The Shocking Truth About Selfies

Go on admit it: you take selfies. Everyone does, the way everyone is a photographer now. There are a staggering 350 million photos uploaded to Facebook. Every day. With 250 Billion photos, Facebook is now the largest photo archive in the world. There are 35 million selfies uploaded daily to Instagram. The shocking truth is we can blame selfies for the huge, historic uptick in photos.

Do you remember the ’70s and the distinctive yellow tone of the aged photos? Given our demographic you probably do. Photographs were taken with film and processed. It was time consuming and expensive. Unless you had a darkroom, film would have to be dropped off and picked up sometimes days later. There was nothing instant about it. From the time photography was invented in 1839 to 1970, a total of 10 billion photographs were taken. By 1980 that figure grew to 25 billion. Digital cameras were responsible for a sharp increase and once the cell phone camera launched the number of photos taken rocketed to 86 billion in 2000. In a short 14 years we went from 86 billion to 380 billion in 2014.

We can blame selfies for taking the total figure of photos taken in the history of photography to over 4 trillion this year.

The figure shocked me and I’m still processing what it means culturally, emotionally and spiritually. Our photo quote today is a selfie of sorts. I’m not the type to look in  mirror in the undies and post to Instagram but I’ve always loved the reflection of a window.  There’s an intimate and yet voyeuristic element because of their public nature. I’ve never taken one of these at home.  But never say never.  So, what do you like about selfies?
Layla Morgan Wilde-selfie

11 thoughts on “The Shocking Truth About Selfies”

  1. Those figures are quite mind-blowing! I think the selfie is the inevitable result of a narcissistic generation’s desire for self-aggrandisement!

    1. Caro, at the present growth rate, can you imagine the stats for next year? That’s a scary thought.

  2. I love having a digital camera for floral and landscape shots, and of course pics of the cats. But I don’t take selfies. A couple of times I’ve tried to take pics of my freshly-cut and styled hair for my mom, who lives on the east coast and whom I don’t see. But as I look terrible in photographs (even more so than in person–ha), I prefer to avoid the camera, any camera, if at all possible. I’ll go out of my way to avoid it, actually.

    You want to know what I think about selfies? Get over yourself, that’s what I think. Take a photo of something interesting. And guess what? To the millions who take selfies every day: You’re just not that interesting.

    But then, I do prefer to spend time with four-leggeds and trees more than I want to spend time with most humans. 😛

    1. I agree. I’d much rather take pics of anything but me. We’re turning into a society of narcissists.

      1. TW took some selfies of herself kissing me but we’ll never publish them I hope. I actually did do a selfie today so I could get peeps to fill out my survey.

  3. I think they are a worthless, selfish waste of time.
    I used to sit at my brothers dinner table and watch my
    niece take picture after picture of herself. My son’s friends post constantly. Talk about needing to get away from digital media! Seems some don’t have anything better to do or any self-esteem!
    Sure,I’ve looked at my reflection before going in a building, checking my hair to make sure it’s not sticking up, I don’t consider that a selfie!
    That’s my rant for the day.

    1. I hear you what you’re saying. I’m glad we grew up in an era before selfies.

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