Uncovering the selfie phenomenon
Lauren Miller and Nina Peot, seniors, take a selfie during the football game against Whitefish Bay, capturing the powder the student section tossed in the air during half-time.
Looking at the student section on Friday nights, one can certainly see a myriad of students with their mouths open and tongues out, taking a selfie to post on their Snapchat story. Since the invention of the front-facing camera, selfies have become an increasingly popular part of contemporary culture.
In early 2010, the front facing camera on the iPhone 4 and mobile apps such as Snapchat and Instagram gained strong popularity with young adults. By the end of 2012, Time magazine considered the selfie one of the “top 10 buzzwords”of that year. Even though selfies had existed long before, it wasn’t until 2012 that the term hit big.
A poll by smartphone maker Samsung found that selfies make up 30 percent of photos taken by people aged 16-18.
As the years moved along, selfies climbed up the popularity scale. According to the Oxford Dictionary of the year, in 2013 the word selfie was announced to be “word of the year”.
“I take selfies because it’s the norm of what everyone does nowadays. It shows the features of my face, like my smile” Menna Vang, junior, said.
By 2014, the Sochi Winter Olympics became known as the “Selfie Olympics.” A song called “Selfie” by the chainsmokers became a hit across the country hitting big music stations such as KISS, 97.3 and 106.9.
“I like to take selfies when I go on vacation with my mom because it’s a great way to capture the moment,” Madeline Slicker, senior said.
This current year people see more and more selfies go up. A campaign started called #selfies4school that sends 10 girls to school for every selfie gaining over 5,800 selfies to spread awareness about the right to education for girls.
Selfies have been taken by Astronauts and President Obama. During the 86th Academy Awards, Ellen Degeneres had 12 other celebrities join her in a group selfie photo which became the most tweeted selfie with 2.8 million retweets.
Today, selfies continue to remain popular. Even in 1977, the critic Susan Sontag said, “Today everything exists to end in a photograph,” and today, this trend continues.
