The Evolution of the Selfie: How Our Much-Mocked Photos Have Matured
Against all odds, the selfie has evolved from an embarrassing teenage trend into a modern phenomenon. Now, some experts are beginning to see them as a good thing.
Few 21st-century trends have been as thoroughly maligned as the selfie, the digital self-portrait snapped at arm's length on a smartphone. Now experts—including art historians and psychologists—argue that selfies perform important social functions.
The selfie of 2017 looks radically different to the selfie of 2013. In 2017, we're no longer "sparrow-facing", the wide-eyed variation on a pouty "duckface".
In 2017, the big trend has been the "plandid", the planned candid selfie.
The "planned candid" (plandid) is a move away from studiously posed pictures and, some would argue, a backlash against the overly posed, pouty duckface selfie of the past.
Instead of deriding selfies as a psychologically and socially destructive force, academics now seek to glean valuable insights from this rich sociological databank finding that the average age of the selfie-taker is 23.7; among people under 40, women take more selfies than men; over 40, men become the main culprits (perhaps because their female peers are anxious about ageing). Academics have also analysed "extreme poses" such as the "head tilt", finding that the female tilt is 50% deeper than the male.
There's an old quote, 'We are what we think other people think we are.' If we think other people think we're beautiful and special, for example, we're likely to think that too. So you see how the comments underneath the selfies we post can have potentially powerful effects on our sense of self.
Selfies are just an example of people trying to make connections in an increasingly impersonal world. Selfies are part of a long human tradition stretching back to self-portraits, as a means of exploring ourselves and experimenting with our identity. All that's changed is the technology.
▍生词好句
against all odds /ɒdz/: if sth. happens against (all) the odds, it happens (or is done or achieved) although there were problems in making it happen or getting it done or achieving it, and maybe it was unlikely to happen. So, it's a surprising achievement; it happens or succeeds although it seemed almost impossible.
see sth. as a good thing: to look at sth. in a positive way (even though at first it seemed negative). (常用搭配: should see it as a good thing)
at arm's length: hold away from your body with your arm stretched out straight. (常用搭配: keep sth. at arm's length—a situation where you avoid dealing with sb. or you avoid contact with sb. You avoid any kind of intimate or close contact with another person.)
a / to move away from: to change your ideas or beliefs, especially if your ideas were very rigid, fixed, and inflexible before. (常用搭配: a move away from sth., and a shift towards sth. else)
a backlash against sth. /ˈbaklaʃ/: a strong negative reaction by a large number of people; a sudden, strong reaction against sth.
culprit /ˈkʌlprɪt/: n. when you are talking about a crime or sth. wrong that has been done, you can use culprit to mean the person who did it.
a long human tradition stretching back to: a habit which has origins at a time in the past. (常用搭配: part of a long human tradition + stretching back to a time when…)