Selfies...what are they?

Having been invited to a workshop on "Selfies" coordinated by Mathilde Verillaud, I first thought "Oh no, here we go again with senseless photographs taken by teenagers" and "Is there even a workshop on how to take selfies?Come on!" I could not be more mistaken. It actually made me think totally different of what selfies are and why adolescents take them, what they may represent in their lives and the importance they might have for most of our students, even though our students cannot realise the importance of taking photographs and uploading them to the web.

Social media and the mobile web have given rise to a strange phenomenon called the selfie, which is a picture of yourself, usually shared on any social networking website.

As Mathilde told us, some selfies are extreme close-ups, others show part of an arm held straight outward and others feature the subject standing in front of a bathroom mirror so that they can get a full body shot of their reflection. There are lots of selfie styles, and these are some of the most common.

There are several reasons why people take selfies, and these reasons were the ones that made me change my opinion regarding this new way of photography. Some of the reasons are:

• To get attention from as many people as possible,
• To get a self-esteem boost,
• To show off,
• To show a message into the Mobile Social Networks.

How can we use them in the classroom? Since selfies are something in which our students are really into, we can come up with different activities so as to engage them and make English lessons funnier. We can also teach them that a selfie is not only a photograph and that it shows a lot more to the eye. We can help them to discover what it actually shows and make them feel free to express themselves through their selfies.

I will leave you with this selfie...what do you think this teenager is thinking of?

Sources
- Verillaud, Mathilde, "Selfies in the Classroom, Really?", presentation at Alicana, Santa Fe, August 2014.
Picture: creative common license