Selfie culture and its implications

The editors of the German edition of Leipziger Anzeiger, who so desperately opposed to the world's first photography technology invented by Louis Daguerre in the middle of the 19th century, called "daguerreotype", would have gone crazy to learn how many selfies people post on social networks every day.

Then, in the 1840s, the newspaper wrote in all seriousness (while Walter Benjamin made fun of them) that "man was created in the likeness of God, and the image of God cannot be captured by any human machine." But progress is relentless - and the "human machines" that conservatives feared so much have become an integral part of our lives.

Already in the twentieth century, the camera became an object of mass use. In 1948, the technology of instantaneous Polaroid photographs appeared for the first time, after a little more than half a century it turns out that people take more photos per minute than was taken in the entire 19th century.

A photograph of Robert Cornelius in 1839, one of the pioneers of photography who developed Daguerre's technology, is considered to be "the first selfie in history", although technically it is more correct to call it the first self-portrait.

But the picture taken in New York in December 1920 is closer to what we now call a selfie. Five men have gathered on the rooftop of Marceau's 5th Avenue studio and hugged each other to take a picture with outstretched arms. These are the photographers of the Byron Company, who opened one of the main photo studios in New York in Manhattan.

In 1954, Kodak released the Retinette, a camera with a built-in self-timer, advertising in a way that literally encouraged people to photograph themselves. Through their campaigns, Kodak has promoted the idea that photography is a way to preserve the moment. There was even the expression Kodak moment - a moment worth capturing.

"Since its inception, photography has fostered the ubiquity of a new kind of consciousness, thinking — treating the world as a collection of potential photographs," wrote Susan Sontag in her essay On Photography. Instagram now works in the same way, with the only difference that earlier they wanted to save moments as something rare and valuable, but now they are simply accumulated in endless feeds of stories that will disappear after a day.

The Oxford Dictionary defines a selfie as a photo of a person taken by the person himself on a smartphone or webcam and posted on social networks. In 2013, this phenomenon became the word of the year, ahead of "twerk" and "bitcoin". A year earlier, Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide took a selfie in space, where the Earth was reflected in his mirrored helmet.

There are at least two other important examples that have influenced the public perception of selfie culture. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmitt took a selfie at Nelson Mandela's funeral. The photo quickly made its way around the media - and many did not like the fact that world leaders were having such inappropriate fun at the farewell ceremony.

The Guardian then published a column on why Obama's selfies are not a manifestation of disrespect for Mandela. "I'm not sure if Mandela would have taken a selfie at Obama's funeral if they had swapped places, but I'm pretty sure he would have seen the fun of the situation," writes author John Kreis. Ethics aside, this selfie is almost the first example outside of a protocol shot of politicians (although the photo taken by the Danish Prime Minister was never published).

The joint photo of the actors at the 2014 Oscars is also historic. Ellen DeGeneres gathered around her Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacey and other stars, and the photo itself was taken by Bradley Cooper. The Hollywood selfie literally broke Twitter - the picture was retweeted more than 2 million times even before the ceremony ended.

Why are we so obsessed with selfies and have built our own image on Instagram into a cult? Marshall McLuhan seems to have an explanation. When he analyzed the myth of Narcissus in Understanding Media, he said that the protagonist was numb, mesmerized by his own expansion outward. It was not that he fell in love with his reflection, he could not take what he saw for himself - and it captured his consciousness. The endless number of filters and masks on Instagram contributes to a person's dependence on creating more and more new versions of himself.

Selfies are a product of the spectacle society. As Nicholas Mirzoev writes in his book How to Look at the World, each selfie is a performance where we play the person we would like to appear. This is an attempt to appear to the world as we see ourselves, and not as who we are seen from the outside.

Psychologists associate selfie obsession with the development of body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological disorder in which people are overly concerned with their own bodies and focus on their flaws or minor defects. In 2018, experts from the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery conducted a survey, the results of which showed that unsuccessful selfies are the main reason for cosmetic surgery. The desire for obsessive perfectionism is the reason for the painful attitude towards yourself and your life. It seems to us that someone has something better, but in reality we are simply equal to a simulacrum of reality.

Returning to the idea of ​​Susan Sontag, selfies are the same social ritual, without which virtual (and as a result - real) life is unthinkable. The fanatical desire to capture oneself can be compared to the need to assert oneself, to declare one's existence. In this case, selfies are also a cure for anxiety.

Old 36- or 24-frame film cameras ensured the selectivity of what was happening, it was impossible to document everything that happens to you, the choice was made in favor of something more or less outstanding that would matter after a while. Instagram has destroyed this selectivity. Remember you only exist on Instagram for 24 hours, and if after this time you don't show signs of life - you don't post a selfie, don't take pictures of your beloved cat, don't show your breakfast - then you practically disappear into oblivion. It is the fragility of digital existence that makes us take selfies over and over again. And we will continue to do so.

by Nastya Sidko