"Selfies" - WTF is wrong with people ??

hugbot

Emp_Fab said:

Jesus...  talk about passive aggressive !

By all means, psychoanalyse me to satisfy your own preconceptions as to who I am and what my real motives are - knock yourselves out - it's of no significance to me at all.  

I'm not psychoanalysing you at all - I'm saying you're normal. Its normal for humans to want attention from other humans. It gives the little brain buzz thats kept us as social animals for the last million years. Thats why we're all posting here after all. Some people just like to do it with images. 

Drew_TNBD

hugbot said:

Emp_Fab said:

Jesus...  talk about passive aggressive !

By all means, psychoanalyse me to satisfy your own preconceptions as to who I am and what my real motives are - knock yourselves out - it's of no significance to me at all.  

I'm not psychoanalysing you at all - I'm saying you're normal. Its normal for humans to want attention from other humans. It gives the little brain buzz thats kept us as social animals for the last million years. Thats why we're all posting here after all. Some people just like to do it with images. 

Kiss me my beautiful, these are truly the last dayzz...

chrispy108

Emp_Fab said:

It's nothing to do with me ignoring answers I don't like - it's simply that the answers given so far have not provided any help with the detailed understanding I seek.

There is no detailed understanding.

I go see a monument, I want to show people I was there. So I take a photo of me with the monument. It's fun and whimsical.

I've got a photo frame on my wall I made, it's got a Ye Olde Map I bought of Avebury, then around it there's a photo I took of Avebury, then photos of various family members taking "selfies" in various combinations with the stones.

There is no deeper meaning, it's just more personal than photos I took myself that I could have downloaded from Wikipedia.

jd0272

Folk like taking pics of themselves. And sharing. Could suggest the wimmins moreso. But that's sexist, so I'll not. 

Shit like FB and SC probably make the addictive element more accessible.  Ultimately, who fckn cares? Doesn't affect me. Don't care. Fckn get on with it if it makes ya happy. 

Emp_Fab

Why am I on the back foot here, when all I really said was "what's with all these selfie takers" ?  Surely lots of you must at least agree that it is a phenomenon that has suddenly become very popular at least ?

Why is it suddenly a thing ?  

Oh, forget it.  I'm not in the mood to argue with anyone.

octatonic

Emp_Fab said:

Why am I on the back foot here, when all I really said was "what's with all these selfie takers" ?  Surely lots of you must at least agree that it is a phenomenon that has suddenly become very popular at least ?

Why is it suddenly a thing ?  

Oh, forget it.  I'm not in the mood to argue with anyone.

That isn't what you said at all- at least not all that you said.

and I quote.....

"Why are people, primarily the younger generation, suddenly so obsessed with their own image ? "
"selfies are synonymous with narcissism."
"If this is true, then it's a sad indictment on the youth of today that they consider the most important thing in their lives to be themselves.  Thank God we didn't have a society of today's youth in 1939.  We'd all be writing in German if that were the case."

That is quite a bit different to casually wondering why selfies were a thing.

CabbageCat

octatonic said:

Emp_Fab said:

Why am I on the back foot here, when all I really said was "what's with all these selfie takers" ?  Surely lots of you must at least agree that it is a phenomenon that has suddenly become very popular at least ?

Why is it suddenly a thing ?  

Oh, forget it.  I'm not in the mood to argue with anyone.

That isn't what you said at all- at least not all that you said.

and I quote.....

"Why are people, primarily the younger generation, suddenly so obsessed with their own image ? "
"selfies are synonymous with narcissism."
"If this is true, then it's a sad indictment on the youth of today that they consider the most important thing in their lives to be themselves.  Thank God we didn't have a society of today's youth in 1939.  We'd all be writing in German if that were the case."

That is quite a bit different to casually wondering why selfies were a thing.

And the title of the thread is hardly a launchpad from Neutraltown.

Emp_Fab

OK, 'WTF is it with these narcissistic people taking all these selfies' - is that better ?  The end result is the same; I'm expressing puzzlement at the phenomenon.  Why focus the thread on me and semantics instead of discussing the phenomenon ?  Is the prime objective here to label me as a hypocrite or something ?  What a waste of time...  Fine, call me whatever you want, but I'm still no nearer to understanding the mindset of the selfie afficionado.  Maybe it will always be beyond my comprehension - who knows ?

I think that essentially, there is a difference between the way selfie-takers and non-selfie-takers think about their own image.  In the absence of an explanation from a selfie-taker (are there any in this thread ?, or are the ones offering the explanations actually just as much in the fecking dark as I am ? - I'd like to know the answer to that one), I am left thinking it might be something to do with a need to compete on the social media platform - as though life has become a bizarre cross between The Matrix, The Truman Show and The Apprentice.  The practice of self-aggrandisement becoming not only acceptable, but standard, default behaviour to the point that it's become indivisible from the core personality.  It's become second, probably even first nature to focus on yourself to a degree that is puzzling to older folk.

Snap

chrispy108 said:

I go see a monument, I want to show people I was there. So I take a photo of me with the monument. It's fun and whimsical.

This is the bit I genuinely don't get. WHy the desire to tell people where you are and what you are doing? WHy not just take a photo of the monument?

That's not an aggressive question btw, just honest nonplusment. I wouldn't even consider taking a selfie, I'd just want a picture of the monument. Tbh, I don't really look at photos, never have.

When I used to use FB, I remember seeing photos of people on various trips and in palces. things like - "here's a seflie of me in the first class lounge at the airport, drinking champagne" blah blah. Here's me in NYC drinking cocktails, eating (insert whatever) etc etc. I just thought, I don't give a monkeys you braggart.

Now either that's me, being a cranky get (entirely possible), or I'm partly right.

The only people who I want to tell what I'm upto, regularly, are my family and close friends. I'm really not that important to most people.

WezV

Why even take a photo of a monument if you are not in it.... a better pic likely exists already


i have just scanned a few thousand old family photos.  Nobody looks twice at the ones with no-one in them.  It was really enjoyable to go through them with my daughter and tell her about the people in them.

there were pics of my grandad who drove tanks in WW2.   Pics of his holidays to San Francisco, almost all with him standing by monuments.  My favourite is him standing by Airwolf.

chrispy108

Emp, your last post is still full of anger and judgement. Your idea of a neutral title still contains 'wtf' and 'narcissistic'. Hardly open minded is it?

I find your position that anyone who wants to share anything about their life with other people is just showing off and competing incredible.

I enjoy seeing what friends and acquaintances are up to, and it leads to interesting conversation.
"I've been there - try the restaurant around the corner, looks rubbish but has incredible burgers"
"I didn't know you liked that game/band/film/tv have you tried...."

Until you stop being so deeply entrenched you'll never find an answer to anything. 

viz

Combination of the birth of a technology that makes photo-taking free of charge, and gives us the ability to look at ourselves as we take the pic, coupled with a technology that gives us somewhere to publish it instantaneously with ease, coupled with the rise in number and accessibility and influence of celebrities and all the associated trimmings, has all come together to awaken the narcissism in us and has made it all more acceptable - particularly amongst them that wish to move up in their circles, young and old. 

But also, as others have said, it's also a nice way to engage with our friends remotely / take more interesting and personal photos, etc. 

WezV

Exactly.  It's all about technology.  

Just think about all the manual ways people have recorded their image or life story in pre-internet days.  

The difference now is anyone can be an artist or travel writer lite with nothing more than a smartphone.


the good thing about it is choice.  You are no longer forced to look through someone's holiday snaps and pretend you are interested. 

Another oddity is is the family portrait.  My brother has spent thousands on these over the years.  My parents had us sit through one every year.  The photos on my walls are of my family and I out in the world doing stuff... by modern definition they are all "selfies".  I much prefer this to the slightly awkward "family portrait".

Sporky

Emp - genuine question - if you found an ancient family photo album, would you rather it had "here's a picture of great-uncle Bob's barn", or would you prefer "here's great-uncle Bob in front of his barn?"

Snap

WezV said:

Why even take a photo of a monument if you are not in it.... a better pic likely exists already

lol, you know i've often thought that. As I said I'm not into photos, coul;dn't say why, but I don't really look at them at all. But, I do like a good pic. I'm not sentimental, at all. You know, just thinking about it actually, I don't reminisce about anything. Don't look through old photos, or reflect on past events at all. Maybe I'm odd, and maybe that's part of why I don't get selfies.

You're right though, I might have umpteen shots of something, but nothing like as good a "proper" pic.

Drew_TNBD

Emp_Fab said:

Why am I on the back foot here

Coz you're pusillanimous?

Nikko

Ooh, nice!

Word of the day, right there ?

lloyd

Snap said:

chrispy108 said:

When I used to use FB, I remember seeing photos of people on various trips and in palces. things like - "here's a seflie of me in the first class lounge at the airport, drinking champagne" blah blah. Here's me in NYC drinking cocktails, eating (insert whatever) etc etc. I just thought, I don't give a monkeys you braggart.


The only people who I want to tell what I'm upto, regularly, are my family and close friends. I'm really not that important to most people.

I think you're probably just being a miserable old cunt

Thing is I actually like to see my mates off on their holidays, at the Statue of Liberty, what they're eating in a restaurant etc, I don't see them posting that shit as bragging or showing off, there's usually an element of "I'm on holiday, you're in work you knob" to it, but that's what people are like in real life (I certainly am) so why not online?

Your problem is that you have/had cunts on your FB that you don't give a shit about, why not just have a FB with your family and close friends and then all you'd see is their lives and vice versa.

lloyd

Emp_Fab said:

Why am I on the back foot here, when all I really said was "what's with all these selfie takers" ?  Surely lots of you must at least agree that it is a phenomenon that has suddenly become very popular at least ?

Why is it suddenly a thing ?  

Oh, forget it.  I'm not in the mood to argue with anyone.

Do you even read the replies in threads you start? Lots of people have agreed with you, including selfie "defenders" fuck me, I've agreed with you a couple of times.

The reason you're on the back foot is because you've ranted, not read/taken in what people have written in response and tries to twist the reason behind your post because you've not had a blanket approval of your whining-people can see through bullshit like that and don't like it.

To answer "why is it suddenly a thing?" Cheap technology meaning mass ownership, the internet, social media, vanity, being a human being, thing is if you drop all this technology 50, 100, or even 5,000 years ago people would be behaving exactly the same way because we are human beings, we're biologically programmed to be social creatures-for a variety of reasons, but probably in the main, for survival/safety reasons, which in the absence of lions trying to eat us in this day and age results in us inventing shit like the internet to communicate with people.

I'm not sure how far back you want the answers to go? It's thought that one of the outcomes (or reasons) of walking on our hind legs was a greater understanding and use of hand tools, ultimately culminating in the ability to hold a fucking iPhone and pull a duckface pout to share on instagram.

Snap

lloyd said:

Snap said:

chrispy108 said:

When I used to use FB, I remember seeing photos of people on various trips and in palces. things like - "here's a seflie of me in the first class lounge at the airport, drinking champagne" blah blah. Here's me in NYC drinking cocktails, eating (insert whatever) etc etc. I just thought, I don't give a monkeys you braggart.


The only people who I want to tell what I'm upto, regularly, are my family and close friends. I'm really not that important to most people.

I think you're probably just being a miserable old cunt

Thing is I actually like to see my mates off on their holidays, at the Statue of Liberty, what they're eating in a restaurant etc, I don't see them posting that shit as bragging or showing off, there's usually an element of "I'm on holiday, you're in work you knob" to it, but that's what people are like in real life (I certainly am) so why not online?

Your problem is that you have/had cunts on your FB that you don't give a shit about, why not just have a FB with your family and close friends and then all you'd see is their lives and vice versa.

because I can find out what they are doing when I talk to them! Cos I talk to/see my mates and family a lot. I don't need to see it through some godawful social media profile, that lodr knows whoever else has views of.

I suppose it just isn't for me. I don't need it to bolster up or replace my interactions with family. In fact, it would probably reduce the amount of time I spend talking to or seeing people. That's sort of what I am getting at: I think social media replaces physical interaction probably more than we realise. Not for everyone, but possibly for a lot.

I dont use FB, not for a long time. But what I found was that plenty of people I thought were sound, were posting loads of shite.

But then, maybe it wasn't shite! Maybe I AM a miserable get who isn't interested in anyone.....(for the record, I'm not, pmsl)