Express Your Selfie
There’s much more behind snapping a self-portrait than meets the eye — namely, an expression of your own identity.
By Megan Berberich
Taking a selfie is the guilty pleasure of the smartphone era. It’s second nature to see someone snapping a picture of himself with his iPhone — at a baseball game, the gym or even the bathroom.
Behind that quick pic are some serious psychological triggers, though. But which kind of triggers — positive or negative — is up for debate. Some say selfies are a digital cry for attention. Others see that photo of someone flexing in the mirror as a constructive form of self-expression.
Dr. Pamela Rutledge is in the pro-selfie camp. The director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Newport Beach, Calif., Rutledge believes selfies are a part of a larger psychological phenomenon.
“Selfies make us feel more empowered in our contextual and changing lives,” Rutledge said. “They improve our sense of control and help us understand that life isn’t so precious.”
Sharon Liese, producer of the documentary Selfie, which debuted at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, agrees with Rutledge: “In every picture you can tell your own story. It’s very empowering.”
Not everyone agrees with Rutledge and Liese. Carole Lieberman, psychiatrist and author of Bad Girls: Why Men Love Them & How Good Girls Can Learn Their Secrets, believes selfies “are a desperate bid for attention by people who have not gotten enough attention from their parents, peers or members of the opposite sex.”
“It’s not about being more comfortable with how we look,” Lieberman said. “It’s about wanting to show off something that compensates for how we look, such as showing the cool thing we’re doing.”
The perceived value of a selfie might boil down to a person’s age. Rutledge believes selfies challenge the mental model older generations have for photos.
“If you have grown up before the time of social media, portraits would have a different meaning than they do now,” Rutledge said. “Portraits are meant to memorialize different events.”
Regardless of your opinion on the value of a selfie, the fact is they — and all the websites those pics regularly appear on — impact the way people, and women in particular, view themselves. The “Ideal to Real” Body Image Survey conducted by “TODAY” and AOL revealed 82 percent of women believe social media is influencing beauty, and 63 percent of women believe social media is influencing today’s definition of beauty more than print media, film and music.
Of course, if that Instagram selfie makes you feel prettier, then go right ahead.
“Selfies celebrate the process of life,” Rutledge said.
And no one wants to stand in the way of a little celebrating.
Photos by Ashley Thompson
Also on Think
Artist Adam DeVarney explores male heroism in his work
From Chicago Hustles Magazine
For Adam DeVarney, it’s all about the dead, white eyes. Sure, DeVarney, a Chicago-based visual artist, loves to deconstruct the icons of American dude-dom — astronauts, cowboys, lumberjacks, you know the type. He gives them twisted faces. He finds their inner struggles. He pastes them on a backdrop of re-contextualized vintage materials: pages from books, magazines, songs, packaging and office supplies. But those blank eyes make every piece DaVarney produces a comic book nightmare…
Tell us what you think