The Evolution Of The Selfie
The selfie may seem like a rather new idea with the emergence of modern cameras on cell phones, however, this concept really goes back 175 years. Yes that’s correct the true origins of the selfie goes all the way back to 1839. The selfie actually predates the thumbs up, the high five, and the current rave of fist-bumping. Before we go to the evolution of the selfie, let’s look into just what a selfie actually is all about.
A selfie is simply a picture taken of yourself that you plan on uploading to a social networking website like Facebook. You can sometimes see the person’s arm holding out the cell phone camera while taking the shot. Often people try getting something special in the background like these two beautiful young women above were doing at California’s Yosemite National Park. It really tickled them when I said that I’m taking a picture of people taking selfies of themselves.
A selfie is a strange phenomenon in which the photographer is the subject of the photograph often taken from a high angle held at arm’s length, and is also considered by some to be a ridiculous practice of narcissism. Other options associated with selfies are the use of mirrors, which are rather common. Bathrooms have become a popular location for selfies in the world today but isn’t any competition with the beautiful young ladies’ outdoor selfies above.
The evolution of the selfie first began 175 years ago back in the year 1839 with the very first known selfie being taken by Mr. Robert Cornelius. This was also one of the first photographs of a person. Since the process was slow he was able to uncover the lens, run into shot for a minute, and then run back and replace the lens cap onto the camera. There have been many famous people who have taken their own selfies since this grand debut of the selfie in the early 1800s. This list includes a selfie of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia of herself, Buzz Aldrin’s selfie in outer-space in 1966, a selfie of a macaque (a black ape) who just so happened to pick up a camera and snap a picture of himself, and also a selfie by the Curiosity rover on the planet of Mars in the year 2014.
Selfies are really on the rise and have gone viral since the day of these early selfies. In January 2014 during the Sochi Winter Olympics, athletes started a trend of taking selfies of themselves which was very popular. Today just about everyone is taking a selfie of themselves, and sending them to friends and family. Age is no limit for the selfie, and I’ve seen children as young as three years old pick up a cell phone camera, snap a selfie, and join in on this craze with everyone else in the world.
This is the story behind today’s popular selfie, which actually turns out to be nothing new in this world. The biggest difference is that the concept of uploading selfies onto the internet has brought this old idea to just about everyone’s attention in the world who either has a computer, smart phone, or some other electronic device that can be used to pick up an internet connection.
