Before and After the Selfie

It was on a trip to Boston my senior year of college, before the so-called selfie had been instituted. The freedom trail, sunsets and waterfronts were all gorgeous. The quirks of the city were documented and the food wasn't. No photos of my hamburger were posted to Instagram.

I hadn't really traveled anywhere before, and was fresh into my "I can be a photographer" phase.

My bubble was burst when I unwittingly became the photographer for the group. I was stepping away from the group occasionally to get a cool shot when I was spotted. A friend of a friend targets me as her new photographer, and I couldn't really say no, right?

Wrong! I should've just said no.

I just couldn't understand why people (ahem, women) would stand in front of a beautiful garden (tall building, outdoor performance, anything at all...), when I've been waiting 10 minutes for it to clear out so I could get a photo of it.

Later that year, our group of friends took took our first selfies together.

The "Squished" pose

The "Are our tongues red" pose

The "At a bar" pose. (Way too many of these, unfortunately).

The " I'm a telemarketer, calling you on Halloween" pose

The " We both look good sitting in a car, let's photograph ourselves" pose

The "I'm in a wedding!" pose

The "We Made Christmas Cookies, watch us eat them" pose

Eventually Tom and I took our first selfies. 

The "I'm in a cave in Puerto Rico" pose

And, one of my personal favorites.
The "It's a sunny day!" pose.

Yesterday I read an article by trueactivist.com called Scientists Link Selfies To Narcissism, Addiction & Mental Illness. While I was busy establishing some great memories with selfies thrown in, apparently it's been causing quite an uproar lately.

The the word selfie was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, and has been linked to teenager attempting suicide over not being able to capture the perfect selfie. He was diagnosed with Body Dysmorphic Disorder and OCD. The website mentions that part of his rehabilitation was to take away his phone at set intervals, gradually for longer periods of time.

It's really sad. But then the article does something interesting. 
It starts to mock those who take selfies. As if the author hasn't done it. Pft.

Some of them include the:

The Pretending to Be Asleep Selfie
The Gym Selfie (Because the checkin isn’t enough.)
The Car Selfie AKA The Seatbelt Selfie
The “I Have Enough Money to Fly On an Airplane” Selfie (AND I own earbuds.)

Ugh. I'm exhausted with this. Can those that take selfies just agree to wear clothing and those that don't like selfies learn how to filter the social media feeds?

This has been a public service announcement.


So tell me...
What do you think about selfies?