The dictionary definition of a selfie
Selfie; a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.
All of a sudden, selfie is in the dictionary and it’s as if that’s a signal to bastardise the word. It has become ‘a thing’ therefore it means less than it ever did.
Selfie seems to be worryingly bolted on to any picture of a person, increasingly taken by others!
What happened to the perfect arm extension, with Nazi salute precision accompanied by a duck face pout that would make Donald jealous? Or the hand on hip, phone right off face, excessive flash in the mirror shot – still sporting that signature pout, yeah you know the one you’ve spent hours perfecting without the camera.
If the dictionary and mainstream public are going to claim something and make a big deal about it. Please don’t ruin it.
As it is now common language, obviously it might be used in the odd bit of ‘marketing’ but can we please make sure when requesting a selfie from the average joe, in order to generate good old U G C, that the request is indeed selfie-able in truest sense. At arms reach you can’t get a wide angle beautiful landscape in shot, nor a whole building, definitely not a complete car or giant sculpture.
On the subject of selfie-centred campaigns, here’s a lovely example of using them for good, with a great tag line: Turn a selfish fad in to a selfless act selfless-selfie.co.uk
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