pictures of themselves and post them?

Yes, apparently we have. I saw an item online recently that some wealthy donor commissioned a bronze statue for some town in Texas. The statue was controversial because of it's subject: two teenage girls shooting a picture of themselves with a cell phone. It was in a collection of statues depicting everyday life.

fran tarkenton
08-16-2016, 3:13 AM
Actually, while I think that is an intelligent take and I can see how you arrived at it, I would argue that technology has changed human tendencies, or, rather, reinforced and encouraged a trend towards certain tendencies that already existed.

Think of this in terms of psychology, for example. We all have a full range of psychological functions, and we have certain preferences for some functions over others, which define our personality. But when we take one function too far, it becomes psychosis. It's unhealthy, and disfunctional.

In the same way, technology can encourage us to over-exercise certain human tendencies to the point of them being unhealthy.

Social media has certainly contributed to narcissism, and I would argue that we live in a society that trends more towards that direction than ever before. Social media is all about the ego, and creating an image of yourself to portray to the world. It is, by its very nature, not private, after all. However, it contributes to narcissism in more than just that way. Perhaps the most destructive trait is the way social media caters your feed to the people and content that it knows you prefer; this creates and encourages "echo chambers" in which there are no dissenting ideas or opinions. If, for example, you are a very liberal activist, the posts, memes, and friends that appear in your feed will all be mostly in alignment with your own views, because those are the profiles, posts, and groups who you visit and communicate with the most, and who's content you share. Likewise if you are a conservative, or what have you. This is a well studied phenomenon that is contributing to the ever more polarized political and cultural views and identities which characterize modern society. It also means that people are more accustomed to environments that cater to their beliefs and opinions, and are more resistant to any challenging views to the point of, more and more, seeking censorship. It's an unhealthy, and dangerous trend that is being reinforced, and creates something of a feedback loop for itself.

This difference is apparent when you take a look at countries with very different cultures, I think. It becomes apparent the psychosis' which afflict our society and culture when you step outside of it, or if you never really bothered to partake in it yourself.

I appreciate this well thought response. You and I agree that technology does indeed reinforce and encourage a trend towards tendencies that already exist. I'm quite sure that technologies (specifically referring to the internet here) just exacerbate the narcissism that has existed forever. It's much easier to be narcissistic now than 200 years ago. But I'm not convinced, at all, that the human condition has changed that much over those same 200 years.

In my view, the apparent explosive "growth" in narcissism in society is due to other technological advances. Frankly, we have a lot more time to think about ourselves instead of focusing on the whole community/society. We go to the store for instant food that lasts on shelves for months, partake in restaurants open 24 hours a day, fly across the country in 5 hours, have infinite choices in lodging, we have defeated many of the worlds worst diseases, and modern medicine has advanced our life expectancies to nearly 80 years old. We aren't spending much time working to survive anymore.

We've grown to hire others to do nearly all of our chores. We have gardeners, housekeepers, uber drivers, mechanics, contractors, plumbers, electricians, and even guys who will come to your house and scoop your dog's poop off the lawn. What used to be mandatory chores and skills are now our hobbies.

Our leisure time has expanded to take up most of our day. Even at work, many of us have the ability to surf the web, have extended lunches, and get home in record time in automobiles that easily run for 200,000 miles. Then we binge watch 500 channels of TV or watch 2 hour movies while simultaneously checking our email/Facebook accounts, and shopping on Amazon, while machines wash our dishes and clothes for us. Compared to the daily existence of our grandparents (and all of the folks before them), we have an extraordinary amount of time to just consider what's best and easiest for ourselves as individuals.

Methinks given the same technological advances, and abundant free time, our previous generations would have been selfie taking fools, as well. They just didn't have the time. They were too busy getting things done and working as a tribe to accomplish the very tasks we can now accomplish by ourselves in a matter of seconds with just a few mouse clicks. We've loaded ourselves with "first world problems" now, but most of these problems are, by their very nature, self-centered.

the point you make about "echo chambers" and our relatively newfound ability to isolate ourselves from differing views is a fascinating topic and one I've considered at length. A topic for another day!

Larry Frank
08-16-2016, 7:20 AM
I think I had the wrong job. I worked long hours and had no time for surfing. Technology allowed the job to reach out to me 24/7. It provided me with emails, production numbers, and problems. There are many people in the same situation as technology allows the work force to be reduced.
People who have time to surf the web during work time are not needed and it is time for a reduction in the work force. What company can afford to pay people to surf the web?


Some of the generalizations made are just that. The same with selfies. They have there place. I love getting a selfies of my daughter and grandkids. Yes, the over use is strange but I would not condemn them all.