Let Me Take a #SELFIE

It is nearly impossible to walk down the halls of my high school and not see a group of kids snapchatting, or taking selfies. Our culture, since the development of smart phones, has developed an obsession with taking pictures of themselves.  It is gotten quite out of hand, and there are many negative effects of this obsession. People, especially girls, are becoming more and more concerned with their appearance, even when no one (but their Snapchat friends) are around. In my anatomy class my teacher said, "The problem with your generation is that you don't know the difference between a memory and a picture."  This is actually very true. I can't remember the last time I went to an event in which one person didn't take a picture.  I am not exempt from this problem, and I admit to snapchatting and taking selfies daily (exemplified by Reils and I's selfie below). Even Obama, the president of the United States, takes selfies! At the Oscars this year, Ellen Degeneres' selfie was the most retweeted post on record, with over 2 million retweets.

The selfie obsession became crystal clear to me when I heard the somewhat recent release of the song #SELFIE by The Chainsmokers. It is a song that makes fun of the selfie culture by having a monologue of a random girl at a club. Before everything that she does the entire night, she says "Let me take a selfie".  Feel free to listen to the song here. Although funny and entertaining, this song depicts the ridiculousness of this new American obsession, which might come from the American values of appearance by showing yourself off to the world.

When talking about selfies in American Studies, my English teacher mockingly said, "Do I look any better now?" and then responded to his own question by saying, "No, much the same actually." Why are we so obsessed with taking pictures of ourselves? Do we just like seeing our own faces? Is it just a fad? Do you think selfies are just harmless fun, or are there consequences?