Universally recognized as the sure fire way to capture the day's moments, outfits, gatherings with friends, or even precious moments with pets, selfies have taken over social media. However, that doesn't necessarily mean everyone's happy about it. Considered by many to be vain, self indulgent, and even a waste of time, many find their time better spent selfie shaming as opposed to just learning to live with various fads of the ages.
Sure, the point can be made that taking selfies are a very self indulgent act, however, people have been partaking in acts way more self indulgent than taking selfies since the earliest known example in 1433. That's right, I'm talking self portraits. Nowadays, they're known more as a sign of wealth usually seen on the mantles of rich old white people's homes on TV shows. Back before the age of photography began, however, basically anyone with some artistic skill could be caught indulging their vain side, sometimes spending a way longer time than a few minutes at a baseball game. Can you imagine spending five years trying to get the perfect angle?
That being said, why exactly is it that people, more specifically women, have to apologize and explain themselves constantly? I mean in a society in which women especially are shamed so much for their vanity, they are slammed and critiqued even more by the popular media for having any look other than the acceptable white, cis, skinny, or able bodied look.
Selfies allow everyone to appreciate themselves in any way they want.
In an interview with NPR, Molly Soda discusses the culture surrounding selfies. "I think a selfie is a really, really positive thing, whether or not its art, it's super positive affirmation of self-love. And taking your photo and putting it on the Internet for the world to see is an act of positivity. I don't think there's anything wrong with being a little bit vain. I think we all are," she says. "When I'm scrolling on my Instagram and I see a photo of a girl that she took of herself and I know she's feeling really good that day about herself, that makes me feel good and that makes me want to photograph myself, and I think it's a chain reaction."
Like I said earlier, we already live in a society that so harshly critiques the female body, so in a way, taking a selfie is basically an act of radical self love, and where's the problem in that? So in the end we really have no conclusion. There will always be those who believe that taking selfies is vain and overly self indulgent, however, do they really matter? Not really. Selfie on, space cowboy.
