What is This Selfie Craze?

The word "selfie" has taken the world by storm.  It is everywhere.  Even my daughter keeps telling me she wants to take a mother/daughter selfie.  I do think some people don't get it though.  I have seen several pictures of public figures where they called it a selfie, but someone else obviously took the picture.

Just to clarify, a selfie is a picture a person takes of themselves.  There can be other people in the picture, but the only photographer is one of the people in the picture.

Phones have made it much easier to take pictures of ourselves too.  They have made it so you can see yourself as you take the picture so you know if you're smiling pretty or if you are actually in the shot.  You can look at the picture immediately and see if it needs to be retaken.  We have come a long way from the film days when you have no idea what your picture will look like until it is developed and you realize your eyes were closed or your hair was sticking up or if you are like me it takes about 20 shots just to get one decent one.  Lately I have needed a picture of myself for this or that and I realized, I don't have very many of me.  I am always the photographer taking pictures of everyone else.  Why?  I hate pictures of myself.  I am not photogenic at all.  When you see a good picture of me, it is after 30 attempts that have failed miserably.  I can only imagine what people would think if I was in public trying to take a selfie.  I would be taking the same shot over and over just trying to get a good one and people thinking, "Dang, that girl really likes taking pictures of herself."  I get set to take the picture, make sure I'm in the shot, smile pretty and snap.  Then I look at the picture and think, "That is not what I saw when I was taking it."  My siblings and my kids are very photogenic!  I have some friends that have perfect smiles in every selfie.  They are so lucky to be able to snap one picture and be done.

I get the whole idea behind a selfie.  Wanting to capture whatever it is you're doing is a great idea.  You go on a trip, to a game, a concert or whatever and there is no one you trust handing your expensive phone over to, but you want a permanent reminder of that time so you take a picture yourself.  Great idea.  It seems lately though I have seen more bathrooms than I care to.  Nothing says sexy like a toilet in the background of your picture.  And my favorite are the duck faces.  Really?  How is that attractive?  Have you seen a real duck?  They are not cute and why would anyone try to copy that?

I would love to see more family and friend selfies, trip selfies, large group selfies and less toilet selfies or weird not so sexy selfies.  That's just me.