Selfie

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Taking a selfie (former President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak with soccer player Ji So-yun )

A selfie (/ ˈsɛlfiː /) is a photograph like a self-portrait , often taken at arm's length from your own hand. Selfies are often available in social networks and depict one or more people (group selfies ).

history

Self-photography from around 1900

Photographic self-portraits are a further development of the self-portrait genre in painting ; the former have been made since photos were made. In the early years it was easy as a photographer to get into the picture, as tripods were generally used and very long exposure times were required. Later cameras made similar images possible with the function of the self-timer .

In August 2013, the British daily The Guardian produced a series of films entitled “Thinkfluencer”, in which the selfie phenomenon in Great Britain was explored in several episodes.

At the 2014 Academy Awards , actress Ellen DeGeneres took a selfie with Jennifer Lawrence , Meryl Streep , Julia Roberts , Channing Tatum , Angelina Jolie , Bradley Cooper , Brad Pitt , Kevin Spacey , Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong'o , among others , the most retweeted photo of all time.

In 2014, the selfie stick came into fashion as a technical aid . This is a rod that serves as an arm extension for the photographer and makes it easier to take photos with a directional smartphone at the end opposite the handle. A year later, such poles were banned at many tourist hot spots for safety reasons.

3D selfie

With the advent of 3D printers and 3D scanners , it is possible to record people in three dimensions from a 360-degree perspective and print them out on a reduced scale. These prints are also known as a 3D selfie . The scanning process hardly takes longer than a normal selfie; the 3D model generated is then usually printed out using binder jetting . In Germany there are special studios for this, and some technology branches (e.g. MediaMarkt ) also offer this service.

Concept history

Selfie-style self-photography, 1930s

The earliest use of the word “selfie” on the Internet can be traced back to 2002. It first appeared in an Australian Internet forum ( ABC Online ) on September 13, 2002 and is therefore of Australian origin in this context. Other new word creations are “Drelfie”, photos of yourself in a drunk state, and “Nudies”, ie naked selfies. Selfies are particularly popular with young people, but also with adults. At least since the 1970s, when English became increasingly fashionable, the term (analogous to "quickies") for masturbation. In the meantime, however, the meaning of photos has apparently almost completely established itself. The term for photos has existed in German-speaking countries since at least 2011. In December 2012, Time Magazine stated that “Selfie” was among the top 10 keywords of 2012. Although the term has existed for years, in 2012 it was dubbed “really hit the big time”.

In November 2013, “Selfie” was named “Word of the Year 2013” ​​by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Selfie-making technique and artistic use

Leonardo DiCaprio takes a selfie, the left half of his face is turned to the camera (at the Berlinale 2010)

A 2013 study at the University of Parma found that when it comes to selfies, there is a preference for the left side of the face to be tilted towards the camera. The authors saw in this agreement with the composition rules of classical portrait painting . They interpreted this finding that amateurs spontaneously apply the same rules as professional painters, even if they take the picture in mirror image, as a result of neurophysiological differences in the expression of emotions for both halves of the face.

However, the same authors question their conjecture in a later study. In a larger data set, there were noticeable deviations from professional design rules and differences between selfies taken by people with and without photo experience. These findings in turn call into question psychologically firmly anchored design principles and rather point to culturally and socially anchored rules.

In 2013, the artist Patrick Specchio and the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented an exhibition called "Art in Translation: Selfie, The 20/20 Experience", in which viewers take photos of themselves in a large mirror with a digital camera could.

A so-called selfie stick is a mostly  telescopic  rod that  serves as an arm extension for the  photographer . Using a somewhat more distant perspective, this enables, for example, recordings by the photographer against a certain background or several people together.

Reasons for taking selfies

In various academic disciplines and in modern art, there is an increasing debate about various social developments and processes that are reflected in selfies.

The incentive to take selfies comes from the fact that they are easy to create and share, and give the photographer control over how they want to present themselves . In contrast to photos that others take of a person, with a selfie the person has “power over his own image” at every stage before the photo is passed on.

Selfies can often - with the very widespread use of the front camera on mobile devices - what is shown reversed, which can be seen from the writing and signs in the background. Faces are usually built asymmetrically (a smaller eye, crooked mouth, asymmetrical lips, hairline; see face # face shape ), which means that many people do not like a normal picture of their face because they only know their face mirror-inverted from the mirror . A selfie, on the other hand, usually shows the well-known mirror image, from which they "recognize" themselves and from which the popularity of the selfie can be derived. The face depicted on the selfie then appears unfamiliar to other viewers.

Psychological and sociological explanations

Many selfies are supposed to give a flattering picture of the person as they want to be seen by others.

At the same time, selfies also have a function of self-assurance. Many photographers who take selfies want to get an authentic picture of themselves and convey it to others.

The permanent representation of the lives of others also creates a pressure to represent one's own life, which becomes a design object, and strengthens the staging spiral through selfies and body cult. In a study commissioned by the market research institute IKW, 39 percent of the young people surveyed stated that they take selfies every week, 26 percent took them daily, 14 percent even several times a day. You control every single picture down to the last detail in order to get as many likes as possible. 30 percent of young people see becoming famous as an explicit goal in life. 10 years earlier it was 14 percent.

A 2013 study of Facebook users found that frequent selfie posting correlated with poor social support and that those who upload photos of themselves often run the risk of damaging their real-life relationships.

Some users intentionally choose funny or unattractive pictures of themselves to demonstrate their humor or in response to the perceived narcissism and sexualization of typical selfies.

Again, a study by Brigham Young University from 2017 showed that there were other motivations behind selfies in addition to narcissistic tendencies. Accordingly, selfie clippers can be divided into the three categories of communicators, autobiographers and self-promoters, which provide information about personal motives. While the communicators focus on the mutual exchange with friends and followers through commenting and the animation of acting and engaging, the autobiographers use selfies to document their own life and to preserve memories, whereby the feedback of others plays a subordinate role. Only the category of self-promoters is based on purely self-obsessive motives.

Selfies are especially popular with girls and young women. One function of the selfie can be to feel attractive and confirmed in one's own gender identity through social affirmation and attention. Selfies with nude pictures and erotic photography are increasingly popular in social networks and online communities such as reddit . The dissemination of the images is usually free of charge and is viewed as an erotic game, it can be viewed as a form of exhibitionism . A subreddit describes this with the words: to exchange their nude bodies for karma; showing it off in a comfortable environment without pressure. The phenomenon has also received attention from celebrities who willfully post nude selfies of themselves on the Internet.

Self-marketing in business and politics

Bill Nye shoots a group selfie with Barack Obama and Neil deGrasse Tyson at the White House

Selfies are also a form of self- promotion by people who consider themselves brand personalities. Career advisors emphasize, however, that it is important for self-promotion to distribute “serious” photos.

Politicians also like to use selfies to advertise themselves. In April 2015, the German daily Die Welt declared Manuela Schwesig to be the “selfie queen of top German politics”.

special cases

Subcategories of people performing selfies

There are now a large number of suitcase words that describe special focus on the motif:

  • Belfie: especially from your own buttocks (English "butt")
  • Bifie: in a bikini
  • Bothie: combined image of both cell phone cameras
  • Drelfie: in a drunk state (English "drunk")
  • Dronie: self-portrait taken using a drone
  • Footsie: Focusing on the feet (English "foot")
  • Helfie: Emphasis on the hair, often as a bun (English "hair")
  • Nudie: without clothes (English "nude", German: naked)
  • Relfies: with kitsch backdrop, kissable mouth (English "relationship", German: "relationship")
  • Shelfie: in the living area with books, accessories on tables or shelves (English: "shelf": Regal)
  • Suglie: with a particularly ugly charisma (English "ugly")
  • Ussie: together with a group (English "us"; German: "we")
  • Welfie: the sporty workout

Selfies of animals

This crested monkey had triggered a camera itself - in addition to many unusable pictures, this one was also taken.

Animals can run into a photo trap that is triggered, for example, by a light barrier. Strictly speaking, however, this is not a selfie, as the animal does not consciously trigger the recording and does not want to present itself.

In August 2014, the media raised the question of who owns the copyrights if a monkey pulls the camera's shutter button. The reason for this was a series of photos of a crested macaque who had picked up a camera by the animal photographer David Slater and, by accidentally triggering it, took not only many unusable but also some outstanding pictures of himself. The pictures were posted on the Internet by Slater in 2011. When the Wikimedia Foundation used one of these photos as an example of a public domain image in a transparency report, Slater contacted the British newspaper Telegraph . It was his camera and he had created the opportunity to take the photo under difficult and expensive circumstances, so he kept the copyrights to it. In contrast, case law assumes that copyright should protect human creativity. The owner of the copyright is therefore the creator of the work, not the owner of the tool, which is why the owner of the photographic equipment does not acquire any rights from this alone. On the other hand, only man-made works can be subject to copyright and animals therefore generally do not own copyrights. The US Copyright Office subsequently confirmed that no one in the United States holds the rights to photos that were not taken by humans.

In September 2015, the animal welfare organization PETA and Antje Engelhardt from the German Primate Center filed a joint lawsuit with the aim of granting copyrights to the animal named Naruto . On January 7, 2016, the court seised in Los Angeles dismissed the lawsuit. Neither the monkey nor Slater could claim any rights to the image.

The legal dispute did not end there. On September 11, 2017, both parties agreed on a settlement, which provided for Peta's withdrawal of action in return for Slater donating 25% of his future income from the selfie pictures to non-profit organizations that are dedicated to animal welfare.

However, the settlement was rejected by the US Federal Court of Appeals on the grounds that it could only be sued on behalf of animals if this was expressly provided for in the law. In the case of Naruto, this would not be the case. In addition, Peta, as Naruto's representative, agreed to the settlement, but the crested macaque did not. This meant that no lawsuit was used and other animal rights activists could sue for him again.

On April 23, 2018, the court ruled that Peta was only acting for his own benefit, as Naruto was not involved in the settlement and was therefore only abusing him for his own ideological purposes. The lawsuit was therefore dismissed and Peta was ordered to pay Slater's legal fees.

A similar curiosity on copyright issues relating to the activities of animals arose in connection with a recording of bird calls which recited passages of the sound poem Sonata in original sounds .

criticism

Exaggerated body cult

The sociologist and women's researcher Professor Gail Dines links the selfie phenomenon with the risk that women will reduce themselves to their bodies or be reduced to them and that this can mean the rise of a new porn culture.

Dangers to great openness

As early as 1979, the psychologist Ruth C. Cohn warned of the consequences of unreflected psychological self-exposure in the attempt to achieve authentic self-knowledge:

“First of all, authenticity involves two things: One is to be as clear as possible about my own feelings, motivations and thoughts, so to speak, not to fool myself. The other is to be very clear about what I want to say. To be clear, I say it in such a way that it can resonate with the other. The other has a “receiving device” that may not be tuned to me, to what I “send” and how I “send” it. So I have to try to imagine how what is going on inside me will be heard by the other. I once put it: I don't want to say everything that is real, but what I say should be real. For me, openness is not something that is possible between people from the start, but something that has to be carefully acquired and learned. You can't do that immediately and with force. However, I believe that even in the very best of relationships, there are still locked areas left. I cannot imagine a relationship in which total openness is possible and bearable at all times. I therefore differentiate between optimal and maximum authenticity. The guideline is: What personal experience happens inside, with optimal inner honesty and communicative clarity - so authentically - to communicate to the partner. Optimal authenticity always has a selective character; maximum, ie absolute, sincerity can destroy. I think that being completely open is a nonsense. On the other hand, our civilization has had a long time to make up for destructive secrecy and hypocrisy. I therefore believe that with the openness-at-any-price movement, the pendulum swings in the opposite direction. Here, too, a dynamic balance is required - between hypocrisy and recklessness. Or put positively: between good silence and good communication. "

According to the author Andrew Keen, the uncontrolled and insecure framework of publishing on the Internet can have the opposite effect of the hoped-for control over the self-image, as many images are freely accessible and can no longer be removed as soon as they are circulated on the Internet. There is a risk that nude pictures or the like can continue to be published. In September 2014, nude selfies of numerous celebrity women were published without their consent after strangers gained access to iCloud accounts, see Hacker attack on private photos of celebrities in 2014 .

Copyright issues

Accordingly, effective copyright law is required in order to have selfies published without consent removed from the public and to prevent forwarding. The EU commissioner for digital economy and society, Günther Oettinger , commented on the case with the words: “If someone is so stupid and takes a nude photo of himself as a celebrity and puts it on the net, he cannot expect that from us we protect him. ”- which, however, led to violent opposition from data protectionists and network activists. Recently, so-called belfies , recordings of clothed or unclothed buttocks, have been circulating in various networks .

Accidents and deaths

In the city of Mumbai , selfies are said to be banned in some designated zones after an accident in January 2016. Since 2014 there have been deaths from selfies worldwide. In 2015, at least 27 people died in selfie-related accidents, half of them in India , according to research by the Washington Post .

Legal situation in the employment relationship

Often times, the selfies are also taken at work during working hours and then published on the Internet or in social networks . This raises questions about labor law , among other things . However, the employer can regulate the private use of the smartphone by his employees and, depending on the specifics of the workplace, prohibit the taking of selfies during working hours.

Numbers and dates

According to a study by the US magazine Time , which took into account locations in cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants worldwide, most selfies were taken in the Philippine city of Makati on certain days in early 2014 . In second place was New York's Manhattan district , and third South Beach in Miami Beach . In Germany, Düsseldorf was number one, but only number 136 worldwide.

According to a 2013 survey, two-thirds of 18- to 35-year-old women in Australia take selfies for the most common purpose of posting them on Facebook. Another survey commissioned by the smartphone and camera manufacturer Samsung says that around 30% of selfie photos are taken by people between the ages of 18 and 24. In 2013, the word “selfie” was added to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary as it became an everyday term.

Trivia

Selfie and Delfie are two dolphins ( bottlenose dolphins ) that have been swimming in the Baltic Sea for the first time since 2015 and are popular photo motifs.

literature

  • NJ Wade: The first scientific 'selfie'? (Guest editorial). Perception, 2014, Volume 43, pp. 1141-1144. doi: 10.1068 / p4311ed .

Web links

Wiktionary: Selfie  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Selfies  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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