Selfie Redefined: Selfie More or Less

8/9/2019 Selfie Redefined: Selfie More or Less

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Fig. 1. Musashi, Miyamoto. Self-portrait. 1640. Fig. 2. Gogh, Vincent V. Self Portrait. 1889.Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundations.Web. 11 December 2013. Web. 11 December 2013.

Painting as a medium of self-portrait wasgradually changed into after the arrival of globalindustrial and scientific maneuver. The invention ofcapturing the moment was used as a source ofcapturing the moment of mostly the other from theperspective of the author/photographer. The actualtrend of selfie revives possibly after the arrival ofKodak Brownie box camera in 1890. In a letter to a

friend, the Russian Grand Duchess AnastasiaNikolaevna (June 18, 1901 - July 17, 1918) wrote, Itook this picture of myself looking at the mirror. Itwas very hard as my hands were trembling(Atchison, Diaries and Letters - Letters of GrandDuchess Anastasia: Extracts from the Letters ofAnastasia to her Father).

Fig. 3. Nikolaevna, Anastasia. Self-portrait. 1914.Alexander Palace Time Machine. The Alexander Palace TimeMachine. Web. 11 December 2013.

Needless to say, the photograph (Fig. 3) wasattached with this very personal yet innocent letterwhich may remind us to the process of contemporaryteenage selfies. This selfie was sent that day withescalating the contemporary technologicaladvancement. Day by day, with continuous

advancement in technology the machine that cancapture the moment has become so much availablethat selfie happens to the people.Contemporary Selfie Culture :

It may not require any scholarly or statisticalreference to say that almost everyone connected withthe social network has at least one friend who keeps

posting his/her photo with different mood, expressionor anything. Even the influential American PresidentBarack Obama is taking selfie (Soal Barack Obamaand David Cameron pose for selfie with Danish PM).Recently the top Vatican authority, the Pope alsoposed in a selfie (Fig. 4). Many celebrities both

from local and global boundary continuouslyposting their selfies (Fig. 5 Taylor Swift; andinternationally renowned country music singer) in thesocial network.


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Fig. 4. Ragona, Fabio M. 29 August 2013. Twitter.Twitter. Web. 12 December 2013.

Fig. 5. Swift, Taylor. 17 March 2013. Instagram.Instagram. Web. 12 December 2013

Selfie may or may not cover the face of theindividual, but it sure does cover his/her mood. Thereare many types of selfie. For example: shy selfie, gymselfie, bathroom-mirror selfie (Fig. 6), badass selfie

(Fig. 7) etc. The types are not categorized by someserious scientific or analytical study. Rather each typeof selfie is categorized by following its visual aspects,the subjects body language, viral captioning etc.

Fig. 6. Wentworth, Trevor. 03 March 2013.ourlastnightband.tumblr.com. Tumblr. Web. 12December 2013.

Fig. 7: Rihanna, Robyn. n. d.Instagram. Instagram.Web. 12 December 2013.

EMarketer in their recent newsletter disclosesthat one in four people worldwide will use socialnetworks in 2013 (Social Networking ReachesNearly One in Four Around the World). The number

of social network users in 2012 was 1.47 billion and itis expected that more than one-third of all people inthis world will use social network/s by 2017 (SocialNetworking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around theWorld). Recently the technological advancements aiddirectly to the commoners with availability of portablesmart devices and high-speed communication media(internet). Pornography which was once the most

active topics in the internet for long period has fallenbehind the race with social networks long time agowhich indicates people have found the presence invirtual social life more interesting than the erotic

stimulation (Goldsmith, Porn passed over as Webusers become social: author). With the increasingnumber of people getting connected with socialnetwork, selfie is becoming more common (as well aspopular) than a phenomenon. BBC reported that asearch on Instagram a popular photo sharing socialnetwork showed that 23 million photos wereuploaded with #selfie and nearly 51 million were


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hash-tagged with #me (Self-portraits and socialmedia: The rise of the 'selfie'). After going throughall of these information this is inevitable that selfie has

become a phenomenon for contemporary cyber-culture.

Selfie: Self-(more/less)

O wad some Power the giftie gie usTo see oursels as others see us!

- (Burns, To a Louse, on Seeing One in a Ladys Bonnet, atChurch 37-38)

Even though different scholars have seen anddefined selfie in different angles but they share somecommon aspects of selfie. Mark R. Leary found twobasic human motives for selfie. These are: to attractattention from the other people and send aparticular image of the self (OUPblog). The overextension of internet and the increasing popularity ofsocial networks have somehow forced the user to beinvolved with this virtual society. And human beingmust maintain a communication and express itselfwith the other members of the society which in thewords of Narula (2006) is a necessary and importanthuman activity to survive and grow (3). According toStone (1981), construction of an identity is a publicprocess that requires an individual to announce anidentity and endorsement of that claimed identity by

the others (188). At early stage, social networks had avery limited way to express which gradually turns intoa giant virtual social system with different ways ofinteraction among the users. Even though there aremany/few differences in the characteristics among thesocial networks, they have one thing in common.Every top social network includes the feature ofgiving feedback (like/comment/retweet/share) bywhich the user can get responses on something s/hehas posted/uploaded/shared previously/recently. Asthe virtual space in social network is often claimed to

be unreal due to lack of humanized or real-likecommunication, selfie or any kind of physicalrepresentation of the self has become an influentialattempt to fixate ones image to the others.

Selfie is usually a close-up headshot in a tightframing. Some selfie captures ones head and at leasta fraction of the upper part of his/her body. Somesefies are even taken with covering the whole body or

a part of body to show a new clothing, or newlymodified/decorated organ (six pack, bosom, nails,hairs, legs etc.) or clothing/ornaments. Exposing theseparticular things/organs is an attempt to create animage to the others; an image which can become anexpression of self to the others. Robert Arkin (2013)strengthens this argument with saying: it isnt me,its just one me that I created for you (OUPblog).Selfie is an attempt to replicating and appropriatingown image for the others which powerfully allow thesubject (or the author) consciously orunconsciously to control / manipulate / improvise /create / operate the discourse. What could be a biggerway for a narcissist to celebrate and express their selfthan this?

An infant learns to recognize itself from the

reflection of the mirror (Ryan 99). The mirror imageis almost as natural as the real image, but it is areflection or a reversed image of the reality. Thesubject moves, the reflection will simultaneouslymove too. The meaning of this discourse can alwayschange even with a slightest movement. Whensomeone is taking photos of other objects, s/he applieshis/her own gaze and ideology, and become the rulingauthor of his own creation. The photo expresses (or atleast wants to express) only what s/he wants toexpress. But while taking selfie, that individual breaks

the norms of reflection of his/her mirror image.Hanging out, eating out, wearing new clothes, ridingnew cars, enjoying vacation; all of these situationspresent the author or the photographers own idea andmethod of presenting the self. The reason it isdifferent than mirror view because, a selfie is usuallytaken with a possibility of fixing and limiting itsaudience and its gaze. The subject creates its own


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heterotopia; a space that is stands like reality andcan be shared with the other in cyberspace (Foucault46-49). And it is not that much unpredictable to saythat there would not be an attempt of narcissistimprovisation of the self which can easily cheat with

the unconscious. Unlike mirror image, s/he couldeasily control / decorate / modify / appropriate /disrupt / influence his / her own image. When themirror image gives one a reversed image, selfie givesa non-reversed image which is identical and parallel tothe real perception which let the subject to bring itselfmore closer and self-like to the audiences. And moreor less the image is frozen and always conveys onlythe moment it captured. Selfies can be a way tocontrol the others perception or gaze. The creator willconsciously or unconsciously try to determine what isto be seen and what is not to be seen of the self.However, as anonymity can be easily achieved insocial networks, with selfie the chance of altering thegender is hardly possible unless disguise or mask isexecuted. And the selfie is adequately provided moreof the self.Selfie: Self-(more/less) :

What does a selfie represent? Previously itwas discussed on how the selfie is taken with anattempt to replicate the self into an image. According

to McLuhan (1964), content of a medium is a juicypiece of meat carried by the burglar to distract theconsciousness of the mind (8). In our scenario, thismeans that most people tend to focus on the selfie orthe image of the self rather than the medium whichactually brought the content. What is actually themedium here? There can be at least three. Which are:internet, a camera device and social network (Imleaving electricity out of this list for being tooobvious. However the presence of electricity willobviously matter if a selfie is sent from a place where

the electricity is extremely rare). When a personassociates himself with internet, it is powerfullyimplied that s/he is choosing a new medium ofcommunication which also reflects his/her affiliationwith technological advancement. But this thing onlymatters depending on the cultural and geographicalbackdrop. A person from a developed country willprobably be much more affiliated with internet than a

person from a remote area or underdeveloped country.If the person from a remote area or underdevelopedcountry posts his selfie in internet, his affiliation withmodern technology may become significant to theother audiences. Selfie is not just a photo if you

consider which type of camera is used. Your cameracould be an addition to a posh device like iPhone. Oryou can use a high-end compact camera or evenDSLR camera to take your incredibly clear and vividselfie. Or even you can take your selfie with somecheap smartphone where the result can be blurry.Recently some apps let anyone take retro lookingphoto with an incredibly expensive smartphone. Thething is, when youre posting the selfie in socialnetworks sometimes it shows which type of deviceyou are using. Flickr, facebook etc. discloses thedevice model or the operating system of the devicewith its every posting and that will somehow send aninvisible content to the audience. Even if the socialnetwork cant automatically show the brand andmodel of the device, a simple captioning made by thesubject can disclose the brand or model of the deviceused. And there is always a chance for puttingfabricated details. The choice of social network youchoose is somehow reflect your own characteristics,ideology, class/status and preferences. Few social

networks are popular, few are unpopular. Each hasdifferent characteristics and intentions. While Tweeterlimits the content in fixed number of character,Facebook throws it on the users will. On the otherhand Instagram tends to be more into photo thanwords. So it is clear that, an individual does not onlysend an innocent picture of him. Consciously orunconsciously s/he sends something more than theself. All of these mediums in different patterns withdifferent people change the image and replicate thereplicated reality with more / less intentional /

unintentional messages. The image, then, is not only avisual representation of the self, but also a visualdiscourse with different meaning and contents thanthat supposed self.

Baudrillard (1994) in his notion of simulacraproposes that simulacrum is not an imitation orparody of the reality; rather it substitutes the signof the real for the real itself (2). His sign-orders


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dictates four steps in which a faithfully copy of thereality becomes an independent meaningful sign (4).With following this notion it can easily be understoodhow an image of the self can be self-less. The firstorder order of sacrament can be related with

the situation when a person takes his selfie in order tomake a faithful copy of the basic reality (4). In thenext stage order of malefice the copy of thereality is a perversion or unfaithful copy of the basicreality (4). The selfie starts conveying othermeanings; especially the meaning created by themedium. The next stage is order of sorcery in whichthe selfie acts as a faithful image of the self (4). Butafter being captured and replicated numerous timesthe pretentious faithful copy of the image, a selfiedistances itself from the reality and starts acting as ameaningful independent reality. Just like Baudrillardsanalysis on the Borges tale (2), the author willgradually started caring more for selfof the selfie thanthe self of reality. Day by day social networks aretrying to keep pace with the reality by adding moreand more real-like communicative characteristics andbecoming into a hyperreality. In this hyperreal socialnetwork, the selfie becomes more than the physical-self of the person to the others. The flat and 2d imagesof the self somehow construct or aid to both the real

and virtual the identity. With a growing number ofusers in social networks, it is not impossible for aperson to depend more on the identity of thathyperreal world than the identity that s/he wakes upwith at morning.

When a selfie shows a fraction/part of ahuman body, it can assert the author in dependingmuch more into their visible (inside the frame of aselfie) organ to send the intended message. Forexample, duck-face is common among the girls whichis claimed to bring in additional attractiveness to a

longer cheekbone and larger leap. If an exquisitebosom of a girl can bring some extra erotic pleasure toboth sexes, then a six-pack abs of a man can alsobring some extra erotic pleasure to both sexes. Butwhat is important in those selfies is, the identity canbe constructed based on a specific organ of a humanbody leaving the reaming body (in some cases theinternal consciousness) unintroduced and deprioritized

which can create a persona that is different andpossible deteriorated than the complete and normalbody of the author.Self-less or Self-more?

If we look closely we would find the post-

industrial crisis of expansion of consumption. It hasbecome a pastiche (Jameson 163) to influence theothers into the web of consumerism. As the selfie isgetting popular day by day, it tends the people toconsume the device that could aid him/her in selfie-ing. Most advertisements of the smartphone or mobileoperators now promotes selfie which effectively act asan empty gesture (iek 27-30) to the audience. Theaudience is ordered to accept this imposing freely withthinking that the decision was solely taken by him/her.

According to Rosenberg (1986), identity is animportant part of the self-concept which is acompilation of a persons thought and feelings(279). Altheide (2000) extends this by complementingidentify as a part of the self by which we are knownto the others (2). So it can be found after compilingtheir definition that an individuals identity dependsboth on self and the other. As Derida (1978) arguesthat no meaning is fixed which equates to that even ifa selfie turns out to be a self-less representation, to theaudience the image can never be framed into a fixed

provided meaning. It is possible that the audience canperceive the original content or message if s/he canremove the veils of fantasy. Because, as iek (1997)said the truth is [always] out there (1).

While posting selfie in a social network thereis no reason that the author would not know thathis/her image will be looked at, or gazed. Whether aselfie represents the self more or less, it can be calledas a celebration of the self in the virtual world. Butwhen the identity starts depending on its existence onthe representation of itself in the social network or

virtual cyber space, the self somehow becomesomething like a cyborg. According to Clynes andKline (1960), cyborg would allow man to optimizehis internal regulation to suit the environment he mayseek (Clynes 32). Oxford English Dictionary definescyborg as a person whose physical tolerance orcapabilities are extended beyond normal humanlimitations by a machine or other external agency


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(cyborg). To visualize his/her own a physicalexistence and establishing the identity in thecyberspace humans are using selfie by integratinghim/her-self with external machine or devices. Notonly selfie, if any pictures no matter who took it

is used to conceptualize the identity or self in eitherthe virtual reality or actual reality will take the humanexistence more closer to being a cyborg. But selfiewill always be discreet as the author is subject ofhis/her own creation. Gradually, with alteringDescartes proposition the human existence can dependmore into I selfie, therefore I am.Conclusion :

This paper attempts to study self, iand e(ye)of a selfie. However, future studies can be made onidentity fragmentation or gender domination in thecontemporary selfie culture. Wallace in ThePsychology of the Internetsaid the Internet explosion

happened so rapidly that we have not had much timeto step back from the medium and look at it moresystemati-cally, as a new environment that can havepotent effects on our behavior (1). This cyber worldhas become a crucial struggle for anyone to fit in. Thequestion arises not on the quality and purity of the selfin the reality, but the question arises on whether youare successfully maintaining your second identity inthe otherpart of the reality or not.

References :

Altheide, David L. Identity and the Definition of the Situation in a Mass-Mediated Context. SymbolicInteraction23.1 (2000): 1-27. Print.Atchison, Bob. Diaries and Letters - Letters of Grand Duchess Anastasia: Extracts from the Letters ofAnastasia to her Father. Alexander Palace Time Machine. The Alexander Palace Time Machine. Web. 11December 2013.Baudrilard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. Michigan: University of MichiganPress, 1994. Print.Baumeister, Roy F. A self-presentational view of social phenomena. Psychological Bulletin91.1 (1982): 326. PsycARTICLES. Web. 10 December 2013.Brumfield, Ben. "Selfie named word of the year for 2013." cnn.com. CNN, 20 November 2013. Web. 10

December 2013.Burns, Robert. Poem "To a Louse, on Seeing One in a Ladys Bonnet, at Church." The Complete Works ofRobert Burns: Containing His Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. Ed. Allan Cunningham. New York: J.C.Derby, 1855. 120-121. Web.Clyness, Manfred E. And Kline, Nathan S. Cyborgs and Space.AstronauticsSeptember 1960: 32. Web."cyborg". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 14 December 2013.Derrida, Jacques. "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences." Writing and Difference.Trans. Alan Bass. London: Routledge, 1978. 278-294. Print.Foucault, Michel. "Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias."Architecture, Mouvement, Continuit 5(1984):46-49.Goldsmith, Belinda. Porn passed over as Web users become social: author. Reuters.com. Reuters, 16September 2008. Web. 12 December 2013.

Jameson, Frederick. Postmodernism and Consumer Society. Modernism/Postmodernism. Ed. Peter Brooker.New York: Longman, 1992. 163-179. Print.McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. London: Routledge, 1964. Web.Narula, Uma. Communication Models. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist., 2006. Print.OUPblog . Scholarly reflections on the selfie. OUPBlog. Oxford University Press Blog, 19 November 2013.Web. 13 December 2013Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. Trans. Bernadotte Perrin. Vol. 3. London: Harvard University Press, 1916. Print.Rosenberg, Morris. Conceiving the self. New York: Basic Books, 1979. Print.


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Ryan, Michael.Literary Theory: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publisher, 1999. Print."selfie." Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 10 December 2013.Self-portraits and social media: The rise of the 'selfie'. BBC News Magazine. British BroadcastingCorporation, 7 June 2013. Web. 12 December 2013.Soal, Judith. Barack Obama and David Cameron pose for selfie with Danish PM. theguardian. The Guardian,

11 December 2013. Web. 10 December 2013.Social Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the World. eMarketers Newsletter. eMarketer Inc., 18June 2013. Web. 11 December 2013.Stone, Gregory Prentice. Appearance and the Self: A Slightly Revised Version. Social Psychology throughSymbolic Interaction. 2nd ed. Eds. Gregory Prentice Stone and Harvey Farberman. New York: Wiley, 1981.187-202. Print.Wikipedia contributors. "Selfie." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14December 2013. Web. 15 December 2013.iek, Slavoj. The Seven Veils of Fantasy. The Plague of Fantasies. London: Verso, 1997. 3-44. Print.Wallace, Patricia. The Psychology of the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.

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Selfie Redefined: Selfie More or Less