The selfie has become a huge part of modern life. It has transformed the simple self-portrait into something more immediate and has grown in cultural importance – it’s been linked to identity, self-exploration and narcissism. Something as simple as putting a camera on the front of a mobile device has created a cultural trend that looks set to last.
Fears about the impact of the selfie generation were recently brought to the fore with the story of Essena O’Neill – the popular Instagrammer who claimed she quit the platform after her online presence started to impact negatively on her life. So is it something to worry about, or just a bit of harmless fun?
By Lucy Doyle
Selfies are everywhere. In 2013 it was named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, in 2014 a song was released called #selfie,[1] selfie sticks were banned in Disneyland in July 2015 and you could argue that the world would be seeing a lot less of Kim Kardashian and her clan if the selfie had never been invented.
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