Are selfies inherently good or are they inherently evil? They are just dumb photos you take on your phone, is there really any need to analyze their meaning? I think that there is. I think that the magnificent tool commonly referred to as the front camera has changed our lives for eternity, and this camera has the power to make us laugh and cry and control our lives if we want to call ourselves contributors to popular society.
I was inspired to write this week's article by Lily Rose Depp's Instagram hack that was first perceived as her decision to delete all of her photos. Even though the selfie queen wasn't making a statement with this action (tear) it still got me thinking about how often we put our faces on display.
Selfies may seems like just a way to fill space. You're bored, selfie. You look good, selfie. You look bad, selfie. Something comical happens to your face, selfie. You just cried, selfie. You need a mirror, selfie. You are trying to find your angle in case you ever decide to go on America's Next Top Model, you guessed it, selfie. The list can go on forever (and I don't need to tell you that; you have probably taken a selfie in the last hour). Women and men alike are taking constant photos of themselves all day every day in between spaces of their lives. But what happens when these in-between moments begin to cut into our actual time living?
People with millions of followers on Instagram or Snapchat have fans that feel as if they are observing said "celebrity's" entire life from the view of someone standing right in front them. The pressure one must feel to chronicle their face in every situation that it finds itself in must be pretty taxing; if you so choose you can give people an awkward and staged all access pass into your life.
But can selfies be art? Dismissing selfies as a reassurance for the insecure and a haven for the narcissist is unproductive in our culture today. Now their are exhibitions like Girls at Night on the Internet (which was awesome for the record) bringing popular "cyber" culture into the art world, and books like Selfish chronicling selfie royalty Kim Kardashian's collection of photos as a beautiful coffee table book. If we ignore where technology is taking us, we risk missing out on things that it could open up for us as people and artists. One of my favorite photographers, Petra Collins, often photographs others taking selfies. These beautiful photographs present a dichotomy: the saturation of "poor" images and the use of these techniques as "high art."
I believe that selfies definitely have a negative effect on our generation. They force us to constantly have a relationship with our own face that is a little too close for comfort, often fostering insecurity and self-doubt. BUT selfies can at the same time be empowering and artistic, letting people show the world who they are and what they look like despite what society tells us we "should" look like. To sum it up I guess you could say selfies are a huge fricken deal. But don't stress, they make things like selfie sticks and light up phone cases so you will always have optimal lighting and the perfect angle!
