The Selfie Epidemic

The Selfie Epidemic

Everyone seems to be taking and posting one. A selfie orchestrated by 86th Academy Awards host Ellen DeGeneres during the 2 March 2014 broadcast is the most retweeted image ever. The resulting photo of twelve celebrities broke the previous retweet record within 40 minutes, and was retweeted over 1.8 million times in the first hour;less than 24 hours later, it had been retweeted over 2.8 million times and as of 18 March 2014, it has been retweeted 3,400,395 times beating the previous record, 778,801, which was held by Barack Obama, following his victory in the 2012 presidential election . From Obama to Cameron to Narendra Modi and Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Nargis Fakhri, the epidemic  rages.

Now  more and more people are using the word. And we are  talking more about the word since the Oxford Dictionaries announced on November 18 that selfie is their Word of the Year for 2013. Candidates for word of the year are usually nominated because they capture something, an idea, a movement, a question, which has substantially occupied people over the past year. First, selfie actually restricts its meaning: "A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" . Not just any self-portrait but one created with a digital device. Not any photo stored anywhere but one uploaded to a social media site such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Tumblr.

And the word's origins may be more local than we think. Australia has proudly laid claim to inventing the term “selfie” from 2002, in a 20-something's photo and report of a drunken party, posted to an ABC Online forum: "Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps ... And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."

Odds are the lad was not  inventing a new word but simply using language he and his mates normally used.Now, 12 years after that young man's tumble down the stairs, selfie is part of worldwide English speech for a digitised, media-sharing culture.

President Barack Obama made news headlines during Nelson Mandela's memorial celebration at the Johannesburg's FNB Stadium with various world leaders, as he was snapped taking a selfie and sharing smiles with the Danish and British PMs--  Helle Thorning-Schmidt and David Cameron. Closer home, Narendra Modi's selfie after casting his vote in Gandhinagar, as also a tweet announcing the same, became major trending items on the micro-blogging platform.

mindSHIFT is one of the largest IT outsourcing and cloud services providers. Zafar Rais, founder and CEO sheds some interesting light on the selfie epidemic.

So, why does one need to take selfies?

 Given that social media platforms are breeding grounds for flattery and support from friends in the form of likes and comments, it is  no surprise that the term gained popularity amongst various age groups and audiences alongside the adoption of Instagram. The youth are digitally born and their opinions and decisions are driven by what their friends think of them and what makes them constantly connected.

 How they are  perceived and accepted is defined by the places they go to, the clothes they wear and even the lip shade they have considered for the day. All this, and the company they keep gets covered through a selfie, giving them a boost in the way they see themselves and present themselves in front of others. The youth develop themselves based on societal acceptance and the competitive nature of humans through likes, comments and shares boosts our morale and compare our lives, giving the confidence of being accepted.

What you’re wearing and where you are were the most common selfies until the celebrity selfie at the Oscars was shot by Ellen DeGeneres at the 86^th Academy Awards with 12 celebrities, becoming the most retweeted photograph ever garnering a total of 3 million retweets and receiving total impressions of 32.8 million through Twitter and news sites. Ellen’s group selfies brought about the current trend.

Selfies have no occasion but statistically the popular locations to take a selfie are holidays, homes and night-outs. The top reasons for taking a Selfie are towards remembering a happy moment, capturing a funny one or showing off a brilliant outfit.

So where are selfies being shared?

With 35 Million selfies posted on Instagram, it is responsible for making selfie what it is today. Instagram’s key success factor continues to be the ability to touch up photographs before they go online. As of now Facebook leads the way with 48 per cent usage of selfies coming from it but the ability for tools such as Instagram that sync with Twitter and  Facebook seamlessly to increase outreach will go on to make Instagram a leader in capitalizing upon the selfies phenomenon.

Do selfies have any relevance to brands?

Wherever you look,  you will see people standing with their phones and arms stretched out, ready to click a selfie. This gives rise to a marketers need to tap into this potential audience and get their attention. The keyword here continues towards being the essence of social media – gaining insights about your consumers by listening to them and decoding what they truly want, and how they want it.

 Can you highlight some of these campaigns?

Already  a few  have rightly merged consumer and brand insights to achieve success on digital. In India, Dove launched the #DoveSelfie contest inviting women to take a selfie of their best hairstyle as per the theme of the day and post it across Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Highlighting their Insurance plan targeted at the entire family, and  tapping the Indian sentiment of taking photographs with family members, Max Bupa encouraged Twitter audiences to take a family selfie with their loved ones.

In order to promote the brand’s latest backpack, the Skybags  campaign highlighted how everything is done backwards in today’s times, and included the concept of reverse selfies, where one had to show off their unique style with their backs facing the camera either with the help of a mirror or get it clicked by someone.

As brands tie in with the term and get their hands around it along with a better grasp of visual styling networks like Instagram, the future of selfies seems promising and the word definitely won’t be just a fad.

 Apple has embarked on a mission to allow their users to take the highest quality of selfies from their smartphones, Instagram sees a daily traffic of 7.3 Million users, and an average of 60 Million photos uploaded daily. Being acquired by Facebook makes it more seamless and susceptible of owning and leading the selfie domain for years to come.

Get ready for the “Shelfie”…….

Gmail, in an attempt to be at the forefront of innovation, has recently announced Shelfie, the Shareable Selfie, built on the idea that you shouldn’t be selfish with your selfie. Shelfie enables you to check, read and write emails while seeing your face in the background. The confidence Gmail shows is evident with their claim to make Shelfie the Word of the Year 2014.