Okay, you’ve been studying for at least 10 minutes now, so you deserve a study break–right? Check your texts, then browse Facebook, Yik Yak, Instagram, and Snapchat. It’s the beginning of the school year, and all of your friends at other schools are posting pictures smiling with people you don’t know. There’s a filter, a cute caption, maybe a clever hashtag, and at least 60 likes already. They seem happy.
Social media is a practical way to share thoughts, and pictures, and to be able talk to friends who are typically difficult to contact, whether because of international borders or bad texting habits. Thanks to portable, hand-held technology, this is all possible. But we as a society are still exploring the usages and effects of these devices. There have been many studies done on the impact of social media on behavior and functioning. The general population, meanwhile, is studying the impact of moving from one side of the room to the other to get the best possible lighting for that selfie.
Selfie. It was Oxford Dictionary’s International Word of the Year in 2013. It is defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Typically selfies, thanks to free applications, can be easily edited to present an image that isn’t realistic. When we see those photos, we miss the mundane moments, the sad moments and the bloopers.
Dr. Pamela Rutledge studies the impact and experience of media. She writes, “As a celebration of real people, selfies can be empowering and even normalizing,” but a “preoccupation with selfies can be a visible indicator of a young person with a lack of confidence or sense of self that might make him or her a victim of other problems as well.”
Taylor M. Wickel of Elon University generally agrees. His survey “Narcissism and Social Networking Sites: The Act of Taking Selfies,” showed that 97.8 percent of participants said that they judged one’s popularity based on likes and comments. However, use of positive feedback from likes or comments as alleviation for anxiety can become a serious issue if this becomes the only source of self-confidence. Beyond selfies, it has been shown that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between the level of internet addiction and depression symptoms in high school students.
In the medical field, selfies have provided multiple benefits. They can take the place of a medical photographer when one is not practical or accessible. These “medical selfies” also allow a patient to document symptoms outside of a consultation. This is essential, especially in the case of reactions that occur due to environmental stressors that cannot necessarily be captured during the visit to a doctor.
What about the impact of selfies on professional photography? Most photographers would say that selfies have not had much impact, but social media and the accessibility and affordability of digital photography has. Kent Stuck, a local photographer at Artistic Impressions Photography, comments that this has “brought a lot of ‘wannabe photographers’ out of the wood works” and “impacted the amount of business that comes through our doors and the price perception of what good photography is worth.”
Lindsay Betz of Jonathan Betz Photography (Jonathan Betz is another local photographer) explains, “Selfies are more for quick social media sharing while professional photography is for moments that really matter and that create art for the home.”
“Even though cell phones take photos with high pixels,” Kathy Rowley, owner and photographer of A Creative Moment Photography, says, “they still do not have the quality telescopic lenses, and strong flashes that are needed to get the high quality photos that one would want” for once in a lifetime events, such as weddings. They “can’t be re-created, so that moment can be lost forever.” As Stuck points out, professional photography requires more than a good camera. “The skill sets to being a good photographer far exceed the abilities built into the camera,” he said.
So – to selfie or not to selfie? After all, if you didn’t take a selfie, did you really do it?