The third chapter of Seeing Ourselves Through Technology by Jill Walker Rettberg, mainly discusses the different genres within social media posts, more specifically the cumulative and serial genres. Rettberg compares the two and categorizes some posts she’s seen throughout social media. The author also discusses how one can represent themselves in their posts, sometimes without physically being the photos or videos. Chapter 3 of the book, titled Serial Selfies, focuses on the types of social media posts that can be seen as representation of the person who posts them.
Social media has become a part of everyday life. The different versions of social media genres have created a social phenomenon where most of the population can find anyone at the touch of a button. People can express themselves through social media yet, there are also downsides. According to Mark D. Griffiths from Psychology Today, “From a psychological perspective, the taking of selfies is a self-oriented action which allows users to establish their individuality and self-importance and is also associated with personality traits such as narcissism.” People can also use these apps to post pictures of themselves as well as others. Although taking a picture of yourself isn’t a new thing, it has been popularized with the creation of social media. Selfies have become an almost everyday task for a lot of people and will continue to be for a very long time.
People post selfies every day. Whether it be on mainstream social media apps or on personal blogs. There are currently more than 80 million post with the hashtag selfie on Instagram alone. This number shows how much of a phenomena selfie have become and how they have changed the internet permanently. Blakely Fraacsch, Content Creator Intern says in the article The Power of Hashtags on Social Media, “hashtags actually have the power to build communities, bring awareness to social voids, and turn ideas into massive movements.”
In conclusion, selfies are an important part of how people can see themselves through technology. Selfies have taken over the world with the introduction of social media. They also played a major role in how social media developed and how it has changed over the years. Selfies remain to be one thing that will always be a part of the internet.
