Seriously, What Is the Real Motivator Behind Shooting Selfies?

Clix Pix

Focused
Site Donor
Posts
3,160
Reaction score
5,126
Location
Eight Miles from the Tysons Apple Store, No. VA
Main Camera
Sony
Serious question. I just do not see the appeal at all and frankly find it rather distasteful. I know what I look like, family and friends know what I look like..... What compels people to frequently, often daily share photos of themselves online on some social media platform to a broader audience? What is behind the urgings of others for someone to share selfies? Is it that they are vain, self-absorbed? Eager to try and impress others? Wanting to seem trendy? Actually, in some unfortunate situations this has turned out to be a deadly exercise as someone shooting a "selfie" in a not-so-safe location has a fatal accident and, well, no one would want to see a photo of the end result of THAT.

I'm from a different generation and I'm curious. Is this persistent and all-too prevalent "selfies" thing due to poor self-esteem? Narcissism? Something else?

One article which I pulled up at random:

 
Last edited:

Eric

Mama's lil stinker
Posts
11,294
Reaction score
21,744
Location
California
Instagram
Main Camera
Sony
Serious question. I just do not see the appeal at all and frankly find it rather distasteful. I know what I look like, friends know what I look like..... What compels people to frequently, often daily share photos of themselves online on some social media platform to a broader audience? What is behind the urgings of others for someone to share selfies? Is it that they are vain, self-absorbed? Eager to try and impress others? Wanting to seem trendy? Actually, in some unfortunate situations this has turned out to be a deadly exercise as someone shooting a "selfie" in a not-so-safe location has a fatal accident and, well, no one would want to see a photo of the end result of THAT.

I'm from a different generation and I'm curious. Is this persistent and all-too prevalent "selfies" thing due to poor self-esteem? Narcissism? Something else?

One article which I pulled up at random:

I could not agree more! It seems really self-indulgent to me and not matter who you are, how popular, how good looking or any of it, we do not need to see your photo every day.

When I follow celebs and they start doing that I immediately unfollow, how can anyone think people want to see your mug every single day like that?
 

Chew Toy McCoy

Pleb
Site Donor
Posts
7,518
Reaction score
11,725
I agree with you but will also take it a step further. I'm not a fan of pictures of people in general, selfie or otherwise. If it's done as a serious portrait or that's kind of the photographer's expertise, then fine. But just random pictures of people in your life doing mundane things? No thanks. Of course, I take pictures of people in my life but I only share those pictures with those people. I'm not on social media posting them, and depending on who is, it could just be an extension of their selfie self obsession "Also look at how many people I know! And we're doing things! And smiling!" Yawn.
 

SuperMatt

Site Master
Posts
7,862
Reaction score
15,004
Serious question. I just do not see the appeal at all and frankly find it rather distasteful. I know what I look like, friends know what I look like..... What compels people to frequently, often daily share photos of themselves online on some social media platform to a broader audience? What is behind the urgings of others for someone to share selfies? Is it that they are vain, self-absorbed? Eager to try and impress others? Wanting to seem trendy? Actually, in some unfortunate situations this has turned out to be a deadly exercise as someone shooting a "selfie" in a not-so-safe location has a fatal accident and, well, no one would want to see a photo of the end result of THAT.

I'm from a different generation and I'm curious. Is this persistent and all-too prevalent "selfies" thing due to poor self-esteem? Narcissism? Something else?

One article which I pulled up at random:

Self-portraits used to take a lot more work. Here’s a famous one from the 15th century (Jan van Eyck):

1643931468898.jpeg
 

Eric

Mama's lil stinker
Posts
11,294
Reaction score
21,744
Location
California
Instagram
Main Camera
Sony
I was presenting for a training today and asked one of the people to share their screen so I could walk them through an exercise and they had my goofy ass looking mug on full screen, it was fkn horrifying man, nobody needs to see that, especially at high res all in your face. I moved my laptop as far back as I could to back off from the camera. I couldn't imagine willingly showing myself like that, I've never been one to like my own photos.
 
U

User.45

Guest
Serious question. I just do not see the appeal at all and frankly find it rather distasteful. I know what I look like, family and friends know what I look like..... What compels people to frequently, often daily share photos of themselves online on some social media platform to a broader audience? What is behind the urgings of others for someone to share selfies? Is it that they are vain, self-absorbed? Eager to try and impress others? Wanting to seem trendy? Actually, in some unfortunate situations this has turned out to be a deadly exercise as someone shooting a "selfie" in a not-so-safe location has a fatal accident and, well, no one would want to see a photo of the end result of THAT.

I'm from a different generation and I'm curious. Is this persistent and all-too prevalent "selfies" thing due to poor self-esteem? Narcissism? Something else?

One article which I pulled up at random:

Narcissist from Sage Francis never gets old:
"I don't look at myself in the mirror because I'm a narcissist, I simply like to watch myself exist"
 

Clix Pix

Focused
Site Donor
Posts
3,160
Reaction score
5,126
Location
Eight Miles from the Tysons Apple Store, No. VA
Main Camera
Sony
I may be "an old fart," and definitely did not grow up with iPhones, and I'll bet you didn't either, Fooferdoggie! Regardless, I can assure you that even if I were forty or fifty years younger I still would not be firing off selfies! I enjoy taking photographs and hopefully coming up with interesting, sometimes creative and well-composed ones, but I definitely do not view myself as in any way a potential subject!
 

Huntn

Whatwerewe talk'n about?
Site Donor
Posts
5,254
Reaction score
5,189
Location
The Misty Mountains
Serious question. I just do not see the appeal at all and frankly find it rather distasteful. I know what I look like, family and friends know what I look like..... What compels people to frequently, often daily share photos of themselves online on some social media platform to a broader audience? What is behind the urgings of others for someone to share selfies? Is it that they are vain, self-absorbed? Eager to try and impress others? Wanting to seem trendy? Actually, in some unfortunate situations this has turned out to be a deadly exercise as someone shooting a "selfie" in a not-so-safe location has a fatal accident and, well, no one would want to see a photo of the end result of THAT.

I'm from a different generation and I'm curious. Is this persistent and all-too prevalent "selfies" thing due to poor self-esteem? Narcissism? Something else?

One article which I pulled up at random:

I am guilty infrequently, prove I have been somewhere without asking another person to take my picture. However I admit the results frequently leave something to be desired. :)
 

Scepticalscribe

Cancelled
Posts
6,644
Reaction score
9,457
listen to all the old farts here. if you grew up with iPhones you would be doing it too and dont say you would not.

No, actually, I wouldn't.

I may be "an old fart," and definitely did not grow up with iPhones, and I'll bet you didn't either, Fooferdoggie! Regardless, I can assure you that even if I were forty or fifty years younger I still would not be firing off selfies! I enjoy taking photographs and hopefully coming up with interesting, sometimes creative and well-composed ones, but I definitely do not view myself as in any way a potential subject!
Exactly.

And well said.
 

fooferdoggie

Elite Member
Site Donor
Posts
4,379
Reaction score
7,737
I may be "an old fart," and definitely did not grow up with iPhones, and I'll bet you didn't either, Fooferdoggie! Regardless, I can assure you that even if I were forty or fifty years younger I still would not be firing off selfies! I enjoy taking photographs and hopefully coming up with interesting, sometimes creative and well-composed ones, but I definitely do not view myself as in any way a potential subject!
none of us would know what we would do if we had the same things our kids have now. its impossible pot know what we would haves done if things were different. especially something that such a product of our times. we like to fool ourselves and say I know UI would not do it. but you were not as kid with access to a extremely accessible camera and internet. we would be doing the same dumb things and kids are now. Just like we did stupid things as kids.
 

Clix Pix

Focused
Site Donor
Posts
3,160
Reaction score
5,126
Location
Eight Miles from the Tysons Apple Store, No. VA
Main Camera
Sony
Speak for yourself, Fooferdoggie..... I can assure you that I KNOW I would not be running around taking photos of myself. Actually, as it happens, I have been using cameras since age eight and it simply never would have occurred to me to shoot myself as a subject. There were and still are so many, many more interesting subjects!
 

fooferdoggie

Elite Member
Site Donor
Posts
4,379
Reaction score
7,737
Speak for yourself, Fooferdoggie..... I can assure you that I KNOW I would not be running around taking photos of myself. Actually, as it happens, I have been using cameras since age eight and it simply never would have occurred to me to shoot myself as a subject. There were and still are so many, many more interesting subjects!
of course not because it was not the same thing. we love to tell ourselves we would never have done something if our lives were the same as someone else's. but thats a fools game. no young person makes wise and adult choices we were all idiots thats the nature of being young.
 

Scepticalscribe

Cancelled
Posts
6,644
Reaction score
9,457
none of us would know what we would do if we had the same things our kids have now. its impossible pot know what we would haves done if things were different. especially something that such a product of our times. we like to fool ourselves and say I know UI would not do it. but you were not as kid with access to a extremely accessible camera and internet. we would be doing the same dumb things and kids are now. Just like we did stupid things as kids.

Actually, - and I agree with @Clix Pix - that is not true, and you cannot know what others felt or experienced or lived through. You can only speak for yourself.

Some kids and adolescents - and I was one of them - are completely alienated from (and quite disdainful of), manifestly uninterested in, and clearly not influenced by - the interests of their peer group.
Speak for yourself, Fooferdoggie..... I can assure you that I KNOW I would not be running around taking photos of myself. Actually, as it happens, I have been using cameras since age eight and it simply never would have occurred to me to shoot myself as a subject. There were and still are so many, many more interesting subjects!

Agree absolutely.

I, too, was a teenaged photographer, and - as was the case with you - I rarely featured as a subject in photographs I took.

At most, I might have appeared in just a single shot or two (of a roll, or series of rolls) merely - and mainly - to show, and have a record, that I had been to a particular place, or with a particular person or people (so, yes, in this context, there does exist a photograph or two - taken by my mortified yet amused, supportive and intrigued mother, I had to focus and manage the settings of the camera for her before she could take the picture - my first camera, a splendid Minolta rangefinder - of me as a teenager standing on the steps of No 10 Downing St, which was taken during a trip - a short holiday - in London we took together when I was an adolescent).

Usually, when you were behind the lens, you rarely featured as a subject.
 
Top Bottom
1 2