'Selfie-obsessed' generation

[SarcasticJuan]

Sometimes I just can't stand this whole instagram/selfie thing, seems like everyone has become self obsessed, I don't know why a selfie of an average looking girl gets so much attention but something important or worth actually talking about (it's 'social' networking right?) gets little attention, and why so many? Is the one picture of you from last week much different than this one this week? Then I will overhear parents telling their kids to 'come in for a selfie', ugh, it's like people are being brainwashed to use all these buzzwords and do things in the most facebook-friendly way.

I find the instagram filters very annoying too, if I ever have a family and kids I will not be tainting good, timeless pictures and making them **** brown colour, blurry, all tilted and zoomed in. Everyone thinks they've made true art and they're proper photographers.

Maybe some female members can give some feedback, what's the fascination? :shy:

 

[AmytheTemperamental]

And don't forget about that song....

 

[Triple Bogey]

Sometimes I just can't stand this whole instagram/selfie thing, seems like everyone has become self obsessed, I don't know why a selfie of an average looking girl gets so much attention but something important or worth actually talking about (it's 'social' networking right?) gets little attention, and why so many? Is the one picture of you from last week much different than this one this week? Then I will overhear parents telling their kids to 'come in for a selfie', ugh, it's like people are being brainwashed to use all these buzzwords and do things in the most facebook-friendly way.

I find the instagram filters very annoying too, if I ever have a family and kids I will not be tainting good, timeless pictures and making them **** brown colour, blurry, all tilted and zoomed in. Everyone thinks they've made true art and they're proper photographers.

Maybe some female members can give some feedback, what's the fascination? :shy:

A lot of people are very vain and they obviously like looking at photographs of themselves.

 

[TheSkaFish]

I don't think this generation is any more narcissistic than any of the previous ones. It's just that the technology to take "selfies" and distribute them didn't exist back then. There was no social media in the '60s, nor were there cell phones, nor the Internet (at least, as we know it today). Today's technology allows us to express that more easily than in the past. In a sense, all the old portraits of kings and queens were the "selfies" of yesterday, wouldn't you say?

I just don't like all the Gen-Y or "Millennial" bashing that goes on. As if we are just the dumbest, laziest, most selfish generation to have ever existed. It's just not true.

 

[TheRealCallie]

For a portrait to be a selfie, the person would have had to paint it, and not had it painted by someone else.

 

[TheSkaFish]

It has the same underlying idea though, which is the problem a lot of people have with "selfies". The problem isn't that they took it themselves, it's that the pictures say "oh look at me, I'm so great, everyone should just look at me". It's the vanity of it. Which is not unique to this generation.

 

[LonesomeLoner]

If you want a social media account then it's going to be something you will always see.

That's how people are now, they care more about crap like that then the real things that matter in life. Personally I'm glad I don't have any of those accounts so I see none of it.

 

[Mistborn10]

I definitely agree with SkaFish. I think there's always been a sense of vanity. I also think we're lying to ourselves if we say we're not all a little vain by nature. The constant selfies is annoying though. I have a serious fear of pictures and hate to see myself because I don't think I look good. At the same time I still think I'm a little vain and overly worried about my appearance.

 

[Disaffected]

So many girls are addicted to taking pictures of themselves looking like cheap whores these days. I'm so desensitized to it now, there must have been a time when seeing a picture of an attractive girl evoked something, now nothing, been saturated with it. Who are they trying to impress? who is impressed?

Is this just a phase, will we look back and think these people were weak and or trashy or is humanity becoming what we would have once considered narcissistic vacuous coat-hangers.

 

[Ymir]

So many girls are addicted to taking pictures of themselves looking like cheap whores these days. I'm so desensitized to it now, there must have been a time when seeing a picture of an attractive girl evoked something, now nothing, been saturated with it. Who are they trying to impress? who is impressed?

Is this just a phase, will we look back and think these people were weak and or trashy or is humanity becoming what we would have once considered narcissistic vacuous coat-hangers.

Hahahaha. As a girl who loves to take selfies AND is a top grade student working on a research towards eco-friendly fuel, I suggest you to reconsider your assumptions.

I take selfies because I look good and I want other people to see how good I look. Taking selfies doesn't say anything else about me, or about people who do the same.

 

[SarcasticJuan]

For a portrait to be a selfie, the person would have had to paint it, and not had it painted by someone else.

It's funny because some people are forgetting the meaning of a selfie, I will sometimes hear people say "take a selfie of me", um, someone else is taking a photo of YOU, not you taking one of yourSELF. Photograph and picture are now forgotten words apparently.

 

[Disaffected]

So many girls are addicted to taking pictures of themselves looking like cheap whores these days. I'm so desensitized to it now, there must have been a time when seeing a picture of an attractive girl evoked something, now nothing, been saturated with it. Who are they trying to impress? who is impressed?

Is this just a phase, will we look back and think these people were weak and or trashy or is humanity becoming what we would have once considered narcissistic vacuous coat-hangers.

Hahahaha. As a girl who loves to take selfies AND is a top grade student working on a research towards eco-friendly fuel, I suggest you to reconsider your assumptions.

I take selfies because I look good and I want other people to see how good I look. Taking selfies doesn't say anything else about me, or about people who do the same.

So in other words "Looks at me, I'm so amazing"

Its funny that you think you are somehow disproving me but your post here is just one big self-obsessed brag.

 

[Badjedidude]

So many girls are addicted to taking pictures of themselves looking like cheap whores these days. I'm so desensitized to it now, there must have been a time when seeing a picture of an attractive girl evoked something, now nothing, been saturated with it. Who are they trying to impress? who is impressed?

Is this just a phase, will we look back and think these people were weak and or trashy or is humanity becoming what we would have once considered narcissistic vacuous coat-hangers.

Why would selfie-takers be considered weak or trashy? Or narcissistic, vacuous coat-hangers? Or cheap whores?

Please explain.

Also, let's not pretend that only girls take selfies all the time. At this point, I'd say it's pretty evenly mapped across genders, ages, etc, with the rise of social media. Families take selfies, celebrities take selfies.

I'm just not quite sure how you jump to the conclusion that someone who takes a lot of selfies is necessarily weak or trashy or narcissistic. Maybe I'm off here, but it seems like a lot of responses in this thread have come off as pretty bitter.

Maybe they're just enjoying their life and they want to record it and share it. And now we have the technology to do so. Perhaps it's that simple.

And as a historian myself, I can assure you that future historians will be grateful and pleased to have access to such a voluminous digital photographic record of this time period.

 

[Doubt The Rabbit]

Right, boys never take selfies.

The only problem I see is in a man who encourages society to be just as ashamed as he is and condemns harmless fun that he personally does not approve of. That is narcissistic. You live under a rock, if that's your thing. Don't crush others' fun with your stupid rock. I, for one, am greatly impressed and enamored with people who like the way they look and want to celebrate that.

 

[Limlim]

I want to take pictures of my dick and put them up all over work (inb4 needing an extreme zoom feature) but for some reason my boss disproves of this idea.

My penis was meant to be shared with the world!

 

[Ymir]

So many girls are addicted to taking pictures of themselves looking like cheap whores these days. I'm so desensitized to it now, there must have been a time when seeing a picture of an attractive girl evoked something, now nothing, been saturated with it. Who are they trying to impress? who is impressed?

Is this just a phase, will we look back and think these people were weak and or trashy or is humanity becoming what we would have once considered narcissistic vacuous coat-hangers.

Hahahaha. As a girl who loves to take selfies AND is a top grade student working on a research towards eco-friendly fuel, I suggest you to reconsider your assumptions.

I take selfies because I look good and I want other people to see how good I look. Taking selfies doesn't say anything else about me, or about people who do the same.

So in other words "Looks at me, I'm so amazing"

Its funny that you think you are somehow disproving me but your post here is just one big self-obsessed brag.

Of course I am amazing B) Now if you please could stop being so bitter at people who enjoy things you do not...

 

[Disaffected]

Where did I say all people that take selfies are like this? or that its only girls? I was talking about a specific type, and asking others opinions on said type.

 

[Doubt The Rabbit]

I want to take pictures of my dick and put them up all over work (inb4 needing an extreme zoom feature) but for some reason my boss disproves of this idea.

My penis was meant to be shared with the world!

You can share it with me.

(THATWASSARCASMIDONOTWANTYOURDICKPICSLIMDON'TFUCKINGTRYIT)

---

Where did I say all people that take selfies are like this? or that its only girls? I was talking about a specific type, and asking others opinions on said type.

Can I get a "********?"

The only two questions you asked in your post were, "Who are they trying to impress?" and, "Who is impressed?"

Condescending rhetoric, at best.

Exactly how can you suspect that any girl taking a selfie is a "cheap whore" type? You were making generalizations. Plain and simple as that.

If you're going to make blanket statements, don't be surprised when a number of people are offended by the nonsense you spout.

 

[Disaffected]

I want to take pictures of my dick and put them up all over work (inb4 needing an extreme zoom feature) but for some reason my boss disproves of this idea.

My penis was meant to be shared with the world!

You can share it with me.

(THATWASSARCASMIDONOTWANTYOURDICKPICSLIMDON'TFUCKINGTRYIT)

---

Where did I say all people that take selfies are like this? or that its only girls? I was talking about a specific type, and asking others opinions on said type.

Can I get a "********?"

The only two questions you asked in your post were, "Who are they trying to impress?" and, "Who is impressed?"

Condescending rhetoric, at best.

Exactly how can you suspect that any girl taking a selfie is a "cheap whore" type? You were making generalizations. Plain and simple as that.

If you're going to make blanket statements, don't be surprised when a number of people are offended by the nonsense you spout.

---

Christ its like you're deliberately misinterpreting what I wrote.

I did not say taking selfies makes you a cheap whore. Lol I only asked two questions? why cos those where the only ones with question marks?< makin it easy for you now, you're welcome.

I do not think all women or men taking selfies look like cheap whores, I think people that take selfies while looking like cheap whores ......... look like cheap whores.

 

[Case]

I took selfies back when we had to develop our film rolls at the Fotomat. (US reference.) We called it "taking a picture of yourself." The act of taking a photo doesn't seem to be the issue because vanity has existed longer than the Internet.

The issue seems to be the volume of photos that some (like the OP) deem to be tiresome, boring, or maybe even so irritating that they feel it's worth a forum thread.

Point of fact: Selfies are convenient. We can click off pics of ourselves with nobody's help, and then share it with a ton of people in a matter of seconds. Humanity has been waiting for this moment like a starving person in a desert longs for one cup of water and a banana.

Point of fact: If you post your selfies on social media, it doesn't equal narcissism. It simply means you want to record where you have been, how you looked, and then let your friends see it. That's it. There's no increase in self-obsessed people in the world because posting a selfie does not create self-obsession. It just makes the already self-obsessed people have a platform, and now, normal people are joining

Two female friends of mine posted selfies of their trip to Seattle, and it was awesome because they were clearly having a blast and wanted their families to see the fun they were having. The response from every comment was positive, complimentary, and thoughtful. Oh, and both women are over 40. And I can attest that these two women are the least self-obsessed people in my life.

Honestly, I firmly believe that the opposition to selfies is akin to an older person being angry that they don't understand Blu-Ray players and wishs society never changed. So, criticizing selfies is lioe saying, "I want things back the way they were." Which is a nostalgic wish, but one that will never ne fulfilled.

My suggestion is to accept selfies as a societal reality just as Googling has become an accepted reality. If you don't liie someone's selfies, then there are ways to stop seeing them. Like turning the channel when you hate a TV show, instead of making a flimsy argument that the world has gone to **** due to selfies, stop looking at them. Problem solved.