Are Selfies Really So Bad?

Let’s face it, there are a lot of bad selfies–a word which was named the word of year in 2013–floating around on the Internet. A lot. If you’re sick of seeing duck faces popping up all over your social media feeds, you’re not alone. But, according to the video below, we might be giving them a bad rap. Listen to one man’s argument about why we shouldn’t let a few bad photos bring down an entire genre of photography:

“Status updates, not just the text, but the whole set of actions and context comprising them are more like speech acts than they are like writing. In the same way, Instagram and more meaningfully the selfie, not just the photo, but the whole kit and photo caboodle is more like a speech act than like photography. A selfie isn’t exactly a photo, and maybe that’s why so many people hate them.”

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It’s an interesting concept. Do we perceive the selfies that flood Instagram and other social networks more like status updates than photography?

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