Selfie Lords: Reasons Why Millennials Love Taking Selfies

1.0 Introduction

Over the time, technology has been a large part of people's lives. Without it, people may
not be able to do things that are impossible to do without it. It has made lives more convenient,
starting from the things that people use in their house like appliances, machineries that big
companies or factories use to produce important product, and gadgets that make things easier for
everyone. Gadgets also serve important role in people's lives. The rise of cellular phones and its
transition to smartphones is an evidence of human's capability to innovate. From just being able
to send messages and make calls before people are now able to use smartphones in many ways.
Then there also comes the internet which make things more accessible. Gathering information,
searching for local or international news, keeping up with what's trending, sharing your opinions
and especially communicating with other people are now on the tip of everyone's hands. The
internet, coupled with smartphones, are basically a necessity for the most, so much that without it,
some people cannot survive. Smartphones nowadays are equipped with high resolution cameras,
and people use it to take pictures then eventually post in social networking sites. For one thing,
"selfies" became a social phenomenon.

As defined by Moreau (2017), selfie is a photograph taken by yourself by just activating

the front-facing camera of your smartphone. It is a fun way to capture moments and it allows
people to share social information’s to various social media platform. It gives them the
opportunity to update and share with other people the happenings in their daily lives. And
because the availability of smartphones is now more accessible, it is now easier to be "in" with
this phenomenon. As long as a person have a smartphone, nothing can stop him or her from
taking a selfie, be it their age, socio-economic status or gender. It is also an easy thing to do,
considering how high-tech smartphones are. Compared back then wherein taking pictures is more
limited because films are expensive, people nowadays are able to take unlimited pictures or
selfies of special events or memories that they would want to reminisce in the future.

A study conducted by Now Sourcing and Frames Direct stated that an average
millennial spends an hour a week by just taking selfies, considering the time from taking the
photo to re-taking the photo and getting it edited. 55 percent of selfies all over the internet come
from millennials, but Gen X follows with 24 percent and lastly, Baby Boomers with nine percent.
With this gathered data, it is evident that millennials really invest their time in taking selfies,
compared to the other generations that were mentioned. Kowalczyk (2016) also states that selfies
are one way of self-presentation and expression, an interpersonal communication where a person
conveys an image about him or herself to another individual. In addition to this, self-presentation
enables a person to influence and manage the perception of themselves, by others. When a selfie
gains many likes or positive comments on social media, a sense of achievement and success
emerges which empowers the person who took the selfie by shaping his or her real life
understanding of self-identity (e.g., he or she gains more confidence in real life) in terms of other
people's idealistic perception and acknowledgement to them (Bustard, 2014). On the other hand,
when a selfie gets less attention or negative feedback, some people get sad or even depressed
about it because they didn't get the attention that they wanted. Moreover, after taking many selfie,
people pick out what they think is the best picture of them. Somehow, when people post pictures
of themselves, they want to please other people by presenting themselves through their outfits or
hairstyles that they have. Some people also seek acceptance and love through selfies. When they
post their photos in social media, they wait until people recognize their picture and make a
comment about it.

Although there is nothing wrong with taking selfies, there are some cases that it can
cause accidents to some. There are some reported incidents in which several people died while
taking selfie. In 2015, a 66-year-old Japanese tourist died when he fell down a flight of steps
while taking a selfie at the Taj Mahal. Taking selfies can be fun in one way or another, but there
are possibilities that it can lead some people to danger. It is a simple and usual thing to do for
everyone, so who would've thought that it causes death to some people? However, the accident
said doesn't imply that taking selfies can cause immediate death to everyone. Instead, people
should not forget to consider safety and precaution while doing it in order for them to not risk
their lives. Still, taking selfie also has its positive effect to people despite of its downsides. By
showing their talents in photography and skills in photoshop, it can bring out the creativity of
every individual. By taking selfies with the right angles and appropriate effects, they could get
positive feedbacks from other people, which in turn would make them happy and make their self-
esteem get higher (Awani,2014).

The focus of this study to find out the reasons why millennials love taking selfies.
Additionally, the researchers will conduct this study to find out the reasons why it already
became a habit to them. Also, the researchers would like to explain the positive and negative
effects of taking selfies. And as much as possible, this study will also aim to provide much
information about the selfie phenomenon, so that through this, the millennials will become aware
and educated about this on-going phenomenon and its effects to them.

2.0 Theoretical Framework

Self-verification theory is a social-psychological theory which proposes that people

prefer others to see them as they see themselves. They want others to understand and accept
them according to their own perceptions about themselves. This theory also predicts that when
people interact with others, there is a huge tendency for them to bring others to see them as they
see themselves. According to Swann (1978), people form self-views in order for them to predict
and understand the response of others and know how to act towards them. If someone sees
himself as likable, he would want others to see him as that. People may use distinct strategies to
create self-verification and one of it is the systematic self-view to others. They may display
highly-visible signs and symbols or identity cues of who they are. Physical appearance is a great
example of an identity cue. People may highlight themselves through clothes, their hairstyles or
body postures. A person who stands and faces help e with proper posture may portray himself as
a confident person. Same thing with taking selfies, if a person wants to look like he's jolly or
happy, he may take a selfie with a big smile plastered on his face.
The researchers think that self-verification is highly relevant to the selfie
phenomenon. People take selfie in order to them to show other people what they think of
themselves. They also do it to get sympathy or to confirm their self-verifications to other people.
In line with this, selfie is a kind of self-representation. People represent themselves through
various ways, especially in their physical aspects. If a girl thinks that she is beautiful, she would
want others to see that she is, but if they don't, her self-esteem might be affected. The more a
person set his self-verification and other people doesn't confirm with it, the higher the chance
that his self-esteem will deplete. On the contrary, if other people confirms the self-view of an
individual, his or her self-esteem gets higher.
In other words, the researchers think that self-verification theory will help to
establish the reasons why millennial’s love taking selfies. It will also help the researchers in
conducting the study and finding reliable answers and results onto the given problems.
2.1 Statement of the Problem

In line with the foregoing discussion, the researchers aim to address the reasons why
millennials love taking selfies with the following questions:

Research Question 1 What are the reasons of the respondents on why they take selfies?

Research Question 2 Why does taking selfie has become a habit of them?

Research Question 3 How does taking selfie affects one's self-esteem?

Research Question 4 How do the respondents view the importance of taking selfie?

Research Question 5 How do the respondents manage the disadvantages of the habit of taking

selfies?