Our Selfies Ourselves Analysis

The text “Our Selfies, Ourselves”, by Sarah Hampson, highlights the issues shaped by selfies. From celebrities cunningly self-promoting themselves, to politicians trying to reveal their hidden identities (Sarah Hampson. Our Selfies, Ourselves), selfies currently occupy a vast chunk of society’s interests and concerns. With the aid of smart phones, selfies have become the most used technique in self-portraiture. In short, selfies are just another way of expressing what’s going on in someone’s mind. I agree with the author’s claim that selfies aren’t always innocent and can lead to some undesirable effects. Selfies may harm a person’s social life in numerous ways. A good quote is, “A selfie a day keeps the friends away”. Many people, particularly teenagers, believe that sending selfies to each other brings them closer to each other, when actually, they split them further apart. One of the most obvious examples of this phenomenon is “Snapchat”. The application allows the user to take an image of his/herself and
Nowadays, it seems that celebrities are also using selfies to make some extra profit, especially on “Instagram”, a photo sharing platform. When they receive a lot of views and likes from other users, they gain money. In addition, politicians nowadays tend to take selfies so they can appear more down to earth in front of their audience, giving them a false sense of brotherhood, allowing the politicians to take advantage of the unaware citizens. Selfies, moreover, can be twisted into only displaying the good side of a specific party. For example, Paul Ryan’s selfie “only showcases the republican party’s bright side” (CNN.com). The selfie tries to depict the energetic and welcoming future of the party by portraying the young interns at Washington DC, although, in reality, it is not the case. This encourages the observers to root for this party. These are the major issues accompanied by