#butfirstletmetakeaselfie

     This week we discussed photography and the value of a picture.  Long ago, photographs were rare and each one contained vast amounts of history and beauty.  Old photographs are looked back on and analyzed, because each tells a story. But in a few centuries, will people be analyzing our "selfies"?
     urbandictionary.com defines a "selfie" as "A picture taken of yourself that is planned to be uploaded to Facebook, Myspace or any other sort of social networking website. You can usually see the person's arm holding out the camera in which case you can clearly tell that this person does not have any friends to take pictures of them so they resort to Myspace to find internet friends and post pictures of themselves, taken by themselves. A selfie is usually accompanied by a kissy face or the individual looking in a direction that is not towards the camera," or my absolute favorite, "A ridiculous practice of narcissism." Personally, I think that social media such as Twitter and Instagram have contributed to the devaluing of a picture, along with humans' desire to be viewed in a positive light.  I think that many people only post pictures so people see that they're having fun, and it is a type of bragging. (Not everyone, but this is true for a lot, even if they don't realize it).
     Pictures don't capture (no pun intended) as much as they used to.  They're a lot easier to view immediately now, so people can take how ever many they want and only keep "perfect" ones. However, there is a lot of perfection in a flawed photograph.  It shows the true mood of a moment; each deleted picture contains a memory.  The so-called "selfie" is nothing more than the word itself-a picture of faces.  There is no value in it, and it cannot capture a part of the moment besides what your face looked like. Wouldn't you rather have a group picture or be able to see the background? Isn't that a better, more in-depth memory?
     Pictures have become more of a social status update than an actual, personal memory for the people in them. Meaningful pictures are posted online, but not nearly as often as unneseccary ones. I think that if social media wasn't as popular, there would be many more meaningful photographs than pointless selfies.
   

(If you have not seen the #selfie song, I strongly suggest) (but also there may be some inappropriate words so please be sure to get parent permission before viewing)