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OnWords: Selfie

A friend who teaches elementary school noted a weird trend: For kids under 10, “selfie” now refers to any picture at all.

In these kids’ experience, adults with cellphones are deeply narcissistic.

“Selfie” is, I guess, “self-portrait” made cute, and while there’s nothing new about self-portraits, it’s interesting that this form of the term has become popular now.

What does it say about us that we feel the need to constantly upload smiling and idealized images of ourselves for semi-public consumption when we know full well our realities are scowling and annoyed?

It’s as if “selfie” represents an internalization of public relations, an eternal hyping of the personal brand.

If so, “selfie” is not a word describing a way of taking a picture; it’s a word depicting an attitude toward seeing and being seen.

Rather than technologies such as smart phones and social media allowing us to be who we most want to be, the selfie shows that we are always policing our emotions and projecting only the cheesiest and most enthusiastic image we can.

Rather than a sign of narcissism, then, “selfie” is a symbol of our subjection to the social order.

Lael Ewy is a co-founder and editor of EastWesterly Review, a journal of literary satire at www.postmodernvillage.com, and a writer whose work has appeared in such venues as Denver Quarterly and New Orleans Review and has been anthologized in Troubles Swapped for Something Fresh.