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 pleasant thingFew 21st-century trends have been as thoroughly maligned as the selfie, or the digital self-portrait snapped at arm’s length on a smartphone. But since around 2013,when the word received the seal of approval from Oxford Dictionaries, the debate over what these images reveal about modern life has softened and shifted. It’s no longer smart to condemn them as proof that an entire generation are narcissists. Now experts – including art historians and psychologists – argue that selfies perform critical social functions.“When I see a selfie, and I see people trying to produce connections in an increasingly impersonal world,” says art historian James corridor, author of The Self-Portrait: A Cultural History. “They are trying to identify themselves, and to reinvent themselves,as self-portraitists throughout history have sought to achieve.”Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk