Today, most teens spend a majority of their time on social media; whether it be to simply pass time and avoid boredom, catch up with friends out-of-state for college, or hashtag away, there's always someone on some social media site. Too many times though I've heard people complain, "Ugh, she's always posting selfies" or "All they do is take pictures of themselves." My question is: what's so wrong with lots of selfies? To me, selfies show off confidence, and there is nothing wrong with being confident. Honestly, the constant negativity surrounding selfie-taking can be kind of a buzzkill.
Now, I'll be the first to admit it: about half of my Instagram is selfies. It probably annoys a majority of my followers that I don't post anything more interesting than my face. I'm not ashamed of that fact though; I look good in my selfies. They celebrate first days of work and first days of school; they remember my senior year of high school trip to Paris and Barcelona; they embrace the days I felt fabulous just being me.
Silly as it sounds, however, my selfies don't just show off my confidence - they give me confidence. I won't lie, there are a few times where I debate whether or not I should post another selfie; I start to worry others may think I'm conceited or that I'm just looking for likes. And while likes are nice, they're not the motivation behind my selfies. Instead, my motivation is celebrating me and learning to enjoy the way I look.
Also, it's not just my own selfies that make me happy. Seeing ones posted by friends fill me with joy because I know they're happy in some way, shape, or form. And if they don't post one publicly, they occasionally send one with a Snapchat message; if you ask me, those are even better. Snapchat selfies (with or without fun filters) mean my friend was confident and happy enough to share that moment with me, even if it was just for a maximum of 10 seconds.
If you ask me, selfie-taking is fantastic and I am all for both guys and girls sharing some of their self-love. Should others see a confident selfie, they may feel inspired to share one of their own. In a perfect world, constant selfie inspiration (do I dare call it selfie-spiration?) would start a train of confident smiles. Instead of selfie-shaming, we should start up the trend of selfie-supporting. The world is negative enough with everything that's been going on; it's time to spread a bit of happiness and support instead
So what do you say? Are you ready to embrace the selfies? If you are, then start posting! Tag them with #EmbraceTheSelfies and get that selfie train going!