What is the latest selfie that has been most talked about lately? Is it James Franco’s inappropriate bed-side morning selfies? Is it Beyoncé posing with her daughter, Blue Ivy? The no makeup selfie of Kim Kardashian, maybe? What is a ‘Selfie’? Oxford Dictionaries defines it as ‘a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website’. We share everything that is going on in our lives with social media. In today’s generation, even what you had for breakfast gets known by all, by simply uploading it onto the closest social media site. If you type in ‘#SELFIE’ into Instagram, you will get the results of more than 3,234,500 posts.
Popular culture theory can be defined as ‘ everything that the people of a society use in their “design for living” and pass on to the next generation as their “social heritage” ’ (DeFleur, 2010) There are various sources of pop culture and they are circulated and influenced through mass media especially TV, radio, magazines, movies, books and the Internet. Celebrities also play a huge role in pop culture through the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram etc. According to philosophy professor, Tim Delaney, popular culture encompasses the most immediate and contemporary aspects of our lives. (Philosophy Now, 2007) Selfies have found a way to be a part of the popular culture trend. The recent introduction of selfies increases the popularity of celebrities. And if celebrities are following the trends, everyone else will.
Celebrities humanize themselves through social media, via selfies. Why are we obsessed with celebrity selfies? What makes celebrity selfies so popular? It is all because of the media. At the...
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Here we see a selfie of Taylor Swift with no makeup, ready to eat a donut. What could possibly make her seem more down to earth than that? When celebs put up photos of themselves au natural, they gain immediate love and support from fans because the selfie humanizes them.
Take Louis Tomlinson, from One Direction, for instance. Here he is with a fan posing for the camera with a goofy expression. Fortunately for us, even celebrities seem to love selfies just as much as we do, and they're all for making silly faces.
The media depends on pop culture, because it is what the people want, it is what the people demand. And the celebrities are more than willing to provide them with photos, hence increasing their own popularity .Using the example of selfies, pop culture
All in all, we can see that through celebrities, selfies demonstrates the notion of pop culture.
In the article “What Your Selfies Say About You” by Peggy Drexler, she talks about self-portraits also known as the “selfie”, and how it has taken over social media and added a manifestation to society’s obsession with looks. Taking a self-portrait can be positive in the sense that you are proud of your image and are not scared to share it with others helping boost up your self-esteem. Although this may help others by persuading them to not be ashamed to share their true image, Drexler believes this can also affect other individuals whose focus is only on looks making them feel self-conscious about their looks. A recent study out of the UK found that the selfie phenomenon may be damaging to real world relationships, concluding that both excessive
“Selfies are not all about seeking external validation” (Rutledge). Selfies are generally understood as a form of self-portraiture in which the photographer is also the main subject or, one of, the photograph. Selfies have become a more prominent trend since “[…] appear[ing] on the photo-sharing site Flickr and on MySpace back in 2004” (Rutledge). However, desire for self-portraiture has existed since first commissioned in Ancient Egypt, self-painted since the invention of the mirror, and now simplified and cost-free with digital camera devices (Rutledge). As a result, the now widespread selfie has created a negative stigma that nearly makes them synonymous with narcissism, though such immediate reasoning
Popular Culture has changed drastically over the decades with the biggest question being whether or not popular culture is a positive or negative expression of our ideas and reflections. American Pop Culture has an extremely important role that influences the United States and around the world. There are countless topics that make up pop culture and it is nearly impossible to name all of them. Some of the topics are Television, Music, Religion, Politics, Arts, Economy, Education, Family roles and structures. Three of the cultures that I believe has changed the most and seems to cause the most controversy are television, music and religion.
There you are holding your camera an arm’s length away from your face, posing in the most flattering position to capture your best angle. There you are taking a photo of yourself to share with all of your Facebook friends. Taking a self-portrait photo, also known as a selfie, is something almost everyone has done in this new generation. This action is typically done without a second thought. In Alex Williams’ article “Here I Am Taking My Own Picture” that second thought is provoked through exploring the quickly spreading trend of self-portrait photography. In the article while Williams’ provides interesting examples on a changing generation as this trend progresses through social media and modern technology; Williams also leaves something to be desired within the article due to a lack of direction in the author’s stance on the topic.
Paparazzi are the base for any magazines. They snap pictures of the hottest celebrity scandals but also charity work and things these celebrities contribute to in a positive way. Despite the many complaints, many people owe some of their success to the nosy and pushy people behind the camera. Many could contribute to a conversation on success of celebrities and icons to the use of social media. Social media is a harbour for pictures, discussions, rants, and the expression of many things including ideas and opinions. Without it, you would find there to be less paparazzi; the reason is because anyone can buy a high quality camera, post these pictures to a blog or any social media site with the click of a button and without the need for consent by a company or organisati...
Today we live in a celebrity culture that is being dominated and exploited by the media. In a bid to satisfy the public’s interest in celebrities it is ever-present that the news and entertainment media are going well beyond the point of providing consumers with basic information. “In this cult of celebrity, images of stars, people ‘famous for being famous’, are circulated and consumed daily across the world” (Penfold, 2004: 289).
We are part of a generation that is obsessed with celebrity culture. Celebrities are distinctive. Media and consumers alike invented them to be a different race of super beings: flawless, divine and above all the real moral world. In a 1995 New York Times article “In contrast, 9 out of 10 of those polled could think of something
In conclusion it is unhealthy to have such an interest and fascination with celebrities that the world today currently does. It warps our view on reality as well as the expectations and goals we set for ourselves. With the cult of celebrities and the fascination with them and their lives hopefully many people worldwide can take a step back, open our eyes and reevaluate what really matters. And no, it is not the “6 Wild and Crazy Grammys Style Moments”. There is more to life than following the lives of celebrities and wishing you could have everything they do.
Popular culture embodies the beliefs, ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images of various cultures. Popular culture is heavily influenced by mass media, key celebrity figures, movies and related entertainment, as well as sports and news. However, in the past decade, the Internet and social media have become a significant influence on pop culture. Social Media influences what music we listen to. In the past, people used to listen to songs that had meaning behind them, and it was because they personally enjoyed the music.
Selfie-Loathing: Here’s Why Instagram Is Even More Depressing than Facebook. Slate Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_sharing_network_is_even_more_depressing.html
Selfies have gained immense popularity worldwide due to their modern convenience, and these photographs share a similar nature to that of painted self-portraiture: they are intended to reveal and/or conceal certain attributes about the subject, and the subject controls the creation of the piece itself. Selfies are often accused of not being art for their self-obsession, but they are not necessarily inherently narcissistic just as self-portraiture is not intrinsically egotistical.
Victoria, Woollaston. "Selfies Are 'damaging' and Leave Young People Vulnerable to Abuse, Claims Psychologist." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.
Several decades ago, communications philosopher Marshall McLuhan spoke about the development of the Global Village and how the evolution of new technologies would help connect people on opposite sides of the world, creating online communities that would break boundaries and borders. While this change has been recognized, so too has the idea explored by his successors in which while individuals were expected to look at others in the world through a telescope, they have alternatively developed the tendency to look at themselves through a microscope. As the era of worldwide connectivity began, so did the era of ‘me, me, me’. Both the hardware and the software of the new millennium, inclusive of the iPhone’s forward-facing camera, and apps that allow one to fix blemishes and whiten teeth, have adapted to allow this change to an inward focus. While this has certainly caught on, it has also begun to cause a lot of problems. The act of posting about the self began to be seen as a negatively self-centered one when Facebook NewsFeeds were filled with egotistic stories and ‘Selfies,’ photos of the self. Shortly after, the application Instagram was created, where the occurrence of the Selfie was magnified to a greater degree. This intensive focus inward, and the way these pieces of media are shared, have made some individuals reliant on the positive expressions of others for self-confidence and social approval. When self-esteem is intertwined with how many ‘likes’ a photo gets on a mobile application, we start to see a shift in how self-awareness is formed, what people will do for this approval, and how some will react to a lack of attention.
These pictures give users a certain “self-control” that they are able to use to their advantage when posting them on social media. “Alicke (1985) found that the pictures brought out the self-favorable characteristics optimizing ones likeness to the better features of their self” (Re & Rule, 2016). By using selfies it gives the users confidence in how they look and how others will perceive them. In comparison to the models and the seventeen year old teenager described earlier in my paper, selfies typically help to hide the features that one might feel they lack giving them a better perception of how they feel. Selfies include “selfie filters,” or digital photo enhancement tools” to help improve the picture in making what they feel will look better to others and themselves” (Re & Rule).These filters typically “blind” others in seeing things as if they really are not. Meaning the pictures used with these “phot enhancements” are not the real person. The pictures are modified to help fit what would be considered to be a more physically attractive look. Those who participate in taking selfies and using these filters can also be possibly subject to harsh criticism in the end though. “If selfies are to help shape ones biases to be more likeable, than selfie-takers may exaggerate how positively their selfies are recognized. This creates possibly a blind spot where others view those filtered selfies as less likeable”(Re & Rule,2016). Basically, those who use these filters and enhancements are more likely to have others perceive their photos as less attractive, because of the amount of what could be described as cover ups they have used toward their photos. This idea may be the case of some because with all these filters those on the outside looking in may feel one is trying to cover up who they really are physically. These filters though are mostly used for