Selfies!

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Why do people take selfies?

There has been a lot of talk, about selfies in the news recently.  I was watching Breakfast television this morning and they were interviewing a bunch of children about why they take selfies.  The majority of the kids explained, they did so for social media, hoping to get more likes than their friends, when posting the photo.  To them it was about popularity.  To be honest if I look back at my time at school, before digital cameras, I also did things to become more popular than someone else.  The camera phone has just expanded that popularity contest.

Why do we take selfies? Well I have been looking online, researching this very subject, because I also love taking selfies.  If you asked my why, I really don't know the real reason or the psyche behind snapping ones own face.  Like most things these days, there has been studies undertaken to try and find out the true reasons why we take our own photo and advertise ourselves to the World.  Putting that image out there is about getting across, who we really are, or rather, who we want you to see. When we upload a photograph, generally it is the best one we have taken that day, doing the greatest things, having the coolest time.  We want others to observe, how wonderful our life is, even if it is not.  I mean, how many times to you see a bad selfie, someone doing an ordinary everyday task, rarely!  A large part of the 'selfie' phenomenon is about us, finding out who we really are, what makes us tick.  Being able to look back at a photograph can reinforce, or not, our choices in life. Self definition is the key phrase here.  All of us define who we are, by the activities we undertake, on a daily basis.  A photograph will show others what we want them to see!

Selfies have always been around! When a painter, in the sixteenth century painted a 'self portrait', he or she was well aware of the significance of the subject. A self portrait was about status and showing others how important they were. That reason is as true today, with a camera phone, as it was back then with oils and an easel.  As we overlay our selfie masterpiece with a filter, so to, an artist, would paint a favourable, softer, less weathered image of the person they were capturing.  I remember reading about Queen Elizabeth I.  This Lady was no beauty, in fact she was the complete opposite, yet in paintings of her, there are few, if any, depicting the truth behind, the artists impression.  As we airbrush our photos to mask our faults and age, so to an artist would complement its subject, obscuring the reality, hiding the truth, from those who would view the painting. None of us want to look bad in a photo, what sort of image would that project to our friends, family or followers.  We want others to only see the best in us.  Queen Elizabeth was no different, to a fictional, 'Stacy fletcher', sat in college, perched on the edge of her desk, showing off her latest piercing or tattoo. We are all human, and need to be loved and most importantly noticed in that respect.

We live in a world of celebrity, where the great and good are photographed, everyday. In truth these people may complain, that they have no privacy, but without a snapshot, on the front page of Hello, they are nobody and their fame will quickly fade and dwindle. A celebrity has very little control about the photographs taken.  Many a picture has destroyed careers, but a selfie gives back the control to the person snapping themselves.  Look at Instagram; celebrities use this social media app as a platform, to show their fans, exactly what they choose to.  Fans in turn have their own Instagram accounts, copying those, they look up to and admire, hoping to get the same adoration; this is just human nature!

​As a person, I have been taking selfies since 2004, as you can see from the photographs above.  Interestingly for me, there are many photographs of myself looking trim and fit; a lot less of my fluctuation in weight, that has been the bane of my life for so long.  I wanted to see myself looking good, because, I hated myself when I was overweight. It was psychologically important for me and others to see the best images. I suppose a large part of me, still got upset about the bullying I had at school, because I was a fat kid.  I hated that image  and did all I could to remove it from existence; I edited my life, if you like.

In 2004, when I began taking pictures of myself, I had lost a tremendous amount of weight, about ten stone in total.  A year before, I was eighteen stone; there are no photographs of me at that time.  A year later, I was eight stone in weight and proud of what I had achieved.  I couldn't stop taking my own photograph. Self-doubt can be a real problem, when you are bigger.  Even though I had lost all that weight, I was still carrying the stigma around with me.  The selfies I took at that time, removed that insecurity and gave me a sense of self-worth; something I hadn't had in a very log time.

Of course my size has fluctuated since 2004, nevertheless  I have continued taking selfies; I take far less when I am overweight, or filter and airbrush the results, if I don't like the way I look.  When you are bullied because of who you are, it is important to take back control of your life, even the photographs you take and the way others perceive you.  Self-confidence is important, to overcome traumatic times.  It is amazing how much satisfaction can be generated from looking good in a picture.

​Today, I still take tonnes of selfies, but for very different reasons.  These days I certainly do not airbrush or filter  my photographs.  I am actually very comfortable with who I am, even if others are not.  As a blogger I am documenting my life and have been for several years, part of that process is telling the truth.  So any photograph I take of myself includes warts and all, it has too.  My views about selfies have also changed over the years.  I want to be able to look back, in my old age, and see the reality of what happened in my life, not a sanitised version, showing me in a completely different light, to the one I remember. Some people have actually been horrified at some of the selfies I have put on facebook or other social media, but I make no apologies for recording the truth.

A photograph can tell a story; the story that is told, very much depends on  what we want others  to see.  Behind a happy smiling face, the real picture could be very different.  If we only include photographs in the narrative of our life; accessed online or stored on our many devices: that portray us in a positive light, then we will never understand what it is like, to truly empathise, with negative aspects of human nature. It is important to understand, that life isn't about falsehoods and platitudes, it is about reality, pain, anger as well as positive emotions of course, but keep it real guys, let your story mirror your journey!

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