UNITED STATES—The selfie is such a big craze in America, that it has been deemed an actual word in the dictionary. For those not in the know, it’s where a person takes a picture of themselves with their phone, in some cases a selfie might involve multiple people, take a look at the Oscar selfie that Ellen DeGeneres had with celebs to die for. It seems daily, millions of pics are released over the Internet of selfies taken by everyday people, as well as celebrities in an attempt to promote themselves, a cause or to shine a spotlight on themselves.
I recently heard that socialite and reality star Kim Kardashian was releasing a book containing more than 350 pictures of herself; it was dubbed the selfie book. I stopped for a second because I had to think about it. Who in their right mind would want to purchase a book that contains a bunch of pictures of Kim Kardashian taking pictures of herself? I couldn’t wrap my head around the concept and thought. Who would waste their money on a book of selfies?
Someone who wants to learn how to take a proper selfie! There is that saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and it holds true. The biggest mistake most people take when taking a selfie is attempting to do so in an area with faint lighting.
That doesn’t work; you need to be in a well lit region for your cell phone to adequately capture the image that is being taken. Next, stop taking selfies in the bathroom. So many celebrities and Americans do this not realizing the background of your bathroom is captured in the picture. Most of the bathrooms are in horrific conditions. Guess what? Once you release it to the masses, the masses will have it forever, so think twice before capturing that picture.
Do not be so self-indulgent in your selfie picks. It’s apparent some celebrities just want to be seen or talked about and what better way to do that than to post a picture on your Twitter page, Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr, the list goes on and on. No one really cares what you’re eating or what you might be doing at the moment. If you’re going to post a selfie let it be relevant to a particular issue at hand, otherwise, you’re wasting people’s valuable time.
I’m starting to wonder if the selfie craze will ever end or if this just the beginning. Will we soon see politicians, the elderly and or children get in on the craze of promoting themselves to the masses? That, essentially, is what the selfie is, a form of advertising. We are trying to sell ourselves to mass America and for what, for someone to say they say your picture? Who wins in the end? You? The public? Or someone else that uses your picture for an article, a billboard, a magazine, a website or something else?
