Technology-obsessed teens and pre-teens are accused of being more self-centred, more used to instant gratification and less involved in the world around them than previous generations, and the phenomenon most commonly used to represent this moral decline is the 鈥渟elfie.鈥�
鈥淪elfie鈥� was recently declared the Oxford Dictionaries鈥� word of the year for 2013. It鈥檚 defined as 鈥渁 photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social-media website.鈥�
Of course, people have been taking photos of themselves ever since the age of daguerreotypes, but it鈥檚 only recently that people have had access to both picture-taking and picture-sharing technology en masse. Posted to Facebook or on image-sharing sites such as Instagram and Tumblr, selfies seem to typify (to a certain type of cynic, at least) everything that鈥檚 wrong with this generation, and young girls in particular, since girls are the primary manufacturers and consumers of selfies. Selfies are often presented as proof of these girls鈥� narcissism: They鈥檙e more interested in taking their own picture for reasons of vanity than in exploring the world around them.
Certainly, smartphone overdependence has real and proven dangers, such as heightened anxiety when a person doesn鈥檛 have access to their phone. The dangers of sexting (the practice of people sending explicit photos to one another, or sexy selfies, if you will) has also been causing us a lot of worry, especially in a culture that too readily sexualizes young girls and objectifies women.
So photo-sharing is hazardous and smartphone overdependence can cause stress, but I don鈥檛 think selfies should be seen as symbols of either of these dangers. On the contrary, selfies are a new kind of self-presentation, one that we should be excited about. Selfies allow people to take charge of their image 鈥� and that鈥檚 a good thing, especially for girls and young women, who live in a world that tells them implicitly and consistently that the most important thing about them is how they look.
For decades, photographers and publishers have had near-universal control over our images. Now, however, a girl can take and share her own photo: she鈥檚 now the one in control. She can choose how she photographs herself, how she wants to be seen and who can see it. The act of taking and posting a selfie online is an act of affirmation, because the individual is in control of every step of the process. Posting that selfie to Facebook says: 鈥淗ey guys, here I am. This is me,鈥� without being derided for her confidence.
As Rachel Simmons recently pointed out in the online magazine Slate: 鈥淭he selfie suggests something in picture form 鈥� that a girl could never get away with saying. It puts the gaze of the camera squarely in a girl鈥檚 hands, and along with it, the power to influence the photo鈥檚 interpretation.鈥�
I don鈥檛 for one moment think this allows teenage girls to escape the crucible of criticism or the painful search for validation based on looks, but increased agency is always a good thing. Women are judged on appearance, and since it鈥檚 facile to pretend that 鈥減lease magically stop caring about your looks while we continue to judge you because of them鈥� is sensible advice for a teenager, let鈥檚 embrace the good stuff that selfie culture can do.
We鈥檙e so interested in proving that teenage girls are being narcissistic and opening themselves up to victimization (for some reason, we鈥檙e really attached to that narrative) that we鈥檙e not looking at what selfie culture is really telling us. If a professional photographer does it, it鈥檚 OK, but if a teenage girl does it to herself, it鈥檚 narcissism?
Nah. Not buying that. I think it鈥檚 great that girls are standing up and saying: 鈥淗ey, look at me!鈥�
Selfies aren鈥檛 going to overthrow the entire weight of beauty-industry standards, but in a world where women鈥檚 images are modulated past the point of grotesque (we鈥檙e not even allowed to have pores any more), is it really so bad for a girl to be in charge of her own image? This is not vanity 鈥� this is confidence and control.
