My imagination triggered by reading Harold and The Purple Crayon as a child, and fed by watching A-Ha's Take On Me as a teenager, I've dreamed of entering a world of my own making. Does the modern day "selfie" originate from a yearning for a world of our own? If picture-taker/movie-maker's motive is not purely narcissistic, but rather an innate need to communicate one's experience to others, can we render these experienes more meaningful?
Articles on the nature of the "selfie": http://blog.creativelive.com/the-rise-of-selfies-tracing-roots-photo-sharing/
“The Polaroid’s big plus was that you didn’t have to take a film to be developed,” Royal Photographic Society director Dr. Michael Pritchard tells BBC News. “It freed up the amateur who didn’t have a darkroom from having someone look at the photograph before he or she did.” Long story short, selfies have been popular forever — but with a staggering 23 million hashtagged selfies on Instagram alone, one has to wonder what makes this form of storytelling so alluring. “Mirror images are primarily private and transient,” psychologist Dr Pamela Rutledge says. “We see ourselves alive and dynamic, a person in progress
Meanwhile, Psychotherapist Dr. Aaron Balick suggests that selfies are part of an “active online identity” and are ultimately “something you have some control over.” Not only that, but selfies allow people to have a starring role in their own lives. A selfie’s sharability allows you to tell your story to an active audience, who in turn reward you with a “double-tap” of approval. Think about it this way: a selfie with your pizza + a selfie with the Statue of Liberty + a selfie among the neon lights of Broadway = a complete story of your vacation in New York. And you are the star
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positively-media/201307/making-sense-selfies http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/06/why-selfies-matter/