Sunday, April 13, 2014

Selfies: The New Thing

I’m sure many of you have heard of a selfie before, and were confused of the meaning, as I was when I first heard of the term.  The selfie was first used as a slang term for over a year, used to describe a person taking a photo of themselves, but the selfie didn’t stop there.  Celebrities started taking them, the “selfie Olympics” was made, and they were used on social media sites such as instagram, Facebook, and twitter.  The selfie would become so widely used and such a know term that it would be added to the dictionary.
One could argue that the selfie has been around as long as the camera has been around, but with the expansion of technology, the amount of Selfies taken has dramatically increased.  From Facebook to instagram, the selfie is used virtually everywhere online and around the world.  There was even an app created that uses mainly selfies, called snapchat.  Snapchat is an application on the I phone or android that allows you to take a picture of anything and write a caption, then send it to any of your friends.
Selfies have also been taken by famous people, important political figures, and star athletes.  Selfies have been taken by the president, basketball star Lebron James, and even the president of the Untied States.  Selfies were taken so much that another level of the selfie was soon created.
The selfie Olympics was soon created on social media, mainly twitter.  The selfie Olympics wasn’t actually an Olympics but was just a friendly competition of who could take the best selfie using several props and a specific theme in front of the bathroom mirror.  The selfie Olympics has been taken to several extremes where people, usually teenagers, would go all out to take their selfie for the selfie Olympics to get it featured on twitter for everyone to see.
And after millions of Selfies were taken all around the world, it was finally time to make it a real word.  The term “selfie” was added to dictionaries all over, defined as “  A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a Smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”.  The selfie would eventually go on to become the 2013 word of the year, and is still continued to be used today.

"Pope Francis Poses for 'selfies' after Palm Sunday Homily." Fox News. FOX News Network, 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

No comments:

Post a Comment