sel·fie /ˈselfē/ (noun)- a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. (oxforddictionaries.com)
Pretty much everyone knows the above definition and recognizes “the selfie” as one of social media’s largest and most recent trends. However, most people don’t stop to think about what these virtual self-portraits can represent.
But the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities decided it was going to. The two-part exhibit, “The Art of the Selfie: How Selfies Create Confidence,” was created to discuss how teenage girls view their own beauty.
The first part of the exhibit was a workshop on March 25 at the East Lansing Public Library. Girls in grades 7-12 were invited to think about self-esteem and beauty in the US. They then learned from artists how to express themselves and their ideas through selfies.
The second part of the exhibit was the debut of the gallery April 27, also at the East Lansing Public Library. The gallery showcased the pieces of art that the girls had created at the March 25 workshop.
“I think this program is important because it helps show girls and women that we define ourselves and what beauty is,” says Shannon Lake, teen/lead librarian at the East Lansing Public Library. “It shouldn’t be what someone else says. With the selfie project, we wanted girls to realize that their natural selves and beauty is what people find beautiful.”
The event, sponsored by the RCAH, Project 60/50 and the East Lansing Public Library, will be on display through the month of May.
“selfie.”2014. In oxforddictionaries.com. Retrieved April 30, 2014. from www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/selfie.2014.
Selfies are only good for one if he or she already feels good about herself and because they want to post them and put them on the net to get approval from the world. The world might just not give you the feedback that you were expecting and because of that you might just feel worse than you felt before. confidence starts from within when one realizes their own beauty and appreciates it and accepts the fact that people are different and are beautiful in their own ways. Then one will start to appreciate the beauty of others out there! selfies are not the best way to boost a girls self esteem! helping them understand their beauty is what will help them.
I don’t believe selfies builds confidence. In the world of social networking we live in, it is more likely that people criticise selfies. The chances are much greater that the person’s self-esteem will be damaged than being uplifted by social media.
Selfies make people more self concise about their looks because of the way the media presents the perfect look or image for either gender. This usually leads to depression. Some take it upon themselves to improve themselves, but most do it in a negative or destructive way.
Cyber bullying is a real threat when social networking and is one of the easiest ways to lower someone’s self-esteem. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who past their time cyber bullying out there in the world. Therefore it is paramount to only accept people you know on you social media profile, but remember that friends can be brutally honest also.
It is important that your looks or other people’s views don’t determine your self-esteem.
Selfies and their correlation with self-esteem is irrefutable but there is great debate concerning their impact: is it good or bad? I firmly believe that you cannot draw a conclusion based on the taking of a picture alone. A selfie isn’t some divine and revolutionary new psychological evolution: it is simply a modern conduit for the very same human emotional needs that we have and have always had. We yearn to seek self-fulfilment and the selfie is another means to this end. Whilst the anonymity of the internet is definitely a whole new social arena, I do not think selfies have a significantly different effect on self-confidence. A great many other social factors play a role in teenage and human social confidence and the development thereof.
I think selfies mean different things for different people. Some people have more confidence than others, therefore they like taking pictures of themselves just to feel good about themselves when people comment and compliment them on their appearance. On the other hand, i think other people who may not have a much confidence are usually self-conscious and depend on the opinions of other people to tell them how they look. The positive aspects are that an attractive person will feel better about themselves if people keep complimenting them. However, someone who is unattractive might have people saying ugly things to them that could dent their self-esteem. People care too much about what others think about them, that’s why they need reassurance every time. I think selfies on social media is more about trying to impress people and gain their approval rather than improve one’s confidence.
Selfies? My opinion? Unnecessary. As a person who doesn’t believe in taking a million pictures of myself I disagree with this article. Then again, my disagreement may be taken up as a lack in self confidence. However I believe I have enough confidence in myself to the extent that I don’t need to publicise pictures of myself over Facebook or Twitter or which ever social networking site is in question. To many people who don’t indulge in selfie taking, it appears to be an attention seeking tactic. To the many who take them, it gives them a sense of well-being as they then receive outside approval and hence a boost in confidence.
However this leaves them vulnerable as they feel drawn to the acknowledgement and then constantly seek out others approval instead of just being themselves and living without the urge to impress others. When looking at the trend of selfies, many try to out do each other with things like make-up or photoshop and picture editing. Selfies don’t build self-confidence, it lowers it. It creates a false sense of confidence. So yes I guess in a sense this article is true, but i’d replace ‘create confidence’ with ‘create false confidence’.
I do not think that selfies are the best way to enhance young girls’ self-esteem. For the past decade the internet and cellular technology has been one of the main reasons for increasing suicide statistics. Cyber-bullies has increased exponentially over the past five years and their impact are even worse than bullies in school, because these bullies are not just at school, but on your phone, your laptop, thus, inside your home. Selfies create an opportunity for cyber-bullies to harass you even more. It creates an environment where people judge others and also compare their beauty to others, which can lead to feelings of depression, rather than self-esteem being boosted.
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So,If a person take a ‘selfie’…
Is he/she necessarily selfish?
If he/she only takes his/her best view,What is wrong with that?Who would want to take a photo of him or herself at their worst view?Not even a mad person can do that.
Furthermore,If a person uploads it on a social network,that person would obviously hope to get positive and encouraging comments.
All in all,every person wants their ego to be boosted and everyone is selfish.It all depends on how you want to boost your esteem otherwise,’selfies’ are just one way of expressing a persons ‘pride’.So if you think you are not selfish,then you lie because you thinking about yourself right now!
“selfies” do not build confidence at all, wait until you put your “selfie” online and receive negative comments from honest friends and see if that person will be fine with that,or they will jump to surgeries. This study still needs to do more research on this however one would argue that the fact that people are self-assured to put their “selfies” online isconfidence enough therefore the study might actually be heading in the right direction.
A person that is able to take a picture of themselves and post it on social networks, either has great confidence or believes that people will less likely give a negative response. I believe that one has to assure themselves first that everyone else with access to that particular platform finds no reason to ridicule them based on the “selfie”. People often go to great lengths to assure themselves. For example, some will edit the photo, use photo-shop(a popular one) and often post a picture that does not belong to them. Nevertheless a “selfie” builds some much needed confidence but if and only if it receives the right amount of likes or a fair share of good comments. The consistency of positive responses them builds the confidence of an individual, that often has a low self-esteem.
“Selfies” are more than just a trend…they are here to stay. I personally don’t have a problem with taking a selfie because I believe it allows you to control your image and lets the world see you in your best pose. I just want to remind people that if you upload a “selfie” on social networks no matter how many likes or comments you get people only comment based on how you look and not based on who you are. Even if it might give you a confidence boost it is all because of you are letting people see the side of you that you want them to see.
Selfies began long before the media gave it this huge platform or even Oxford Dictionaries made it the word of the year due to its popularity. The question which has been debated for many years is whether they do improve one’s self esteem or not?. Well due to the research done as mentioned in this article is that, it does improve it in a way as it is a form of expression.
Many selfies end up online and this either boost one’s self esteem or becomes something that completely destroys a hopeful person’s confidence. Receiving comments or likes on a selfie is viewed by many to be some form of achievement or more like an approval from the society that they are worth it and beautiful enough.
To be honest selfies are just harmful as much as this article may try to contradict this fact, particularly with the media involved. They actually encourage people particularly young girls that it is the physical appearance that matters and not your personality, behaviour or even your true potential. Many people feel pressured more than ever to do numerous plastic surgeries just to fix their imperfections (which makes them unique) due to being rejected by the social circle. This for a hopeful person depletes their self-esteem because no matter how much they may try to change in order to look beautiful , they will never be satisfied with themselves due to someone receiving more likes on twitter or Facebook than them thus making them feel less valued, beautiful or even worse depressed.
Rather than being about looks it should be about someone’s personality and what they have to offer in this world to improve it for the better. Do you think that Mother Teresa woke up every morning worried about her makeup or whether people would like her dress or not? No, instead she worried about others and for that she is still loved by many because not for her beauty but for her kindness, generosity and love that she offered to people who needed it the most. This must be something that should be properly taught to people and most importantly that the only person who has the ability to either boost or destroy your confidence is you.
Many may disagree and conclude that people particularly the media has the power to degrade your confidence but by the end of the day it is only you who makes an introspection and decides whether you should listen and allow their hurtful words bully you or simply accept yourself for who you are and focus on fulfilling your purpose in life.
I totally disagree with the article above. From my point of view these selfies attract positive remarks from friends because usually people post pictures of their best moments and sometimes pictures of fun that is made up, therefore they gain false confidence that is received from positive comments. But when someone who knows their true beings comments negatively about them, all of that confidence gained from selfies can easily fade away because its true anyway
I agree that it is not “selfies” which build or lower the confidence of teenage girls, but rather the social media platforms on which the girls display it. However, I also believe that “selfies” can have both negative and positive impacts on teenage girls, as well as boys. “Selfies” can give one confidence in their appearance if positive feedback like compliments are received on social networks in response to the “selfie”. I think that the project was a good idea to help young girls realize how beautiful they really are.
However, the negative side to “selfies” is that some young girls strive for ‘perfection’ in their selfies, and can never seem to find it in themselves, and bring themselves down if they do not believe that they look beautiful enough. Girls and boys alike should be happy with who they are, and stop striving to be someone they aren’t.
Selfies…Question at hand is “Do they create self-confidence?” Well my question is if one should be selfish on the road to self-confidence? Let me give you a scenario , a group of friends take a picture, of the 3 members, 1 is comfortable with their appearance in the photo, in fact, she could be the only one who’s ‘photo-genetic’ as they like to put it. Is it right of her to decide to post the picture on whatever social network just because of her sole comfort with the ‘selfie’? I mean, it is a group photo, right? Or is she just abusing the term ‘selfie’? Turning it to a selfie in the sense that it’s all about ” me myself and I”. Just because she’s confident does not mean the rest of the group is. Getting comments directed only to you in a group photo makes no sense to me. Might as well crop the rest of the group members out and make it a real ‘selfie’. All I’m saying is, if it’s a confident booster, let it boost everyone’s confidence, or do not post it at all. Just because it’s called a selfie does not mean you should be selfish…Consider the rest give your SELF a rest.
“selfies” do have an impact on how young girls view their beauty.However it does not necessarily create confidence in general because we also realize some teenagers receive negative feedback from the media.I also agree to the fact that it is the positive feedback from the media about “the selfies” which creates confidence.Due to this fact most females now rely on what other people have to say about their beauty rather than what they think about their beauty. This is problematic because now teenage girls live to impress others through “selfies” in order to gain confidence. Whereas they are the ones in control over their lives.
In actual effect “selfies” have existed long before social media platforms, we just recently noticed it. Fact is, it is not the “selfies” that build or lower our confidence, but the social media platforms on which we display it. It is most common under girls to experience the impact on their confidence, be it negative or positive, but “selfies” also apply to boys. In the end it is your choice to display these “selfies” on social media, thus confidence is build from positive comments but it isn’t necessarily lowered by negative comments. In most cases it is caused by receiving no comments at all!
I do not totally agree that “selfies” can create confidence,as it increase the risk of cyber bullying which contribute to low-esteem.The “selfies” project it’s a great idea but I personally think 2 out of 5 individuals will benefit from it.Confidence is trusting in your natural beauty and embracing it without fear.A woman’s beauty is her heart (within) not just her looks
“Selfies” are basically self expressions. Teenagers usually only post pictures on social media which they perceive to be their best ones. This usually attracts positive remarks from friends and is therefore considered as confidence boosters. I don’t actually agree with the statement as it isn’t usually your true self that is reflected in selfies, most of them are edited in some way before posting. So I think it is a false sense of confidence that is gained. Also these days, selfies are a way of showing off to friends and family where you have been or what you bought, so it is now a source for malicious remarks from less fortunate friends. So no, I don’t think selfies are actually a confidence booster, its a way to advertise yourself , and not always in a good way
Taking your own picture have become so common, we even invented a new word for it. I think “selfies” can be both positive and negative. The positive side as discussed in the article is that they give girls or even boys confidence in their appearance. This confidence is gained by compliments they recieve by other people on social networks. It is good to let young girls express themselves through selfies and the project mentioned in the article is a way to do so. The negative side however is that some young girls “edit” their selfies if they are not happy with the way they look . I think this is wrong. Girls should be happy with their natural beauty and shouldn’t try to change themselves. Girls also often get jealous of other girls’ pictures and this can lead to bullying and depression. Girls should always be happy with who they are and remember that true beauty comes from whitin.
The media is always making young girls feel bad for not looking a particular way. This can even lead to girls bullying each other because of the way they look. Selfies indirectly help young girls to feel good about themselves because the picture is taken by them and they like the way they look in that picture which gives them the courage to put it out there on different social media platforms. The (hopefully positive) feedback received on these social media platforms is what gives the girls confidence. It is, however, a huge risk because some rude individual may feel the need to insult girls thus giving the girls’ egos and self-esteems an earth-shattering blow (unless the girl is sure of herself and does not care what others think though this is rarely the case amongst teenage girls).