Wednesday, April 23, 2014

AR-EN: Selfies & Selves

[A Notebook on Alyssa Rosenberg & Emily Nussbaum]     

In her article “Selfies, Instagram Videos, and Why Posted Images Are As Revealing As Candids,” Alyssa Rosenberg writes that unlike unexpected images, “an image that a subject has participated in creating can tell us all of those things and how the subject wants to be seen.” What were you inclined to think or reconsider regarding selfies as a result of reading Rosenberg’s essay? Why or how so?

10 comments:

Jessica H. said...

After reading the essay, I was inclined to agree that selfies are attempted to show people specific things that we want them to see or know about our lives. The parts of our lives that we do not like or think is entertaining, we do not post for the world to see.

Kayleigh E. said...

I never really thought about "selfies" so in depth before reading this article. They really are different than pictures other people take of us. We get to chose how it looks. We get pick our best angle or best side. We get to pick how we are seen, not someone else.

Jacqueline C. said...

Selfies are meant to show what a person wants to reveal. It's a way to share an image of a person's life they find appealing. I see them as photos that represent people in a positive way and how they want to be portrayed.

Jacquelene G said...

Yes, after reading Rosenberg’s essay, I was inclined to reconsider selfies. Although, I did know that how people portray themselves in pictures is often different or may not be true to their real lifestyles, I didn’t ever stop to realize how a selfie can say just as much as an off guard picture about what they value and how that person really feels about his or her self. I also never thought about when people take selfies they are portraying the way they want to be viewed by others.

Jacquelene G.

Unknown said...

I think this article highlights a number of great points. I like that it holds the individual accountable for what is in the selfie, how the selfie, is perceived, and how the selfie is used as a introspective tool. I also feel that it has as slightly hypercritical tone. Even though this amateur photography is gaining popularity though the prevalence of social media, it is in my opinion a bit harsh to criticize the subject of the selfie. people have been taking posed pictures for centuries now. It's nothing new

Jenee B. said...

The article made me reconsider whether selfies were completely vain. It was interesting to think that a selfie may even tell us about someone's insecurities. I knew that people always tried to capture the perfect shot of themselves, and some even use things like photohshop to improve their looks. However, I did not consider that it may be them being insecure and trying to win others approval in some way, but it makes sense.

Unknown said...

This article was very interesting and offered some valid points; however, I think that a selfie is a selfie. For some people it is literally just a photo in the moment and for others it is supposed to symbolize something and/or show off something in the picture. At any rate, to each his own, but I don't think it is that deep but people can definitely tell a lot about you based on the frequency of a specific type of photo.

Kiara Gay said...

I was inclined to believe that on the social networks we omit our flaws to hide the person that we believe society does not want us to be, and portray the features that fit in with the norm. Even when someone takes a picture of us that may be off guard or we may not have known, once we find it and see it and it does not live up to our standards or what if beautiful or what we know will not get the "likes" we delete it from our profile so that no one sees that side of us.

Hilary Conrad said...

I found this article interesting, I have always agreed that what we post on social media is a direct reflection of how we want to be seen. Facebook for example is us putting on a "face" by carefully choosing what to say and share with friends to exemplify how we wish to be seen.

Jasmine said...

I have always believed that the way someone takes a picture of themselves is how they want to be seen. Some people like to take pictures and will take them for every occasion some don't take many but you can still tell a lot about a person from their selfies. You can tell this simply by what is in the pictures which was stressed in this essay. It really makes one think twice about what they post.