CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

The selfie has arguably become the greatest photographic trend of our time. Taking selfie is like documenting your life for a second that can never be repeated again. Selfie is the visual representation on how people feel that words cannot convey. Considered as an excellent Word of the Year. That -ie ending echoes hundreds of predecessors, and gives it a familiarity, succinctness, and colloquial appeal that’s somehow lacking in such coinages as selbstportrait and autoportr.

According to the article "Scholarly reflections on the ‘selfie’" by Mark R. Leary, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University , By posting selfies, people can keep themselves in other people’s minds. In addition, like all photographs that are posted on line, selfies are used to convey a particular impression of oneself. Through the clothes one wears, one’s expression, staging of the physical setting, and the style of the photo, people can convey a particular public image of themselves, presumably one that they think will garner social rewards.

“From a social psychological standpoint, the selfie phenomenon seems to stem from basic human motives. The first is to attract attention from other people. Because people’s positive social outcomes in life require that others know them, people are motivated to get and maintain social attention.'' Mark Leary said.

Selfie indeed impact the social life of human. The reaction one will come up and the popularity it may hit as it covers a huge popularity.  Sharing of self-portraits also pre-dates the internet. The 1860s saw huge popularity for the sharing of cartes de visite - little photocards. Even the photo booth dates back as far as 1880, and attracted groups of friends much as it does today. Technological advances mean that where we once had to remain very still due to long exposure times - creating a more formal image - now we can be captured quickly and informally.

According to the article "Self-portraits and social media: The rise of the 'selfie'" by Pamela Rutledge. People enjoy opportunities to experiment with different identities to portray. Probably joyful, sad, unusual, bitter and whatsoever- and the selfie allows just that.

 "We all want to be able to 'try' on a new image and imagine how we would feel as that part of ourselves," Dr. Pamela Rutledge explains.

One theory is that the "selfie" tells other people how we want to be seen. How we define ourselves and present for others to see. We rely on others' perceptions, judgments and appraisals to develop our social self.

According to recent findings from the "Pew Research Centre," teenagers in America are sharing more information than ever about themselves on social media. Of those studied, 91% post photos of themselves online - up from 79% in 2006.

Selfies are most commonly criticised not for their potential risks, but for their associations with vanity and narcissism. Isn't it a bit, well, cringeworthy to take the time to photograph ourselves, and assume our friends (not to mention potential strangers) will want to see the results? This really deals with the issue of taking selfie. And yet, many people indulge. For selfie create things that soon develop or destroy the self-esteem of a person at whatever you post reflect who you are. And negative impacts from others will not be a damage to them but a hard hit to you.

      B. Statement of the Problem

This study aims to answer the question:

1.   What are the advantages and disadvantages of Selfie in humanity?

C. Significance of the Study

Future Researchers. This can be a good reference for future researcher looking for more summarize and compiles research study about selfies. This not just cover the benefits but also the negative effects, including the article based  explanations.

Students of Social Psychology. Students in college who are studying Social Psychology will find this research paper very interesting yet helpful for it help them to have a summarize yet very informative view of Selfie which is a very good topic for their course. It will give them a further understanding on these ideas plus a new way of collaborating things such as these. This will boost up there knowledge 

and deepen the ideas on the possibilities of new behaviors. 

Teachers and Professors of Psychology. This will be a helpful guide for teachers and can be use as source of new lesson which is about selfie and covers other interesting topics for their teaching aid or guide.

Psychologists. This research paper would be very interesting for the professionals or psychologist in profession. Selfie is very vast topic that waas not concern on a single topic but also pertains to some other beneficial psychology issues of humanity.

D.Scope and Delimitation

This research study is focused on the advantages and disadvantages of Selfie not just in society but also in humanity. Due to the intense wiespread of this, the researcher consider different scope such as vanity, narcissism, selfie in art and even in science and culture. The social issues about selfie are interpreted as one and interconnected with each other to produce a variant study of Selfie.

E. Materials and Methods

In this research, the materials used to gather the information the researcher have gathered was mostly from articles found online.

The reasearcher analysed all the informative and useful articles and data that was gathered. This was all compiled and presented through the ideas collectedand summarize. The method of connecting the ideas about vanity, selfie,narcissism and other major things are produced in one common denominator of Selfie. This were more like concerning about social issues in humanity.

The researcher aims collide all the ideas and state a very realiable conclusion about selfie advantages and disadvantages in accordance with the articles from various sites.

F. Definition of Terms:

Selfie: A photograph of that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

Narcissism: Excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance.

Vanity: Excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements or the quality of being worthless or futile.

Obsession: An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.

Science: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the 

structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Culture:  refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, 

attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and group striving. It is the system of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual.

Blopost 7: The Emotions Behind Selfies

Selfie is getting larger and larger every time. In every minute, people tend to upload the same boring faces with different captions from google with matching filters of sorts and hashtags. But why do people have this mindset of giving off a selfie in every moment of their life? It seems like SNS is so abused because of their faces with foods, friends and even animals. And worst of it, maltreatment with other living things is visibly shown in this sites. Sometimes, a lot of questions lingers in our minds, like : What made them continue what they had started? What do they feel about taking a selfie? Why do people take selfies in the first place?



According to the article, ''Selfies stops us from Seriousness'' by Jason Feifer, the reason why selfie is sweeping the nation is connected to the theory that people are not well educated on their own facial expressions – People have spent years reading and recognizing faces and facial expressions, but they’re no experts at looking at their own faces. Since we don’t all just stare at ourselves in the mirror, especially while making facial expressions of emotions, we tend to have an inaccurate representation of what we actual look like.

"A selfie, like any photograph, interrupts experience to mark the moment. In this, it shares something with all the other ways we break up our day even through a single smile," Jason Feider said.


It simply states that a single smile of a person mark the moment, breaking up our day in different ways. We all know that smiling shows a happy life. And yet, sometimes it portrays some other ways just to break up the day to cover up and forget hurtful things and face again tomorrow.

I have read an article entitled, ''The Science behind why we take Selfies'' by James Kilner, a collection of cultural artifacts. It states there that in everyday social situations people tend to spend a lot of time looking at and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions. Indeed, reading and responding correctly to other people's facial expressions is essential for successful social interactions.That through lifetime, people become experts at recognizing and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions.  The perception of one's own facial expression comes from the sense of feeling that faces move. Lack of visual knowledge about own faces means that some person have a very inaccurate representation of what own faces look like at any given time. 

"The main thing with a self-portrait is you are trying to show the viewer something about yourself. You, on your own, can be a powerful statement." James Kilner said.

The way a person smiles already give a statement on other person's perspective. For we know that emotions is a means of conceiving a message towards other person. Sometimes, it is hard for us to tell what we truly want to convey to a person through our selfies. Not all person is brave enough to say, 'Óh, this is how I feel. It become viral being released on a photo and there's still left behind. It can easily be transmitted to all. There's no need for a person to call or send a text message and an email. Everything is visible on the image itself. We can tell whether someone is happy, sad, broken-hearted or whatever. Emotions is convey through the feelings shown on a selfie photo.A selfie beats an autograph, and sometimes it even beats a conversation.

I have read an article entitled, ''Does Taking a Selfie Make You a Bad Person?'' by John M. Grohol, PSY. D. He stated that taking selfie is like documenting your life for a second that can never be repeated again. Selfie according to him is the visual representation on how we feel that words cannot convey. It seems to him that life come and passed by. He even added:

'' The selfie makes us accustomed to putting ourselves and those around us on pause in order to document our lives. It is an extension of how we have learned to put our conversations on pause when we send or receive a text, an image, an email, a call. When you get accustomed to a life of stops and starts, you get less accustomed to reflecting on where you are and what you are thinking.''

Just as how people know what we feel by discerning our spirit is like how they feel by simply looking at our face. We know if someone is happy when he smile, and sad when someone is crying. An emotions changes from time to time. Not all the time we are happy and not all the time we are sad. That's why selfie documents important emotions we portray from time to time.

There is nothing wrong with our emotions being convey on a photo. We all have given the right to express what we feel and what we want other people to know. Because sometimes, it is hard to express in word and it is much better to be left on a photo. So we must not simply judge on what our eyes can see. For deep within the heart of someone, there might be something deeper and serious. A photo might just bring us a hint of someone's emotion. 

Blogpost 6: Vanity

Today, many people take selfies for pure enjoyment or to share facial expressions with friends on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and of course, Snapchat.  The question is does this foster narcissistic behavior?  Some people may post goofy pictures of themselves or pictures they think best represent themselves.  The motives that lay behind doing these things is questionable.  Some people, mainly females, post pictures of themselves in hopes to get attention from the broad social network they're associated with.  They seek external rewards, which is getting "likes" on Facebook or Instagram, for example.   People are living in a world where staying "connected" is the norm.  However, is there a point where too much connection with social media is not the norm?  While taking self-portraits was popular by the elite back in the day, it has always been something of value to Western culture.  Now, with cell phones, people are able to create their own selfies very quickly and easily and post them in seconds.  

The selfie has arguably become the greatest photographic trend of our time. Many are so interested in taking and sharing selfies and observing an image of themselves. As this continue to happened. Vanity starts. Obsession of one's image. Looking almost immediately after a short span of log. And worst of this is the narcissism. But what is narcissism? Some people are ignorant about this psychological illness. A Narcissistic personality disorder involves a preoccupation with self and how one is perceived by others. Narcissists pursue gratification from vanity and the admiration of their own physical and intellectual attributes.Instead of listening in order to respond, narcissists listen in order to dismiss, negate, ignore, minimize or otherwise make someone else’s concerns irrelevant. Narcissists feel that they are above others and that the rules don’t apply to them. Simply means that they are preoccupied with self. Some people do not know but they already fall into this kind of disorder. It is because of the lack of knowledge or ignorance. 
According to the article that I have read entitled, ''The Psychology of Selfies'' by Kristi Barlette. She explains that people have been creating selfies for centuries. In art and photography, we call them self-portraits, so it's interesting those who are looking for a little selfie satisfaction are often shamed and told they're narcissistic. 

 According to Kristi Barlette, "To some degree, we all require validation of our looks and confirmation that we're sexually attractive. This doesn't make us narcissistic, but merely human," 

 Experts seem to agree a selfie-lover lacks self confidence.   It makes sense, too, that selfie-snappers would be attention-starved, even lonely. If there was someone else around they wouldn't need to be taking their own picture, but rather could pass the camera to a friend, family member or significant other.Kristi Barlette added, "The rise of the selfie is a perfect metaphor for our increasingly narcissistic culture,"

She confirms what many selfie-haters suspected that a photo like this is about desperately crying out to look at someone with full attention. As she said that it starts with childhood and not getting enough mirroring from parents who are too busy working or being self-absorbed themselves. It makes sense, too, that selfie-snappers would be attention-starved, even lonely.

I read an article entitled, ''Selfies-- Self expression or Self- exploration'' by the American writer John Paul Titlow , He described selfie-sharing as medium of exploration of the people especially the teenage in determining the beauty that lies in them as they take their own photograph. According to John Paul Titlow  “A high school popularity contest on digital steroids”.

Some researchers think that people take selfies as a method of self-exploration.  People have always been interested in expressing themselves and figuring out who they are and what features they have since ancient times. Selfie users are seeking some kind of approval from their peers and the larger community, which is now effectively infinite.

To some, the selfie has become the ultimate symbol of the narcissistic age. A selfie can, in some respects, be a more authentic representation of beauty than other media images. Its instantaneous nature encourages superficiality. One of the possible side-effects has been that we care more about how we appear and, as a consequence, social acceptance comes only when the outside world accepts the way we look, rather than endorsing the work we do, or the way we behave off-camera. As we know, too much selfie is dangerous. It can lead into obsession and worst is the narcissism disorder. So we must properly handle the new innovation of technology to humanity .

Blogpost 5: The Science Behind Selfie

As the technology has improved and cameras have gotten smaller, lighter, and more portable, the increase in this behavior has also naturally enjoyed an upswing.Now, though, the technology has made it so you can do it every day instead of just on special occasions or a vacation trip. But whereas I just see a natural historical progression that’s been slowly going on for nearly a century. Technology doesn’t just do things for us. It does things to us, changing not just what we do but who we are. The selfie makes us accustomed to putting ourselves and those around us “on pause” in order to document our lives. It is an extension of how we have learned to put our conversations “on pause” when we send or receive a text, an image, an email, a call. When you get accustomed to a life of stops and starts, you get less accustomed to reflecting on where you are and what you are thinking. But what is the science behind this selfie?

I read an article entitled,  ''What is the science behind the selfie?'' by James Kilner.

He states that selfie is all about control, or what psychologists would term as reputation management. This level of control is made possible through cellphone cameras and social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.  According to him, people generally think of themselves as being younger looking and better looking than they actually are.The reason for that is because individuals have a very poor understanding of their own faces. This was proven through a number of experiments where individuals were asked to match facial expressions on a photograph. In most cases, people were unable to accurately produce the same facial expression without seeing themselves.

“People think they’re putting up a photograph of themselves that is a very good representation of themselves, but it’s actually a slightly misleading representation,” James Kilner said.

The idea that people can manipulate peoples’ perspective by how they portray themselves is nothing new.  What is new is the medium of accessibility of being able to share it. The misleading lies behind selfie corrupt the minds of many teenage today that they tend to be more concious of their own looks.

I read an article entitled The Science Of Selfies: Why Are We Obsessed With Our Self Image?, by Chris O'Shea. He stated that selfies is just narcissism. As what he said about a number who has to do with a psychological difference between observing an image of yourself and looking at photos of others. 

According to Chris O'Shea, ''Reading and responding to the facial expressions of others is critical to successful social interactions, and so we spend a lot of time unconsciously interpreting others people's faces and facial expressions — so much so, in fact, that most of us become expert at it over time.''

His statement correlate with the fact that people rarely look at our own faces. We have no idea how out facial expression looks like at any given time and as a result, we have a very inaccurate representation of it. Studies have shown that if you show a person an image of themselves, and then ask them to replicate the expression in that image, they can't do it. And other studies have proven that most people can't identify an image that is their actual image from a set of their digitally altered images, some more and some less attractive images, along with an original image.  A lot of it has to do with the fact that most people don't really like how they actually look. That's not that shocking. It's also not too surprising that people consistently think they appear more attractive than they actually are, going by the choice of their image from a set of digitally altered images. The image we have of ourselves, in other words, is more often younger and attractive than we actually are.  It also explains the logic behind obsessive tendency to take selfies. We continue to snap our own photos until we get an image that we think we look like. 

Taking selfies has more recently gotten some folks in a tizzy. The selfie, like all technology, causes us to reflect on our human values. This is a good thing because it challenges us to figure out what they really are. The selfie has arguably become the greatest photographic trend of our time.  Interaction with technology somehow negates all the time spent doing other things. Sometimes, we must keep in mind that we must devote ourselves in only one way to every task. We can use it for all purposes, to express joy and sadness, to have long conversations or send short texts. We made it. It is us.

Blogpost 4: Selfie in Culture

We are at the vanguard of social change in this new generation. We see this generation acting differently, and we cannot imagine it working. Many different and some pecular things arise in our society now a days. And one of those things are this photographing of oneself known as selfie. Our natural culture is different from what we are practicing today. In the past, people are already satisfied on photos taken by others for them. Not in all similar venues but on places that is sceneric and beautiful backgrounds. But compared to what is practicing today, we saw photos taken  redundantly sometimes in similar areas  and the same faces . Maybe we asked ourselves if this selfie thing invade the simple culture of humanity? Most of us see this as technological and societal progress. But just as there were those who feared the death of the use of the horse as our transportation in the old days, there are those who fear the death of the type of conversation and connection. But these fear did nothing to stop the emerging growth in our culture. 

I had read an article entitled ''Selfies Change the Way we Communicate'' by Jason Feider. It states some important facts about cultural phases. How people adapt to the changes that happened into the culture of humans due to the invasion of technology . What people used to live with in the past and choose  to adapt now in the future. We cannot stop time to pass and sometimes the only choice that people have is to embrace the present way of living we practice and soon to be an innovation to the culture . 

According to James Feider, ''Change is not always bad; it can be natural.'' 

There is really nothing wrong for change to come. It's a visual sign of progress. And progress is a development which is good for the nation. It just depend on the society on how they face and live to this changes. They could use it properly or simply waste it. Just as James Feider said, it can be natural.

In addition, I had read an article entitled, Why You Can't Help But Selfie by Lindsay Holmes . It shows a selfie photo taken two centuries ago. Stating that the birth of selfie didn't begin with the first smartphone. It could be argued that the first selfie were captured in the 1800s with mirrors or by using a self-timer. These proto-selfies fit the orthodox definition in that the photographer was also the subject and, if one were to look at the technology of the time, the camera was as new-fangled a gadget as our contemporary iPhone. While many of these self-taken photos included large groups of family and friends (as opposed to the contemporary solo selfie), some people from the era did get creative when it came to capturing images of themselves, posing in front of mirrors in order to get an individual picture. These as the humble beginnings of the Internet selfie had social media users flipping their cameras or, like in the late 1800s, using mirrors to capture personal photos of 

themselves for early social media.  


                                                     Selfies: Two Centuries Old?

But thinking that the problem is the disadvantage effect of selfie fever in our culture. There is one thing revealed to us under this article also. Stating a healthy selfie to adapt to the growing selfie culture. 

   

''Whether you're a selfie novice or an advanced poster, there are always things to be mindful of when you're posting,'' Lindsay Holmes advises. She offered two main principles to follow when it comes to posting on social media: The Grandmother Rule: "Don't post anything online, whether text or visual, that you don't want grandmother or future employer to see,". Selfies especially. Next is The Elevator Rule: "You wouldn't say something in an elevator that you or no one else wants to hear -- the whole world of social media is an elevator," Holmes said. 

Overall, It's all about creating a balance and opening our minds to understanding. There's creative potential to selfies, if it's done right. Ultimately to feel good we have to explore ourselves, and they can be a new ritual of doing just that.


Change is the only permanent thing in this world as it says. No living things last forever. Everything who has life comes to an end---- death.  Even people change.Technology immediately develops creating new innovations. And what do we expect to the state of life we are living today? To experience the same things as what the past had offered us? Ofcourse not. Selfies is rampant. And we cannot stop it with just a flicker of a finger. Our culture will change. But the good thing that people must be reminded of is that culture may change, but we must not forget . For culture must be part of our life and our style.

Blogpost 3: The Artistic Side of Selfies

Style - Beauty - Perfection - Fashion. These things emerge in our society today. Everyone wants to be noticed, recognized their own style. To create something new in their eyes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To release the artistic talent of a person through a pose on his own image. The artistic side of a person can be perceive on how he manage to create a look in expression of what he feels. Selfies bring the artistic side of those who are in it. How they pose, what emotions they portray and how they upload it is a form of art. It varies and it depends on the eye of the beholder and the audience of course. What I mean with artistic is about how selfies bring a message to people just by looking at it. Selfies are not uploaded to say "Ï am pretty, like this photo." but they are uploaded to share what you feel inside at the moment. . It is an art of expressing oneself and art of creating something beautiful and unique. The easy ability to point a phone at yourself, click and share the image – taking a “selfie,” as it is called – has produced a new obsession in self-portraiture. 

I read an article entitled Moments of Being by Virginia Woolfe from theglobeandmail.com. According to that article she said that in the art world, image is as powerful as words in the narrative of self, something many artists have explored. Words that convey the heart of an artist and also being released on the photo taken from his pleasure to deliver a sense of art. She even wrote that “The whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art … we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.”

Maybe, somehow, the selfie expresses our unconscious respect for the beauty in simply being alive. A phenomenon of contemporary media culture, practiced by millions of people.  The selfie is used to express different things in its everyday applications.We may not want to admit it, but much of life is lived in the small circles of self-absorption, concerned with daily tales of what we did and why.  Images which clearly make a statement that the photo-bombing self is more important than anything else that could be going on around us.

From the article I read entitled Selfies are Art by Noah Berlatsky from theatlantic.com whom took the standard third-wave-feminism, girl-culture-is-good line.  He explains that like any art, it depends on what people do with it. As they use a common form in different ways; that's how art works. The effort to erase individual variation and turn selfies solely into a symptom, for good or ill, recalls the moral panic around other new or marginal art forms. 

He also argues that selfies are an example of young women promoting themselves and taking control of their own self-presentation as from his statement,  ''Think of each one as a tiny pulse of girl pride—a shout-out to the self." For selfie is an art and this art must be a shout out. Creating vast ideas in a wonderful world.

All of us have God given talent in arts. And selfie  become the other medium of conveying the emotions and talent of an artist. It is good that the artistic idea of human not just stop in painting and drawing. But it also enter the photographic work of art varying from different location and pose. It develops the capability of mind to conceive unique styles and make something better to best. For in the end, style, beauty, fashion and knowledge are all mixed up in a single shot.

Blogpost 2: Looking Behind the Selfie

Self-image is important. It's how we define ourselves and present for others to see. We rely on others' perceptions, judgments and appraisals to develop our social self. But as we took a glimpse beyond the instant perception of human sights, what psychological effect it can cause in a person? As we hear the word selfie it seems to us that it is ordinary, normal and very common but not all things that we've know nakedly now a days appear simply as it is. There's always something beyond, something  to be discover as we look deeper to a certain thing. Something that needs to be discovered and disseminate to the knowledge of commoners. That Selfie is not just simply as selfie. It is far more from it .

I read an article entitled "The Social Psychology of the Selfie" by Christine Erickson in a site called mashable.com. According to her recent study, the opinion of others has been a part of identity development for more than a century. According to her, sometimes people try to create a more 'likeable' self or simply choose a photo that seem more like the visual self they want to present to add a self value and somehow of their worth. There comes a time that self worth of a person depend upon the perception of other people. 

Christine Erickson said, "Now that we can interact with hundreds — no, thousands — of people simultaneously, we've strengthened the impact that others have on our self-value."

This suggests that we develop our sense of self based on the perceptions of those we interact with.  Christine Erickson also stated that self esteem of a person can also be affected. As she said, "It is only problematic when someone fixates or over-compares to their detriment, but that is not a function of the photos as much as the individual struggling with self-esteem." 

This shows that selfie lead to social comparison. It answer the question, has that single chosen image become the most important representation of my online identity? It is the first place that the eye had drawn to on a Facebook profile? According to the author, studies have shown that the comments on the Facebook profile picture strongly affect the level of perceived physical, social and professional attractiveness.


Also, from the other article that I read entitled The Good, Bad and Unexpected Consequences of Selfie Obsession  by Melissa Walker from teenvogue.com. According to her, posting selfies is an empowering act for another reason: It allows someone to control their image online. This simply tell us that selfie thing can quickly spiral out of control. It may even start to feel like an addiction if  totally abused. When someone get praises-- their up, feeling totally flattered but when get nothing—or a "get over yourself"—confidence easily plummet.

Melissa Walker even stated,  "There's a danger that your self-esteem may start to be tied to the comments and Likes you get when you post a selfie, and they aren't based on who you are—they're based on what you look like.'' 

On the every images we post, its not our character that was being perceive. Most commonly it is the looks that is being noticed .  As it turn to be an obsession, it can boost your self esteem and also it can degrade you. Selfie is good, but too much is no good. It can severely affect the perspective of a person in his life. It's good when it influence us in a positive manner but what if it just cause stress? Rejection? Let us be broad in analyzing things. Open our mind on the possibilities and learn that in all things, lets look beyond it.