The Art Of Selfie

Blessing or curse? The truth behind selfies, the greatest invention in today’s self-obsessed social media era.

- Rachel Ong

Browse through social media these days, and one will find endless selfies of celebrities, influencers, friends, frenemies, and even clueless uncles and aunties getting into the act of pouting at the camera and adding cutesy filters to their photos. In today’s self-obsessed times, we are inundated with so many selfies, photo albums, and videos that we have somewhat become desensitised to them. Besides imageries, selfies are essentially self-expressed materials and modern works of art by people from all walks of life from writers, dancers, art practitioners to your brother – think along the lines of poems, songs, articles, rants, and videos expressed by tortured artistes that have slipped into the vernacular of pop culture.

Dig beyond the surface, and anyone can probably decipher that selfies are, by and large, narcissism in disguise, stoked by the flames of vanity and superficiality. To further discussions, selfies can also be framed negatively as selfishness and be frowned upon as a negative indication of character by society. When was the last time one saw yet another selfie posted by a social media fiend, um, friend and proceeded to do an eyeroll? Probably just minutes ago before engaging in this article, but it probably counted as a way of well-deserved stress-relieving distraction.