Selfie Theory

Where did the concept behind the Selfie begin? The idea of self-portraiture has been around for hundreds of years. Although the concept has been around as long as art itself has been around, self-portraits did not become a major component of art until the Renaissance. In fact, Jan van Eyck is considered to have produced the first true self-portrait in 1433. Why might this be important to the understanding of the Selfie? Although the Selfie’s rise to infamy did not begin until the creation of the front-facing camera by Apple, the concept of the Selfie began in the art world. Many may recognize the giants of the self-portrait, like Vincent van Gogh or Andy Warhol, but few may know the reasoning behind creating these expressions of self. Theses
Humans are drawn to the idea of instant gratification and the human image; Selfies are the perfect merger of both concepts. In the modern age of social media, many people are utilizing the Selfie to create their personal depiction of themselves for the world to see, or at least their followers. These followers could consist of family, actual friends, coworkers, or even strangers. Posing, filtering, and editing are all a form of self-promotion and self-presentation of a person in a socially desirable image. In the article “What does your selfie say about you?” researchers believe that unlike other forms of photography, the Selfies “do not reflect [a person’s] actual personality” (Qiu et al., 444). If a photo is a live capture of oneself, how is this possible? In the internet sphere of social media, people are able to display their desired attributes. Consequently, when people pick and choose which traits they do and do not want to be seen, they are hiding their true personality from their followers. This form of managing one’s personality in an image hindered the study in the aforementioned article. In this study, Qui and fellow researchers sought out to ascertain if personality cues are present and accurate in Selfies. Their results demonstrate that personality cannot be correctly analyzed in the same personality cues as a non-Selfie photograph or real
Though the Selfie in social media has been around since 2004, very little background has been developed in research of the Selfie (Barry et al., 2). In Qui’s study researchers seek to correlate the Selfie and the Big Five Personality: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness (445). As stated in the last paragraph, Qui’s research was not able to accurately link the personality traits to the Selfie. They did, however, make inferences on the findings within their research. Positive emotions portrayed in a Selfie are related to being extroverted, agreeable, and open; direct eye contact with the camera is also a depiction of agreeableness. Conscientiousness is positively correlated to public settings and positive emotions. Neuroticism has an association to the duckface (a pursing of the lips in an attempt to create a pouty look) and a lack of facial visibility in the photo (446-447). Nevertheless, these personality trait correlations are dealing with the viewer of the Selfie; which, is an excellent beginning into the research of Selfies, but more research is required for accurate analysis. The second study to be discussed is focused on the relation of Selfies to narcissism and self-esteem. Three types of narcissism were analyzed within research nonpathological, grandiose, and vulnerable. Nonpathological narcissism is overt