But first; let me take a selfie!
Over the past two years, the “selfie” has become both one of the world’s hottest trends and most controversial topics — it was even added to Oxford’s Online English Dictionary in August 2013 and later became the website’s word of the year.
A “selfie,” by definition, is a photograph that a person takes of him or her self, which is usually taken on a smartphone or webcam then uploaded on to social media. The word has evolved from just a simple social media tag to common term having to do with self-portrait photography, according to BBC News UK.
The term is usually affiliated with an accompanying “hashtag,” which is a word/phrase following a hash or pound sign functioning to identify messages on a specific topic on social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Many students have also gotten involved in the selfie trend.
“Selfies can definitely boost anyone’s self confidence by the amount of likes and comments they get,” sophomore Shannon Mattiolo said.
For those not familiar with the trend, it may be more mainstream than it seems. At the 2014 Oscar Awards, host Ellen DeGeneres broke the record on Twitter for the most retweeted tweet with over 3.4 million after she posted a selfie featuring various A-List actors, including Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie, with the caption “If only Brad’s arm was longer. Best photo ever #Oscars.”
The photo was seen by 43 million people watching the live broadcast while the tweet itself was seen by 37 million, according to NBC News. Along with many other famous celebrities, the president of the United States Barack Obama and Pope Francis have also hopped on the selfie bandwagon taking photos of their own.
“I would take a selfie if I had a phone I could take one with,” Dean of Students Mr. Patrick Howard said.
Outside of Twitter, there are other aspects of popular culture in which selfies are prominent. On Instagram, an app that allows you to post photos and videos for the world to see, the hashtags “Selfie” and “Selfie Sunday” each have a total of 113.9 million and 8.4 million photos pertaining to them respectively.
In addition, in January, the EDM duo The Chainsmokers released a song titled “#SELFIE” consisting of spoken word verses following a girl’s struggles at a club when determining which selfie to post to her Instagram account. The song peaked at number sixteen after over ten weeks on the chart, according to Billboard.com.
As popular as the trend is, still, some remain opposed to the selfie.
“I think selfies are silly,” Spanish teacher Mr. Ernest Kabelka said. “Why do people need to take a picture of themselves with a duckface? I’d rather see what the person is doing.”
Regardless of whether people love or hate the selfie, they have proven to be a prominent part of pop culture over the past couple years and it looks like they are here stay.
“I think like anything else, [selfies] can be a cool way to memorialize a moment,” Principal Dr. Barbara Williams said, “but you have to be careful with them and responsible for who they are shared with and where they are posted.”