The Art Of The Selfie

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2 June 2014 Social Media

Let’s face it, no matter who you are you cannot deny you haven’t taken a selfie or two in your lifetime, even President Obama’s doing it! The selfie isn’t anything new, people have been taking pictures of themselves at famous landmarks and shamefully in nightclub toilets, since cameras were able to fit in our pockets. But how did something so common place become a digital culture movement?

It would be crazy not to mention the influence of social networking sites like Facebook Twitter and more recently instagram, which have constituted to the mass popularity of people gathering to be in pictures alongside friends and family, celebrities or at popular events. Shares, likes, favourites and retweets have given the selfie the ultimate platform in popular culture, just ask Ellen Degeneres who tweeted a selfie with her Hollywood friends from the Oscars…

This now iconic selfie sparked mass media attention and popularity online and offline. So much so that The Simpsons had to throw their own take at it, classic…

Capturing the magnitude of an epic moment in time, and quite frankly it’s super cool to look at. Numbers don’t lie, Ellen’s tweet broke the Twitter record, with 1.7 million retweets in less than an hour, being favourited over 700,000 times (and counting) [source: Daily Mail]. However, more than any other digital platform, Instagram has reformed and revamped the ways of capturing those pivotal ‘moments’ in our lives. Who’d have thought something so simple as layering a colour filter or effect over a picture would have such an influence on us!? Vanity levels are at an all-time high, yes, now it’s socially acceptable to be vain, so jump on the bandwagon and let your imagination run wild…not necessarily! Check this out, pulled from the volt of dozens upon dozens of cases of when not to selfie… Former owner of The Source magazine / American rapper Benzino. This glorified selfie was taken shortly after Benzino was shot at a family funeral (by another family member) and quickly spread across the web. Yes, Benzino does have obligations to update his fans, relatives and friends on his health, and yes this is a much more efficient means than having mass conversations with people, but a selfie in the hospital, really!?? Public image is one thing, but this is taking it two steps too far and if you were among the crowd that did share this picture, no doubt it was for all the wrong reasons.

• Capture those precious moments with loved ones, you can never have too many, just don’t use your work accounts to do it from! Keep it private.
• Avoid taking selfies in front of or behind a bathroom mirror (for a plethora of reasons).
• Don’t take selfies at funerals (that goes for you David Cameron and President Obama) or at the hospital! #notcool #attentionseeking #yougetthepoint
• Don’t #selfie when you’ve clearly gotten someone else to take the picture of you.
• Less is more, no one wants to see a selfie that’s been taken from multiple angles.
• Don’t post a selfie unless all parties involved are active in the picture. In other words, avoid guerrilla selfies, genuine reactions are always best.
• What did the camera ever do to you! Bitterness kills so smile before you snap, it’s a worthy default.

The age of the digital revolution has made communication so widespread we are virtually (quite literally) able to reach whoever we want in almost every part of the world. It’s now more than ever that social presence in the digital arena simply cannot be ignored. Time will tell whether the selfie will evolve and sustain its influence, or soon become a bonafide fad as a consequence of oversaturation within popular culture. But one thing’s for sure, the selfie has truly arrived! Do it right, and reap the benefits of increased interest in your brand. But be mindful of the content you post, if not it could backfire on you in blink of an eye…