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SELFIE RE-DE-FINED: SELF-(MORE/LESS)

Israt Taslim & Md. Zaki Rezwan
Postgraduate Student, Literatures in English & Cultural Studies, Dept. of English, Jahangirnagar University,
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Abstract : As this contemporary world is depending increasingly on technology and cyberspace, selfie is
becoming a very powerful and communicative visual discourse that directly associated with ones identity within
this growing and strengthening cybercultural. This paper attempts to critically discuss the contemporary selfie
culture within the boundary of cyberculture. The main purpose of this study is to analyses selfie and its
relationship with an individuals identity and existence in both the physical cyber reality. This paper also tries
to conceptualize the extreme representation of the self as well as the detached of the self and body through
selfie. Even though, this paper does not concentrate on reading selfie visually, few examples has been made for
a quick study on the selfies background. As a qualitative and slightly quantitative research, this paper will
critically studies every point side-by-side with theoretical justification.
Keywords: selfie, cyberculture, identity, hyperreality, simulation, visual, self-representation, social network.
Introduction :
Selfie: pronunciation: /selfi/(also selfy). noun
(plural selfies). informal
a photograph that one has taken of oneself,
typically one taken with a smartphone or
webcam and uploaded to a social media
website.- (selfie)
Even though selfie is recently baptized in
Oxford English Dictionary and awarded as Oxfords
word of the year 2013 (Brumfield, Selfie named
word of the year for 2013), but it has been all over
the cyberspace as well as the social networks for a
long time. It has now become a growing and
influencing part of our cyberculture. The definition of
selfie is as simple as its dictionary meaning says. But
its role in identity construction in both the cyberspace
and real life is much more complex. If we deconstruct
the word selfie, we can divide it in three section.
Self, i, and e(ye); which could mean a way to show
the self as I see it. Needless to say, using self
and i in a same word makes it quite narcissistic.
This paper will not overlook how the selfie is
executed, rather it will try to overlook on how a selfie
is executed with purposive visualization of the selfless self and self-more self. With initiating with a
background check on selfie with few visual examples

(for the convenience of the readers), this paper will

attempt to discuss on patterns of identity formation
with and within selfie.
Baumeister (1982) proposed two types to
motivation that evokes someone in self-representing.
The first one deals with how an individuals selfpresentation matches with the audiences expectation
and preferences which eventually focuses on pleasing
the others. Another kind of motivation is to match that
individuals self-presentation to his/her own ideal self.
Self-portrait is a distinguished and visual form of selfrepresentation. A self-portrait can be done by
sculpting, painting or even sketching. The Wikipedia
page on selfie (Wikipedia contributors) defines it as a
type of self-portrait photograph that is usually
captured for publishing in social network and
associated with portable camera device.
If we had to trace back the history of selfie,
we might have to go even before the birth of Christ.
Phidias the Greek sculpture included his own
self-portrait as a signature on Athenas shied on the
Parthenon in Athens (Plutarch 13.312). Later, the
aspiring painters from different parts of the world like
Miyamoto Musashi (Fig. 1), Saint Dunstan, Vincent
van Gogh (Fig. 2), Lucas Cranach the Elder continued
the legacy of Phidias until the 19th century.

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Fig. 1. Musashi, Miyamoto. Self-portrait. 1640.

Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation.
Web. 11 December 2013.
Painting as a medium of self-portrait was
gradually changed into after the arrival of global
industrial and scientific maneuver. The invention of
capturing the moment was used as a source of
capturing the moment of mostly the other from the
perspective of the author/photographer. The actual
trend of selfie revives possibly after the arrival of
Kodak Brownie box camera in 1890. In a letter to a

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Fig. 2. Gogh, Vincent V. Self Portrait. 1889.

Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundations.
Web. 11 December 2013.
friend, the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia
Nikolaevna (June 18, 1901 - July 17, 1918) wrote, I
took this picture of myself looking at the mirror. It
was very hard as my hands were trembling
(Atchison, Diaries and Letters - Letters of Grand
Duchess Anastasia: Extracts from the Letters of
Anastasia to her Father).

Fig. 3. Nikolaevna, Anastasia. Self-portrait. 1914. Alexander Palace Time Machine. The Alexander Palace Time
Machine. Web. 11 December 2013.
Needless to say, the photograph (Fig. 3) was posting his/her photo with different mood, expression
attached with this very personal yet innocent letter or anything. Even the influential American President
which may remind us to the process of contemporary Barack Obama is taking selfie (Soal Barack Obama
teenage selfies. This selfie was sent that day with and David Cameron pose for selfie with Danish PM).
escalating
the
contemporary
technological Recently the top Vatican authority, the Pope also
advancement. Day by day, with continuous posed in a selfie (Fig. 4). Many celebrities both
advancement in technology the machine that can from local and global boundary continuously
capture the moment has become so much available posting their selfies (Fig. 5 Taylor Swift; and
that selfie happens to the people.
internationally renowned country music singer) in the
social network.
Contemporary Selfie Culture :
It may not require any scholarly or statistical
reference to say that almost everyone connected with
the social network has at least one friend who keeps

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Fig. 4. Ragona, Fabio M. 29 August 2013. Twitter.

Twitter. Web. 12 December 2013.

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Fig. 5. Swift, Taylor. 17 March 2013. Instagram.

Instagram. Web. 12 December 2013

Selfie may or may not cover the face of the

individual, but it sure does cover his/her mood. There
are many types of selfie. For example: shy selfie, gym
selfie, bathroom-mirror selfie (Fig. 6), badass selfie

(Fig. 7) etc. The types are not categorized by some

serious scientific or analytical study. Rather each type
of selfie is categorized by following its visual aspects,
the subjects body language, viral captioning etc.

Fig. 6. Wentworth, Trevor. 03 March 2013.

ourlastnightband.tumblr.com. Tumblr. Web. 12
December 2013.
EMarketer in their recent newsletter discloses
that one in four people worldwide will use social
networks in 2013 (Social Networking Reaches
Nearly One in Four Around the World). The number
of social network users in 2012 was 1.47 billion and it
is expected that more than one-third of all people in
this world will use social network/s by 2017 (Social
Networking Reaches Nearly One in Four Around the
World). Recently the technological advancements aid
directly to the commoners with availability of portable
smart devices and high-speed communication media
(internet). Pornography which was once the most

Fig. 7: Rihanna, Robyn. n. d. Instagram. Instagram.

Web. 12 December 2013.
active topics in the internet for long period has fallen
behind the race with social networks long time ago
which indicates people have found the presence in
virtual social life more interesting than the erotic
stimulation (Goldsmith, Porn passed over as Web
users become social: author). With the increasing
number of people getting connected with social
network, selfie is becoming more common (as well as
popular) than a phenomenon. BBC reported that a
search on Instagram a popular photo sharing social
network showed that 23 million photos were
uploaded with #selfie and nearly 51 million were

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hash-tagged with #me (Self-portraits and social
media: The rise of the 'selfie'). After going through
all of these information this is inevitable that selfie has

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become a phenomenon for contemporary cyberculture.

Selfie: Self-(more/less)
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
- (Burns, To a Louse, on Seeing One in a Ladys Bonnet, at
Church 37-38)
Even though different scholars have seen and
defined selfie in different angles but they share some
common aspects of selfie. Mark R. Leary found two
basic human motives for selfie. These are: to attract
attention from the other people and send a
particular image of the self (OUPblog). The over
extension of internet and the increasing popularity of
social networks have somehow forced the user to be
involved with this virtual society. And human being
must maintain a communication and express itself
with the other members of the society which in the
words of Narula (2006) is a necessary and important
human activity to survive and grow (3). According to
Stone (1981), construction of an identity is a public
process that requires an individual to announce an
identity and endorsement of that claimed identity by
the others (188). At early stage, social networks had a
very limited way to express which gradually turns into
a giant virtual social system with different ways of
interaction among the users. Even though there are
many/few differences in the characteristics among the
social networks, they have one thing in common.
Every top social network includes the feature of
giving feedback (like/comment/retweet/share) by
which the user can get responses on something s/he
has posted/uploaded/shared previously/recently. As
the virtual space in social network is often claimed to
be unreal due to lack of humanized or real-like
communication, selfie or any kind of physical
representation of the self has become an influential
attempt to fixate ones image to the others.
Selfie is usually a close-up headshot in a tight
framing. Some selfie captures ones head and at least
a fraction of the upper part of his/her body. Some
sefies are even taken with covering the whole body or

a part of body to show a new clothing, or newly

modified/decorated organ (six pack, bosom, nails,
hairs, legs etc.) or clothing/ornaments. Exposing these
particular things/organs is an attempt to create an
image to the others; an image which can become an
expression of self to the others. Robert Arkin (2013)
strengthens this argument with saying: it isnt me,
its just one me that I created for you (OUPblog).
Selfie is an attempt to replicating and appropriating
own image for the others which powerfully allow the
subject (or the author) consciously or
unconsciously to control / manipulate / improvise /
create / operate the discourse. What could be a bigger
way for a narcissist to celebrate and express their self
than this?
An infant learns to recognize itself from the
reflection of the mirror (Ryan 99). The mirror image
is almost as natural as the real image, but it is a
reflection or a reversed image of the reality. The
subject moves, the reflection will simultaneously
move too. The meaning of this discourse can always
change even with a slightest movement. When
someone is taking photos of other objects, s/he applies
his/her own gaze and ideology, and become the ruling
author of his own creation. The photo expresses (or at
least wants to express) only what s/he wants to
express. But while taking selfie, that individual breaks
the norms of reflection of his/her mirror image.
Hanging out, eating out, wearing new clothes, riding
new cars, enjoying vacation; all of these situations
present the author or the photographers own idea and
method of presenting the self. The reason it is
different than mirror view because, a selfie is usually
taken with a possibility of fixing and limiting its
audience and its gaze. The subject creates its own

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heterotopia; a space that is stands like reality and
can be shared with the other in cyberspace (Foucault
46-49). And it is not that much unpredictable to say
that there would not be an attempt of narcissist
improvisation of the self which can easily cheat with
the unconscious. Unlike mirror image, s/he could
easily control / decorate / modify / appropriate /
disrupt / influence his / her own image. When the
mirror image gives one a reversed image, selfie gives
a non-reversed image which is identical and parallel to
the real perception which let the subject to bring itself
more closer and self-like to the audiences. And more
or less the image is frozen and always conveys only
the moment it captured. Selfies can be a way to
control the others perception or gaze. The creator will
consciously or unconsciously try to determine what is
to be seen and what is not to be seen of the self.
However, as anonymity can be easily achieved in
social networks, with selfie the chance of altering the
gender is hardly possible unless disguise or mask is
executed. And the selfie is adequately provided more
of the self.
Selfie: Self-(more/less) :
What does a selfie represent? Previously it
was discussed on how the selfie is taken with an
attempt to replicate the self into an image. According
to McLuhan (1964), content of a medium is a juicy
piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the
consciousness of the mind (8). In our scenario, this
means that most people tend to focus on the selfie or
the image of the self rather than the medium which
actually brought the content. What is actually the
medium here? There can be at least three. Which are:
internet, a camera device and social network (Im
leaving electricity out of this list for being too
obvious. However the presence of electricity will
obviously matter if a selfie is sent from a place where
the electricity is extremely rare). When a person
associates himself with internet, it is powerfully
implied that s/he is choosing a new medium of
communication which also reflects his/her affiliation
with technological advancement. But this thing only
matters depending on the cultural and geographical
backdrop. A person from a developed country will
probably be much more affiliated with internet than a

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person from a remote area or underdeveloped country.

If the person from a remote area or underdeveloped
country posts his selfie in internet, his affiliation with
modern technology may become significant to the
other audiences. Selfie is not just a photo if you
consider which type of camera is used. Your camera
could be an addition to a posh device like iPhone. Or
you can use a high-end compact camera or even
DSLR camera to take your incredibly clear and vivid
selfie. Or even you can take your selfie with some
cheap smartphone where the result can be blurry.
Recently some apps let anyone take retro looking
photo with an incredibly expensive smartphone. The
thing is, when youre posting the selfie in social
networks sometimes it shows which type of device
you are using. Flickr, facebook etc. discloses the
device model or the operating system of the device
with its every posting and that will somehow send an
invisible content to the audience. Even if the social
network cant automatically show the brand and
model of the device, a simple captioning made by the
subject can disclose the brand or model of the device
used. And there is always a chance for putting
fabricated details. The choice of social network you
choose is somehow reflect your own characteristics,
ideology, class/status and preferences. Few social
networks are popular, few are unpopular. Each has
different characteristics and intentions. While Tweeter
limits the content in fixed number of character,
Facebook throws it on the users will. On the other
hand Instagram tends to be more into photo than
words. So it is clear that, an individual does not only
send an innocent picture of him. Consciously or
unconsciously s/he sends something more than the
self. All of these mediums in different patterns with
different people change the image and replicate the
replicated reality with more / less intentional /
unintentional messages. The image, then, is not only a
visual representation of the self, but also a visual
discourse with different meaning and contents than
that supposed self.
Baudrillard (1994) in his notion of simulacra
proposes that simulacrum is not an imitation or
parody of the reality; rather it substitutes the sign
of the real for the real itself (2). His sign-orders

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dictates four steps in which a faithfully copy of the
reality becomes an independent meaningful sign (4).
With following this notion it can easily be understood
how an image of the self can be self-less. The first
order order of sacrament can be related with
the situation when a person takes his selfie in order to
make a faithful copy of the basic reality (4). In the
next stage order of malefice the copy of the
reality is a perversion or unfaithful copy of the basic
reality (4). The selfie starts conveying other
meanings; especially the meaning created by the
medium. The next stage is order of sorcery in which
the selfie acts as a faithful image of the self (4). But
after being captured and replicated numerous times
the pretentious faithful copy of the image, a selfie
distances itself from the reality and starts acting as a
meaningful independent reality. Just like Baudrillards
analysis on the Borges tale (2), the author will
gradually started caring more for self of the selfie than
the self of reality. Day by day social networks are
trying to keep pace with the reality by adding more
and more real-like communicative characteristics and
becoming into a hyperreality. In this hyperreal social
network, the selfie becomes more than the physicalself of the person to the others. The flat and 2d images
of the self somehow construct or aid to both the real
and virtual the identity. With a growing number of
users in social networks, it is not impossible for a
person to depend more on the identity of that
hyperreal world than the identity that s/he wakes up
with at morning.
When a selfie shows a fraction/part of a
human body, it can assert the author in depending
much more into their visible (inside the frame of a
selfie) organ to send the intended message. For
example, duck-face is common among the girls which
is claimed to bring in additional attractiveness to a
longer cheekbone and larger leap. If an exquisite
bosom of a girl can bring some extra erotic pleasure to
both sexes, then a six-pack abs of a man can also
bring some extra erotic pleasure to both sexes. But
what is important in those selfies is, the identity can
be constructed based on a specific organ of a human
body leaving the reaming body (in some cases the
internal consciousness) unintroduced and deprioritized

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which can create a persona that is different and

possible deteriorated than the complete and normal
body of the author.
Self-less or Self-more?
If we look closely we would find the postindustrial crisis of expansion of consumption. It has
become a pastiche (Jameson 163) to influence the
others into the web of consumerism. As the selfie is
getting popular day by day, it tends the people to
consume the device that could aid him/her in selfieing. Most advertisements of the smartphone or mobile
operators now promotes selfie which effectively act as
an empty gesture (iek 27-30) to the audience. The
audience is ordered to accept this imposing freely with
thinking that the decision was solely taken by him/her.
According to Rosenberg (1986), identity is an
important part of the self-concept which is a
compilation of a persons thought and feelings
(279). Altheide (2000) extends this by complementing
identify as a part of the self by which we are known
to the others (2). So it can be found after compiling
their definition that an individuals identity depends
both on self and the other. As Derida (1978) argues
that no meaning is fixed which equates to that even if
a selfie turns out to be a self-less representation, to the
audience the image can never be framed into a fixed
provided meaning. It is possible that the audience can
perceive the original content or message if s/he can
remove the veils of fantasy. Because, as iek (1997)
said the truth is [always] out there (1).
While posting selfie in a social network there
is no reason that the author would not know that
his/her image will be looked at, or gazed. Whether a
selfie represents the self more or less, it can be called
as a celebration of the self in the virtual world. But
when the identity starts depending on its existence on
the representation of itself in the social network or
virtual cyber space, the self somehow become
something like a cyborg. According to Clynes and
Kline (1960), cyborg would allow man to optimize
his internal regulation to suit the environment he may
seek (Clynes 32). Oxford English Dictionary defines
cyborg as a person whose physical tolerance or
capabilities are extended beyond normal human
limitations by a machine or other external agency

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(cyborg). To visualize his/her own a physical
existence and establishing the identity in the
cyberspace humans are using selfie by integrating
him/her-self with external machine or devices. Not
only selfie, if any pictures no matter who took it
is used to conceptualize the identity or self in either
the virtual reality or actual reality will take the human
existence more closer to being a cyborg. But selfie
will always be discreet as the author is subject of
his/her own creation. Gradually, with altering
Descartes proposition the human existence can depend
more into I selfie, therefore I am.
Conclusion :

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This paper attempts to study self, i and e(ye)

of a selfie. However, future studies can be made on
identity fragmentation or gender domination in the
contemporary selfie culture. Wallace in The
Psychology of the Internet said the Internet explosion
happened so rapidly that we have not had much time
to step back from the medium and look at it more
systemati-cally, as a new environment that can have
potent effects on our behavior (1). This cyber world
has become a crucial struggle for anyone to fit in. The
question arises not on the quality and purity of the self
in the reality, but the question arises on whether you
are successfully maintaining your second identity in
the other part of the reality or not.

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