• About
  • Blog
    • All Contributors
    • MEN
      • Daniel Archibald | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • David Bink | ANATOMY & HEALTH
      • David Loiseau | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Dean Brandt | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Eric Morrison | NUTRITION & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Evan Ward | HUMAN KINETICS & NUTRITION
      • Gregory Lalonde | PERSONAL STYLE CONSULTANT
      • James Barry | CULINARY ARTS
      • Jay Zuccato | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • John Pedulla | HAIR & BEAUTY
      • Mark McKoy | FITNESS
      • Dr. Mike Carragher | AGE MANAGEMENT & WELLNESS
      • Steven J. Wong
      • Dr. Terrence Lemay | CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNTURE
    • WOMEN
      • Amanda Kotel | EXERCISE SCIENCE & NUTRITION
      • Anne Day | LIFE CHANGE
      • C S Bromley | HOLISTIC HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Carmelia Ray | DATING & RELATIONSHIPS
      • Caroline Cowan-Mujkic | HOLISTIC NUTRITION
      • Catherine Garceau | WELLNESS & LIFE CHANGE
      • Che Marville | MEDITATION
      • Cherry Villanos | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Dayna Stoddart | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Denise Pala | YOGA
      • Diana Todd | WEIGHT LOSS & FITNESS
      • Elena Spina | AGING WITH POWER
      • Fay Chapple | LIFE CHANGE
      • Gillian Mandich | HEALTH & WELLNESS
      • Giselle Curcio | SKINCARE & COSMETICS
      • Gorretti Francisco | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Jasmin Chase | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Jennifer Van Barneveld | ONLINE TRAINER & DIET COACH
      • Joelle Malette | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Krista Banik | MASSAGE THERAPY
      • Kristin Cavarzan | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Lauren Jacobsen | SPORTS SUPPLEMENTATION
      • Leigh Brandt | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Liz Martino | YOUTH HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Margaret Floyd | NUTRITION
      • Monika Kovacs | YOGA & WELLNESS
      • Nichelle Laus | FITNESS & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Dr. Sara Solomon | THE FAT BLASTING DOCTOR
      • Spenser Chapple | THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
      • Stacey Macdonald | ENERGY HEALING & REIKI
      • Stephanie Joanne | FITNESS & PRO-ACTIVE HEALTH
  • Episodes
  • Topics
  • Contact

ANTI-AGE ME | Revealing the Secrets to Living the Highest Quality of Life

REVEALING THE SECRETS TO LIVING LONGER & LIVING BETTER

  • Blog
  • All Contributors
  • Sponsors

Why I Will Always Love a Good Selfie

0
  • by Steven J. Wong
  • in Beauty · Blogs · Lifestyle
  • — 28 Sep, 2013

selfie

In defense of the self-taken portrait

Okay, so I get it. People generally don’t like people like me who stand in the middle of the gym / hair salon / restaurant bathroom taking photos (yes that’s plural: several attempts at several angles, with several expressions) of themselves before they shuffle off to a corner, frantically tapping at their smartphones to update Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, pretty much any badly spelt media-sharing platform that allows a photo upload.

I get it that some think it’s self-involved and crass, that making such a blatant show of your vanity can be seen as ridiculously self-absorbed and ostentatious, that it’s just goddamn irritating that you’re blocking the bread aisle in the supermarket, or wherever it is that you’ve decided you suddenly absolutely need to take a photo of yourself.

But see, here’s the thing—I think selfies are fantastic. I think they’re a marvelously good thing for moving forward in the way of self-love, body-confidence and contemporary efforts to redefine what beauty means to each of us.

I think it’s great that people feel confident and happy enough about themselves to create these little home-made insta-shoots of themselves and insta-post them in an insta-instant.

Now I know, as a big self-professed selfie junkie, that there’s that tendency to take up to 78 photos of yourself before you find just that perfect, pouty, dewy angle that you’re happy enough to post, which hides your double chin/shows off your new fake eyelashes/catches your hair bouncing in the wind. But here’s the thing: whether we do take 78 photos of ourselves or we take just one, we get to decide what we feel best and most confident about posting up for the whole wide, nasty, critical world to see.

With any selfie, we maintain agency throughout the whole process of posing, selecting, editing and posting.

I love that. I love that millions of people around the world are taking the positioning, posing and posting of beauty into their own hands. I love that people are smiling and confident and happy in their selfies. I love that you see people’s personalities through their photos because it’s really them, snapping themselves.

Most of all, I love that it’s an honest, real-time capture of people’s best and often most personal and important moments. You’re not just taking a photo when you’re taking a selfie, you’re capturing all the emotions, feelings, sights, memories, smells and sounds that go with it.

A selfie is a precious personal moment as much as it is ‘just’ a portrait.

selfie jamie 2Every one of my own selfies has a story that goes with it so when I look at them, they’re not photos of myself—they’re mini time capsules of the days I was about to head out to a funky fashion event, preparing for a posh, important press conference, on holiday, drinking beer as I met an impossibly hot Belgian or just finished a triple-whammy workout at the gym. They provide instant pick-me-uppers, bring me right back to those exact moments when I felt ready to take on the world by my own sheer, self-deluded gorgeousness alone.

I like that anybody—whether you feel dreadfully awkward, too fat, too thin, too pale, too tanned, not made-up enough, drunk—can take a photo, smack it up on Instagram with a couple of silly hastags and insta-instantly garner a bunch of likes.

It uplifts me tremendously to see and know that people are looking at and appreciating other people, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.

Selfies provide an opportunity for people to feel beautiful about themselves, in their own skin, without first being horribly airbrushed by someone else who’s dictating how our ‘flaws’ should be erased or body parts modified. Even better, it provides an opportunity for other people—sometimes complete strangers—to let you know that they think you’re pretty damn awesome too.

It’s fantastic that we’re now telling ourselves and each other what we like, not being told what is desirable or not and beating ourselves up if we’re anything less than that Guess model plastered up on the billboard outside my house.

I also really, really like that while some people clearly look hideous (and I still can’t really tell if that’s deliberate or unfortunate), they look so damn happy being, posing, looking exactly as hideously as they do.

That’s the best part of a selfie, I think: the platform its allows for us to laugh at ourselves, embrace and show off what we love best about ourselves (even if it does take 78 attempts) and gain back control over what we believe to be beautiful, no matter how silly, odd, muffin-topped, blah or wheee! we might be.

And damn anyone who doesn’t agree enough to hit that like button.

 

Like elephant journal on Facebook.

Via Jamie Khooon Sep 30, 2013

FacebookEmailShare/Bookmark
Share
  • Previous story Tenacious Bones
  • Next story Sexy, Younger, YOU!
  • SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EXCLUSIVE NEWS & UPDATES

  • Facebook

  • Optimize your Health so you can Enjoy Life!

    Energy Medicine
  • Archives

    • March 2016 (4)
    • February 2016 (8)
    • January 2016 (9)
    • December 2015 (11)
    • November 2015 (8)
    • October 2015 (8)
    • September 2015 (8)
    • August 2015 (8)
    • July 2015 (10)
    • June 2015 (7)
    • May 2015 (7)
    • April 2015 (12)
    • March 2015 (15)
    • February 2015 (13)
    • January 2015 (16)
    • December 2014 (21)
    • November 2014 (26)
    • October 2014 (26)
    • September 2014 (26)
    • August 2014 (27)
    • July 2014 (28)
    • June 2014 (28)
    • May 2014 (28)
    • April 2014 (26)
    • March 2014 (26)
    • February 2014 (24)
    • January 2014 (28)
    • December 2013 (27)
    • November 2013 (26)
    • October 2013 (26)
    • September 2013 (26)
    • August 2013 (27)
    • July 2013 (28)
    • June 2013 (28)
    • May 2013 (28)
    • April 2013 (29)
    • March 2013 (21)
  • Energy Medicine
  • Tags

    Age Management Medicine Anne Day Anti-Age Anti-AgeMe Anti-Aging Body Body Well Clinic Chakras Che Marville Clarity Centre Denise Pala Dr. Mike Carragher Exercise Fay Chapple Fitness Health HGH Hormones Life Change Life Coach Lifestyle Meditation Nichelle Laus Organization Reiki Revitalize Self-Healing Spenser Chapple Stacey MacDonald Steven J. Wong Strength training Testosterone Weight Lifting Welln Wellness Yoga
  • Recent Posts

    • How To Get A Six-Pack In One Month
    • I Wish I Knew These 15 Tricks To Waking Up Earlier
    • 10 Health Benefits Of Sex That Will Surprise You
    • 13 Gluten-Free Recipes That Will Make You Drool
    • Embrace the pain, avoid the injury.
  • ANTI-AGE ME is a gripping story that documents a number of universal themes – the fading of beauty, the realization of mortality, and the search for answers to living the highest quality of life – in STEVEN’s year and a half long journey. The film closely captures the scientific and tangible results of the program while examining any increase in quality of life – and any side effects. ANTI-AGE ME will juxtapose these new forms of anti-aging medicine with other methods of health and fitness.
  • About
  • Blog
    • All Contributors
    • MEN
      • Daniel Archibald | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • David Bink | ANATOMY & HEALTH
      • David Loiseau | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Dean Brandt | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Eric Morrison | NUTRITION & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Evan Ward | HUMAN KINETICS & NUTRITION
      • Gregory Lalonde | PERSONAL STYLE CONSULTANT
      • James Barry | CULINARY ARTS
      • Jay Zuccato | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • John Pedulla | HAIR & BEAUTY
      • Mark McKoy | FITNESS
      • Dr. Mike Carragher | AGE MANAGEMENT & WELLNESS
      • Steven J. Wong
      • Dr. Terrence Lemay | CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNTURE
    • WOMEN
      • Amanda Kotel | EXERCISE SCIENCE & NUTRITION
      • Anne Day | LIFE CHANGE
      • C S Bromley | HOLISTIC HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Carmelia Ray | DATING & RELATIONSHIPS
      • Caroline Cowan-Mujkic | HOLISTIC NUTRITION
      • Catherine Garceau | WELLNESS & LIFE CHANGE
      • Che Marville | MEDITATION
      • Cherry Villanos | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Dayna Stoddart | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Denise Pala | YOGA
      • Diana Todd | WEIGHT LOSS & FITNESS
      • Elena Spina | AGING WITH POWER
      • Fay Chapple | LIFE CHANGE
      • Gillian Mandich | HEALTH & WELLNESS
      • Giselle Curcio | SKINCARE & COSMETICS
      • Gorretti Francisco | HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Jasmin Chase | HEALTH & BEAUTY
      • Jennifer Van Barneveld | ONLINE TRAINER & DIET COACH
      • Joelle Malette | FITNESS & WELLNESS
      • Krista Banik | MASSAGE THERAPY
      • Kristin Cavarzan | FITNESS & NUTRITION
      • Lauren Jacobsen | SPORTS SUPPLEMENTATION
      • Leigh Brandt | FITNESS & HEALTH
      • Liz Martino | YOUTH HEALTH & FITNESS
      • Margaret Floyd | NUTRITION
      • Monika Kovacs | YOGA & WELLNESS
      • Nichelle Laus | FITNESS & WEIGHT LOSS
      • Dr. Sara Solomon | THE FAT BLASTING DOCTOR
      • Spenser Chapple | THE YOUTH PERSPECTIVE
      • Stacey Macdonald | ENERGY HEALING & REIKI
      • Stephanie Joanne | FITNESS & PRO-ACTIVE HEALTH
  • Episodes
  • Topics
  • Contact

© Copyright 2021 ANTI-AGE ME | Revealing the Secrets to Living the Highest Quality of Life. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.