But First, Let Me Take a #SELFIE

Do you think I should take it down? Let me take another selfie. Does this sound familiar? Check your Snapstory, is it a selfie? Personally, my Snapstory from last night is a selfie. As we spoke about in class, we ourselves take selfies and watch others take selfies nearly everyday. The convenience of the one touch necessary to turn the iPhone camera around so it is in selfie mode has made this task even easier. This song and music video certainly embodies the selfie culture, as one may call it. Our guest speaker brought up the questions of whether we take selfies and post them to Facebook, Instagram and other forms of social media. This song as well focuses on posting a selfie to Instagram. As the lyrics include: Can you guys help me pick a filter? I don't know if I should go with XX Pro or Valencia. What should my caption be? As a girl I have had this same conversation as portrayed in the video with my own friends. However, since we have gone in-depth about Instagram and Facebook with the research done by our guest lecturer, I decided to focus here on Snapchat.

After deciding what I was going to write this week's blog post on, I decided to track my own use selfies in order to write about it! What I have found is that Thursday and Friday night were the two times I took the most selfies this week so far. This is because these are two nights that I went out to parties and bars dressed up with a full face of makeup and my hair done. Therefore I definitely thought I looked good on these nights. Not only did I take selfies but I posted them to my Snapstory on Snapchat. We spoke in class about the times in which selfies are most likely taken. It is when you think you look good and when you want to show people where you are. By posting selfies in my Snapstory I can include the Michigan geotag, which shows my location because certain geotags are only available on the campus. I wanted people to know I was out and about hitting the local bars in Ann Arbor.

While selfies are taken for fun sometimes and sent among friends, the selfie culture has also become sexual. As the lyrics state: Oh my God, Jason just texted me, should I go home with him? I guess I took a good selfie. Here it is implied that if you take a good selfie where you look hot you can score the boy that you want. Ward (2003) speaks about the media's role in the sexual socialization of today's youth. While this research displays the effects of media exposure, it is also the media use such as these social media platforms. The fact that Snapchat allows the user to choose the amount of seconds, from one to ten, and then the photo disappears, makes Snapchat an easy platform for sexual photos. It may range from sexual language as the caption of the Snapchat selfie to a nude selfie, among both boys and girls. Whoever initiates this may be doing it so that they receive a sexual selfie back. This can create a sexual selfie war between two users that may get more sexual as the selfies continue. Therefore not only does the sexual content in media such as television, movies, and music provide the American youth with a mass amount of sexual information but social media platforms such as Snapchat also have an effect on the sexuality of the American youth. Here I conclude my final blog post, but first, let me take #SELFIE.

Reference

Ward, L. M. (2003). Understanding the role of entertainment media in the sexual socialization of American youth: A review of empirical research. Developmental Review, 23(3), 347-388. doi: 10.1016/s0273-2297(03)00013-3