I recently watched a group of teenagers at the beach spend close to two hours taking photos of themselves. The coached each other, changed positions, changed angles, and checked and re-checked the results all in their quest for the perfect selfie. Initially, I just felt sad that these kids weren’t ‘enjoying’ a beautiful day at the beach, then I started to feel anxious about the online world my children would soon be entering, and eventually, I got to thinking about selfie culture in general, and what it really means.
Are selfies simply a bit of harmless fun? Or the physical expression of an increasingly image focused society? Or are they in fact a dangerous obsession which threatens our children’s mental health? Selfie-taking is without a doubt, not only a polarising issue, but one which serves to clearly delineate the young from the old. Or does it? Are selfies an exclusive expression of youth culture, or have some older generations found themselves drawn in? Do you happily plaster pictures of yourself all over social media? Do you take the odd picture, albeit reluctantly, but secretly enjoy the level of control you have over the process? Or have you never ever flipped a phone screen and pointed it at your own face? Chances are, if you don’t belong in the first category, you’re either somewhat bemused, entirely befuddled or genuinely worried about the ‘selfie culture’ which has infiltrated our lives. So what is it about this trend which unsettles us? Is it just different from what we’re used to? Or legitimately concerning?
I wrote recently about pop culture, the evolution of language and the tensions this process sometimes produces for older generations. Similarly, do we react to selfie culture simply because it’s new, different and we don’t understand it? Just as I reacted at the beach watching the perfect selfie quest in action? And are we more confronted by young women taking charge of the expression of their public identity in this way than we are of young men?
Discussions about selfies usually find their way to questions of narcissism - after all, surely you must be utterly self-absorbed and self-promoting to engage in this type of behaviour… right? Well, despite the fact that research does suggest a correlation between taking and posting selfies and narcissism, especially in young men, it is also clear that this behaviour is not confined to the truly narcissistic. Indeed, young men and women tend to take and post selfies for a range of reasons connected to developing their own identity, connecting themselves to social groups, and seeking admiration and approval. And even though we know that the selfie trend has found its place among adults too, this behaviour definitely declines with age.
So is it even a problem then? If everyone does it? Unfortunately, research also indicates that taking and viewing selfies is not without potential pitfalls for our self esteem and general satisfaction with our lives. Specifically, viewing others’ selfies and by nature comparing ourselves to them is linked with lower self esteem and unhappiness, and these outcomes appear to be exaggerated if our desire for popularity is high. Is this because lonely people spend more time on social media? Or because social media makes us lonely? It’s not clear. The good news however is that these outcomes are actually reversed when we consider the effects of viewing ‘groupies’ which tend to make us feel happier and more included. So maybe social media isn’t the devil after all.
Enter - the sexy selfie. It’s here that the differences in the way that our girls and boys both take selfies and are viewed for their behaviour that more noticeable differences appear. We know that young women are more likely to edit their photos: altering their appearance, and cropping and filtering their images (take a look at these amazing sliding images of teens’ pre and post edited photographs). We also know that objectified images are often met with more positive responses on social media which leads to… more objectified images. Throw into that mix a healthy dose of media saturated with sexualised images and a good splash of adolescent anxiety and it’s easy to see why parents may be concerned about the impact that selfies might be having on their kids. Our girls in particular are being expected to walk a fragile line between the construction, ownership and presentation of themselves and a society which sends them contradictory messages. Validation of sexiness all around them, but not in the photos they share of themselves.
So… to selfie or not to selfie? We can agree I think that for the time being at least, selfies are here to stay. The product of an image obsessed society? Seems so. Just for the narcissists? As brilliantly self-serving as selfies can be, no, not just for them. Harmful? Definitely not all the time, but potentially, yes. So selfie at will (with a dash of perspective and a little bit of caution).
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About meI'm a teacher, student and advocate for better education through ongoing questioning, thinking and learning.
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