Okay, so it’s not that surprising. It’s everywhere, including the title of this post. Everywhere you turn someone’s either taking one of themselves or posting their daily self-portrait online.
Seeing as this has been chosen as the defining piece of our vernacular for the last 365 days I think it’s only right to take a moment to consider what that says about us and this year.
The Oxford Dictionaries defines selfie as:
selfie noun (plural selfies)
informala photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website:
occasional selfies are acceptable, but posting a new picture of yourself every day isn’t necessary
Yes, that last part is part of the definition, and true.
I don’t hate the word, or even the practice, in many ways a selfie is simply a practical option when no one else is around to take a picture. It’s the narcissism and lack of attention to surroundings that seem to accompany the act that I take issue with.
I have no doubt that we at the 2WC have contributed to it’s use (I can only think of 4 posts on the subject off the top of my head), but I like to think we’ve done nothing but discourage the irresponsible selfie.
So enjoy your moment in the sun “selfie,” twerk is right on your heels (that’s not true, according to the committee it was nearly a clean sweep…what have we come to?).
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Washington Post: ‘Selfie’-reliance: The word of the year is the story of our individualism
…bi-daily smile…