Behind, beyond the selfie

Birds do it. Bees do it… Well, maybe not the latter, but an eagle has been shown, or rather showed itself, as having stolen a camera and done a video selfie. Now that’s more interesting than Beyoncé photo-bombing a selfie shooter at her concert by posing even closer to the young girl documenting a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Much has been said and written about the selfie, especially now that we all know that it beat out ”twerk” as Word of the Year by ODO or Oxford Dictionaries Onine. Aye, there’s a careful distinction: “selfie” isn’t yet listed in the actual Oxford Dictionary of English, albeit that’s currently being processed.

The word is defined as “A self-shot photo usually taken with a mobile phone and posted online to social media sites.”

Grumpy critics say it’s only reflective of today’s levels of narcissism, from the “young-girl” syndrome that started with bathroom mirrors to the patently questionable practice of assembling blog albums of “funeral selfies.”

Now, that last-cited practice was deemed the height of inappropriateness until “the most distasteful selfie ever” recently landed a young woman on the cover of New York publications — raising revulsion over her self-shot pic that showed a suicidal man behind her threatening to jump off Brooklyn Bridge.

Curiously, months previous, in July 2013, a Manila news item reported that “A woman has come under fire after she was photographed posing against the backdrop of a burning building…”

That same month, international wires headlined that “NASA Goes All the Way to Saturn, Takes a Stunning Selfie.” More and more, the practice had fast turned universal.

“First Daughters Sasha and Malia Obama take a selfie to commemorate their dad’s inauguration in January.”

“Michelle Obama shared one with her ‘first dog’ Bo, Hillary Clinton tweeted one with her daughter Chelsea…”

Geraldo Rivera and Kim Kardashian both raised eyebrows with their selfies, with the latter expectedly going serial let alone viral, as her butt was her selfie subject. 

One doesn’t have to be “Lindsay Lohan in a sexy, skin-baring swimsuit” to go viral with a selfie. 

“A Japanese blogger has gained Internet fame for taking selfies with an imaginary girlfriend.”

A “selfie shootout” has Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi teaming up for a Turkish Airlines TV ad where the superstars try to top each other with selfies taken at exotic places.

Only recently, Star Wars reportedly launched its official account on the photo-sharing site Instagram with a first selfie of Darth Vader.

 Why, the first Papal selfie, with youngsters, is said to have clinched the deal for the Word of 2013.

It’s been reported that “women unquestionably dominate the field when it comes to selfies. Actress and singer Miley Ray Cyrus has posted the most selfies of any Twitter celeb, a remarkable 121 — many more than her runner-up, model and TV host Tyra Banks, who only has 61 selfies. In contrast, the most popular male celeb on Twitter, comedian Russell Brand, has posted a mere 12 selfies.”

But Instagram tells a very different story. “Here, the top celeb selfie poster is Kylie Jenner of ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians,’ with 451 self-photos — far more than Miley. But she’s challenged for the top spot by runner-up Snoop Dogg, with 271 selfies. Instagram selfies show a much more even spread of men and women” — with the Top 25 including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Kat Von D, Justin Bieber, Wiz Khalifa and LeBron James.

“Overall, Instagram is used for vastly more celeb selfies than Twitter.”

It’s said to have become the Web’s “endless obsession.”

In one of the more sober reflections on the trending phenom, senior editor at The Atlantic James Hamblin M.D. writes: 

“Selfies offer amateur photographers something missing from most pictures of themselves: control. It’s easy for someone else to take a picture of you at any moment when you’re out at a bar or restaurant, then share it on all of their profiles, even if you weren’t looking your best — and of course, they’ll be sure to tag you. But selfies are yours to tweak from start to finish: finding the right setting, the right angle and the perfect shot.

“The selfie trend has become prominent enough to begin influencing society and affecting individuals. Psychologists note that selfies are the extension of innate human tendencies into the Internet age. Unconsciously, we all seek validation from others, while comparing ourselves to those around us. Posting a selfie to see the reactions from your friends — while trying to look better than everyone else — is only natural.

“This is the generation of impersonal intimacy and achingly self-conscious expression. Sometimes there’s more to it than vanity, I think.”

I’d tend to agree with this insight, which is less sanguine and far from beng pedantic, the way I’ve read other observations that quickly condemn the practice, especially among the so-called “Millenials” — or the generation that has thrived with attendant gizmos in the past decade.          

Without having to cite how “narcissism” has become such a catch-all for psychologists tapped for the sunrise industry of providing arguments for declaring a marital union null and void ab initio (read: annulment), let me state for the record that well before I started using a smartphone with a reverse lens, this sexagenarian had already mastered the art of extending an arm forward or to one side for a selfie. Especially with girls at a bar.

Why, it can become a skill. And it’s not only used for self-portraits alone. Initially, it was to document one’s presence by a major landmark, say, before the Taj Mahal of the Eiffel Tower. And it wasn’t always just so one could post it on FB to effect inggit among friends.

Well before FB, photog-friends and I were already compiling digital albums showing ourselves in historic sites, such as this bar or that. Of late it’s become only The Oarhouse Pub in Malate, which rivals Disneyland in kodakan frequency.

Of course, eventually, it also became a case of elevating the photo op to CSD (Celeb Sidekick Sisorder) as a form of selfie fandom — as when I once extended that arm to posterize Apl de App and me together in a hotel lobby, or with Ann Curtis at a film premiere. And no, that last didn’t result in any resounding slap or even a face palm.

Once, it was with Manny Pacquiao at a Manila Polo Club reception. Trouble was, I fumbled with my real camera (not yet a smartphone one), so that the champ grabbed it from me and took the pic himself, honest. I couldn’t decline, not when I saw his left fist close-up. 

Come to think of it, that pic avoided being a selfie, as I hadn’t done the clicking myself. After all, I still subscribe to the hard-nosed definition that a selfie must be a self-taken portrait. Using a camera with a self-timer and rushing back to join the group pose? Well, yes then, that qualifies as a selfie — the way the first ever selfie was said to have been recorded, all of 174 years ago!

“As the Public Domain Review notes, the first recorded instance of the selfie harkens back to what may have been the first photographic portrait.

“In 1839, a young Philadelphia chemist named Robert Cornelius stepped out of his family’s store and took a photograph of himself … by removing the lens cap and then running [into the] frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again. On the back he wrote ‘The first light Picture ever taken. 1839.”

But what about using my iPhone’s reverse lens to take pictures of a theater crowd behind me, in the hope that Anne Curtis is sitting a row or two behind? I guess that’s not a selfie, since the clicker isn’t taking a self-portrtait.

I’ve had selfies with the full moon, tricking the lens to capture my fingers pincering it. And I’ve mastered the art of the selfie enough to take pics that range from duo selfies to group selfies, as the pics on this page will show.

In fact it’s always fun to photobomb an entire group of friends by planting oneself upfront and clicking away, even with the focus entirely on the clicker.

Okay, moral and aesthetic arguments aside, let’s just say that the selfie is here to stay. I speak for myself, at least until I get another one with Anne, as long as she hadn’t just done one herself in some cheap club’s bathroom.