"You are beautiful, in every single way." --Christina Aguilara
| The selfie: the #1 trend of 2014? Feathered hair, singing telegrams, soap-on-a-rope, chicken-on-a-stick, paparazzi, karaoke, gangnam style, twerking, wraps, froyo, tbt, otd, photobombing, the ice bucket challenge... the trends come & go faster than you can say bling bling. So what of the selfie, the ultimate icon for 2014? It's been around without the name ever since friends with long arms held out a camera or a phone to capture a moment together. Of course, that photo was typically of two or more people; we rarely photographed ourselves alone. |  Me, my dear friend Abby, & my son, photobombing at age 1 :-) |
| Selfie: Any photograph you take yourself of yourself, whether the photo be solely of yourself or of you & friends. |
Sometimes it seems it's all in the expression of the selfie-taker. Is he or she gazing into the camera with Narcissus' eyes? Or simply documenting himself or herself at this moment in time?
"Love your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections." --John Legend
 eye pad | Me, myself, & I I was not raised to draw attention to myself or be too proud. But I think the youth of the newer generation celebrate their individualism & uniqueness. I watch kids giving "Me Museum" presentations from Pre-K on up. They trace their family ancestry, collect & share their favorite things, post videos of their weekend antics. This generation has iphones, itouches, itunes, ipads, MyYahoo, MyMSN, & MyStarbucks--the ultimate all-about-me focus. It's surprising youtube entered the picture. But I don't think it's bad; in fact, I think it's good! There's this sense of knowing yourself, of celebrating who you are with all your quirks & blemishes & idiosyncrasies & all the things that make each of us unique & special. |
"You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true." --James Blunt
| To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet We see each other on Facebook & FaceTime. Faces--each different, special, beautiful, individual. It reminds me of Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video, so many faces, one changing into the next, the variations so major & so minor at the same time. At one point during the 2014 Kids' Choice Sports Awards, the hosts asked every kid watching to take a selfie for the Most Epic Selfie Moment Ever. What a beautiful sight--all those children's faces--laughing faces, smiling faces--from all around the world. I asked around 40 people this week what they thought of selfies, & most said they were ok only in moderation, with friends included, & ideally when sightseeing, not alone in one's home. They thought the selfie of kids above was creepy & dangerous. Do you agree? |  Some Facebook proile photos |
So what of the selfie? Is it vain? Maybe sometimes. Is it trendy? Definitely. Will we be glad we took a few in a couple years' time? Absolutely.
"You are perfect to me." --Pink
Do you take selfies?
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