Blog Post 2:
Hashtag Selfie: Behind the Selfie

It can be either on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, we see so many selfless. Selfies are one of the biggest influenced of social networking sites. There are over 31 million photos on Instagram that have been hash tagged selfie. But the question is, why are we so obsessed to take a selfie? What are all behind these selfie shots?

Taking selfie shots shows narcissism to ourself. The way we take photos means that we are proud of our faces, we are showing to the world how proud we are to ourselves. But the thing is, what are the meanings behind every selfie shots? 

As what I have wrote on my previous blog, in the article The Good, the bad, and the Unexpected Consequences of Selfie, also states their that  people take selfies so that other people will know how they feels right now. If they are happy, they are going to take a picture of them smiling, but when they have problems in life or feels miserable, they take a shot of them with a sad face. It is a way how we express ourself and present it to others. 

But in accordance to Christine Erickson's blog titled Why Selfies Matter?, under "Looking Behind The Selfie" says that "The opinion of others has been a part of identity development for more than a century. The "looking-glass self" is a psychological concept that suggests we develop our sense of self based on the perceptions of those we interact with, said Andrea Letamendi, a doctor of psychology at UCLA." Because sometimes, the way we see ourself is different form what others see us. We know what we are doing, but we don't know what exactly we look like. So that is why people's judgement to others seems like it can help others to let know who they really are.

Also because of these selfless, we are changing our real identities through the way we edit our photo. We put filters in our pictures to make it more elegant. It is like you are replacing the natural you. Sometimes we untag ourselves in the picture if we don't want our faces that are tagged to us. It just means that you don't want other people to see the real you, in fact you want them to see your ideal of you. You want other people to see what you want to be look like."This may mean routine photoshopping to create a more 'likeable' self, or simply choosing photos that seem more like the visual self we want to present," says Dr. Letamendi.

Instagram is an example of it. You can edit your photo with so many filters that can make the effects of your photo brilliant. There is an article,Why We Take Selfies , says that,

"Instagram isn't about reality — it's about a well-crafted fantasy, a highlights reel of your life that shows off versions of yourself that you want to remember and put on display in a glass case for other people to admire and browse through. It's why most of the photographs uploaded to Instagram are beautiful and entertaining slices of life and not the tedious time in-between of those moments, when bills get paid, cranky children are put to bed, little spats with friends. [New York Times]"

So the way we see others or even ourselves in our selfless just goes to show that we are 

 expressing our feelings to present it to others. But sometimes we find others weird, or even funny because of their selfie shots. Don't judge them too quickly, because you never knew what is the story behind them. It is just like others when they judge you, they don't know your story. So that is why selfies also help people   for them so can express their feelings. In that way, they also show an artistic way to express feelings. Because admit it, we only like to save the pictures that we looks cute, handsome and beautiful, we save pictures because it has a good memory on it. Because that is what we want, we shows that it is fun to live. So live your life to the fullest!