All About #Selfie - Part 1

In my opinion, this is my best #selfie so far. LOL!

     #Selfie have been around for ages before we even know what to call it. Wikipedia mentions a certain Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, who took a photo of himself in 1839, thus producing the first known selfie in history.^[1] Selfie photos just became more apparent with the advent of digital cameras and camera phones. The word selfie was first used in an Australian Internet forum (ABC Online) back in 2002 but it was in 2012 when the term truly became popular.^[1]

In 1839, Robert Cornelius took the first known selfie in history.^[1]

     Selfie, 2013's word of the year, have been defined by Oxford as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media site.^[2]" What qualifies as a selfie are photos of yourself (by yourself or with others in it) that you took on your own by holding the camera to take a direct photograph or a photograph of your reflection in the mirror.

     Here are some of my favorite and most memorable selfie photos that I retrieved from old media cards and from the hard drive of my old desktop. Don't worry folks, I've chosen the best ones and they're not a lot too, haha!

My first acceptable selfie back in 2004 taken by my first camera phone, a Nokia 3650.

This photo became my favorite Friendster profile pic. LOL!

The only decent selfie I was able to find from my vintage Nokia 6600 phone.

Playing around with Yassu when he was still a pup. This is one of our many selfies together. 
On the photo, Yassu was just licking my hand but I pretended as if he was biting me. LOL!

Yeah, sometimes I take "just woke up" selfies. Most of the time I look bad, this one came out a bit nice
so I'll post it then you guys can see how awesome it would be waking up next to me. Damn. Haha!

When you're doing something and suddenly you got bored? Yeah, you do selfies. This is one of those
times, and surprisingly, the selfie turned out sort of OK.

One of my most favorite selfies taken by my Armani phone. I was never able to duplicate this photo. ☺

Another favorite selfie. That's right, 'cause of the hair color that caused a lot of people to look --
and then stare. ☺

I love long trips and I usually take the bus when going home to the province.

This is one of my favorite bus selfies. The first photo on this post is a bus selfie too.

I see a lot of people taking selfies on mirrors -- restroom mirrors, bedroom mirrors, elevator mirrors... 

This one's taken on the mirror above the escalator at a mall in Eastwood. A bit hard to focus because of
the movement, so if you didn't get it right, you can always go down or up again to re-take the photo. ☺

One of my weirder selfies (I have way weirder selfies than this that you won't ever get to see, LOL!)

while my dentist is putting some wires on my braces.

With MPC Yvette Yzon. I like taking selfie photos with people who are close to me. This photo is a
favorite among our many selfie pics together. Btw, I've read from Urban Dictionary that a group selfie
is now called USIE[3]. Usie is from the word US + ie. Some people call it SELVIE, from "ourselves."

This isn't exactly a selfie but we're sort of caught in the act of taking one. What makes this photo

even more special are the ladies behind us -- they sort of look like they're, uhm, kissing. LOL!

Like I said, I take selfies with people who are close to me, here on this photo with Bes TL Nelson
Panganiban. I used the timer. The photo is awesome, right? Another USie btw ☺

A selfie with my brother (or USie as what they're calling it now) while waiting for our food.
What makes this one special is, yeah, my curly hair. 

Another selfie (or usie) with my brother. Aside from restroom mirrors, fitting rooms are a favorite
spot for selfies. Those full length mirrors coupled with nice lighting are perfect for selfie shots.

#OOTD selfies are common, but if you're shy like me, you can take your photo this way.

People won't notice, it'll look like you're just texting while sitting on your chair. LOL!

And lastly, the beach selfie. 

     From a report on ABS-CBN, a psychologist interpreted that taking too much selfie photos might indicate narcissism.^[4] She said that selfie can mean too much self-love and too much narcissism can be a dangerous thing. Well folks, don't let that discourage you from taking selfies. It is not the only indicator of loving yourself too much, it can be one of them, but that's not really it. We all have reasons for doing what we do, and as long as they're valid and you're not hurting other people, that should make you feel better. So, why do some of us take selfies? In my case, here are my reasons:

• I take selfie photos because I get shy if someone else would take my photographs. I get shy even if it's my brother taking them. I usually get results when it's me taking my own photos. I use the timer -- and that qualifies as a selfie too, yeah!

This is one of my few remarkable selfies that I took using the camera's timer. 

• I'm not photogenic and I have really bad angles. Selfie is one way for me to practice how to look better in photographs. I remember a good friend, Elle, she once took my picture. After taking the shot, she wondered out loud why I look different on the photo and added that I look better in person. I took that as a compliment. ☺


• Selfie is one way for me to check myself before going out. I don't always trust the mirror and sometimes I've already locked the door -- there's the phone, so selfie is quite convenient. (Yeah right Myke, LOL!)

     In my opinion, selfie is a way to accept ourselves and our insecurities. We get to know our weaknesses so as a consequence, we try to amplify our strengths. Yeah, through photos -- because that's where acceptance can start. That's where I get my confidence, when I'm aware of who I am, physically and from within. Look at your selfies, and without prejudice, tell yourself what you really think of your images. We all have a standard of what's beautiful and good looking. Let us now allow these standards to define us, but only to know where we are on the scale. It's not to undermine or elevate ourselves, it is to accept ourselves for who we truly are -- so we can work on them if we need to. I believe that our looks do not define us, it is our character and the way we treat other people that says who we are. So go on, indulge in your selfie photoshoot once in a while and find your best angle. And through the process, accept your flaws and love them. Let your flaws humble you down so you can be nicer and kinder to the people around you.

     And oh, here's an article from CNN ^[5] to give you some tips on how to get the coolest selfie.

     Check out the conclusion of this post on this LINK. Until my next selfie! -- I mean post! LOL!

References:
[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selfie
[2] - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/selfie
[3] - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Usie
[4] - http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/lifestyle/02/05/14/why-selfies-might-mean-loving-self-too-much
[5] - http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/11/tech/mobile/selfie-photo-tips/
tags: reasons for taking a selfie, why people take selfie photos, what is a selfie, my favorite selfies, usie the group selfie