Word of the year displays beauty and self confidence among KSC students
The three ingredients are: a camera phone, a slight twist of the arm and a smile.
There you have it, you’ve taken a “selfie.” In the year 2013, Oxford Dictionaries named the word of the year “selfie,” defining it as, “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.”
The use of selfies have become increasingly more popular in modern society with the recent development in phone technology and various outlets for social media.
Keene State College students across campus are taking part in the prominent trend.
KSC sophomore, Tracy Mallozzi, commented on the popularity of “the selfie” and how it is just something that people do.
“They’ve [selfies] always been around, but they’ve gotten especially popular lately. I think that if people look good, they’ll want to show other people by taking a picture of themselves,” she said.
“It’s not a bad thing. I think it’s a really great confidence booster for girls who want to take a picture on their own terms,” Mallozzi said.
However, it’s not only women taking selfies today. Sophomore Ian Lemley commented on how gender no longer plays a part in the taking of selfies.
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“I think selfies have become the social norm for people in the way that technology has developed,” Lemley said.
He added that it has become socially acceptable for guys to take selfies now, too.
“Evolving technology has sort of broken down that gender barrier and we’ve all become so strongly associated with ‘the selfie.’ It’s just something that has become natural,” Lemley said.
Selfies can be taken for any reason, on any occasion, or any time of day. There are many possibilities when deciding to take a selfie.
Lovetta Hersom, KSC senior, takes selfies to make people laugh.
“I usually just take selfies with funny faces to send to my friends or my boyfriend. I just want to make them laugh,” Hersom said. “It’s a different way of communicating in today’s culture.”
Technology has served as a large part of the development of selfies in modern culture.
Phones are now equipped with reversible camera lenses, there are a considerably large amount of social media outlets and various applications, like Snapchat, (a fast-paced picture- sending application between friends) put the user’s own face in the action. Lemley commented on how technology has turned selfies into the modern phenomenon they are today.
“I would attribute a lot of the popularity of selfies to apps like Snapchat. It is an app devoted to selfies and it is now probably number two or three on the app store,” Lemley said.
He continued, “It only came out about eighteen months ago. When you look at the numbers, that app alone could probably spike the number of selfies people take now.”
When looking at the technological advances behind selfies, it may also be important to look at the emotional outcomes selfies have implemented in today’s society, like confidence and positive self-image.
KSC junior Juliana Cerbone discussed the feelings behind “the selfie.”
“When I first post a selfie on Instagram, I kind of feel a sense of anxiety. It’s not like posting a regular picture that someone else took of you. This is how you want people to see you,” Cerbone said.
She continued,”because you can control the situation with a selfie, you can show people how you want to be perceived,” Cerbone said.
People always want to look their best, and with selfies, people finally have that control of their own beauty,” Cerbone concluded.
Selfies are beginning to give people the opportunity to decide how they want other people to perceive them, according to Cerbone.
With a camera, manned by one’s own arm, people are allowed to try different angles to make the picture exactly what they’d like.
Sophomore Andrea Dimauro commented on how she feels when she posts her own selfies online.
She said it feels good.
“Whenever I post a selfie, I really like to get a lot of ‘likes’ from friends. It feels good to take a picture of yourself and have other people say that you look good in it,” Dimauro said.
“Some people don’t feel comfortable taking selfies, but I think it’s a really great way to feel good about yourself,” Dimauro said.
Dove, the personal care brand, known for their efforts in helping women strengthen their self-image, have taken a new route with their ‘#BeautyIs’ campaign.
The campaign asks women to take selfies and define what beauty truly means to them.
The campaign has produced a short film, which debuted at Sundance Film Festival this winter, titled “Selfie.”
The film, directed by Academy-Award winning documentary filmmaker Cynthia Wade, “reveals how we have the power to redefine what is beautiful in all of us,” according to Dove’s website.
Mallozzi commented on the positivity of Dove’s campaign.
“I think it’s great. I think sometimes people have a negative connotation of someone taking a picture of themselves, but I really like the idea of having your own idea of beauty in the palm of your hands,” Mallozzi said,.
“You have the ability to choose exactly what angle and how you’d like to look,” she continued.
“It’s something that is always going to be ingrained in the fabric of social media,” Lemley said, “the selfie is a sort of way of life online.”
Stephanie McCann can be contacted at smccann@keene-equinox.com
