Thanks to social media being inescapable, selfies have become an art form, and the word has even been included in Oxford’s dictionary. But did millennials really come up with it?
Believe it or not, the Kardashians were born long after selfies were invented. In fact, “selfies” can be traced back to the sixteenth century in Europe, when artists made portraits of themselves just for fun. Who would have thought of Rembrandt and Van Gogh as history’s first selfie takers with #nofilter? Besides paintings, drawings, Polaroids and disposable cameras have contributed to the rise of the selfie as a way of representing ourselves.
The selfie phenomenon doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon: when you searched Intagram for the #selfie hashtag in 2013, you would get around 23 million results. Today, there are more than 300 million posts with the hashtag. I think it’s safe to say selfies are here to stay. Today’s infographic is an ode to self-obsession: from “delfies” to “helfies” to “belfies,” there is a selfie for every taste and part of your life.
Before you document your next outing with a front-facing camera, make sure you avoid the dangerous selfies we’ve written about previously, like posing with a wild, enraged animal or a loaded gun. Now, smile!