ME, MYSELF AND I

Me, Myself, and I NARCISSISTIC OR NURTURING? AN EXAMINATION OF SELFIES AND SELF-WORTH. story & photography by MEGAN ORR

It was The Chainsmoker’s 2014 club anthem and a word added to Webster’s dictionary in 2013. Selfies have been making eyes roll and likes grow for nearly a decade, if not longer. Whether it be a pic of that bangin’ new outphotos are easier to take and share, the selfie itself is not revolutionary. From cave drawings and oil paintings to Polaroids, disposable cameras and cell phones, people have been creating images of themselves with whatever tools they can find since pre-historic times. You could argue that narcissism is just a part of human “But first, let me take a selfie!” fit, your hair doing that thing you like, or just nature. The selfie, as it currently exists, is only a #feelingmyself moment, we are all guilty of a modern, digital representation of it. snapping the occasional selfie. It is a cultural In many ways, the negativity surrounding phenomenon, and like most popular trends, it selfies comes from a place of fear and misunhas people worried. Selfie-takers are narcissis- derstanding. Like anything, people may be tic, self-obsessed and addicted to social media, doing it too much or for the wrong reasons, but or at least according to popular discourse on the no other person has the right to make that judgetopic. However, it isn’t all bad. The selfie can ment call. Scientific research is quick to make actually be used in a variety of positive ways, the correlation between selfies and narcissism including boosting self-esteem. as well as lowered self-esteem and diminished The majority of research on selfies and life satisfaction. The dialogue surrounding the social media usage tends to focus on the nega- topic tends to be polarized. Take two different tive effects. Arguably, while this research is not articles from Psychology Today, one from 2014 entirely flawed, it does seek to invalidate the titled Selfies Are About Self-Love, and another reason why people take a selfie in the first place: from 2017 titled, Do Selfies Make Us Self-Conbecause they think they look good. Another way scious? Neither article really tells a full story of thinking about selfies is to treat them like about what it means to take a picture of oneself, they are a new concept. While it’s true that, with and the academic research is no better. Most smartphone technologies and social media, selfies are taken in artificial or fleeting settings, and it’s difficult to accurately gauge how people feel about themselves by simply researching their picture-taking habits.

Mads Kania-Paquette, a non-binary transgender person (meaning they do not identify as either male or female and use the gender neutral pronouns “they/them”), uses selfies as a form of recovery. It was a big step for them in overcoming the body dysphoria that they’ve struggled with for their entire life. “I never thought I would not wear a shirt anywhere,” says Kania-Paquette, “let alone put that online, but that I feel comfortable enough to is big. For me, anyway.”

Their use of the selfie isn’t a singular example either. Tags like #selflove, #nomakeup, and #feelingmyself posted with selfies online are meant to encourage users to post pictures of themselves. While research does back up the theory that taking selfies can be an inherently narcissistic act, other research provides evidence that self-photography plays a vital role in empowering individuals and reclaiming physical identities. As Kania-Paquette states, “If you’re happy, and celebrating that, and [feel]

like sharing that, I don’t see a problem with it. People need to lighten up.”

One study of particular interest, conducted by Katrin Tiidenberg and published in Cyberpsychology, explored how sexual narratives can be expressed through self-shooting. The paper examined these practices through a study of not-safe-for-work selfie shots posted on the blogging community Tumblr. Tiidenberg notes that “selfies are ubiquitous in our digitally saturated environments… self-shooting [is conceptualized] as a significant late-modern self-, and community-construction practice.” This plays an important role in the positive implications of self-shooting as it applies to active storytelling and body positivity, in that it can “serve as empowering exhibitionism that allows us to ‘reclaim a copyright to our lives.’” Along that same note, the users that Tiidenberg interviewed noted how selfies have impacted confidence in the Tumblr community by allowing a safe space for self-expression.

A 2017 article by Fenella Souter in The Sydney Morning Herald proclaimed the selfie to be both a part of the narcissism epidemic, and the movement for empowerment. Souter writes that the selfie is vital to “the millennial conviction that loving yourself, and being public about it, is nothing to be embarrassed about.” She also defines the selfie as an act of defiance against what society expects from people, giving visibility to those who are not always visible in popular media. Souter notes how selfie trends create communities online for people who are like-minded and look alike. Similarly, Kania-Paquette notes that within the trans community, seeing other people and their progress can be both helpful and important. They say confidence is something that can be hard to come by for folks who feel uncomfortable in their own skin, which can make sharing a picture online meaningful. Kania-Paquette noted that before their surgery, a selfie was really a big deal, and in effect it was a message saying, “Hey, I’m having a good day. I feel like I should document that!” In fact, there are some convincing arguments against selfies and excessive social media use. Posting a picture and receiving likes provides instant gratification, but comparison culture, which thrives in online communities like Instagram, can be damaging to self-esteem and mental health in general. Taking selfies can also be dangerous and the activity has been linked to numerous injuries and fatalities. India has the highest number of selfie-related deaths, with 76 recorded between March 2014 and September 2016, according to a 2016 report, My, Myself, and My Killfie.

“High-risk selfies” pose a physical risk, but a 2016 article by Karla Pequenino on cnn.com noted that the research on the selfie’s emotional impact is mixed. Pequenino notes that studies tend to find that looking at a lot of pictures of other people can be harmful, causing viewers to compare themselves unfavourably with others, but taking pictures of yourself can boost confidence. “In the end,” she says, “you’ll probably be the best judge of how selfies affect you.” ■