Selfie, Selfie – Oh Yeah, Why Not?
As India is gearing for the Yoga Day celebration on June 21st and Indian prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi is looking forward to attending a Yoga session in UN headquarters on 21st June, there is more to celebrate on the June 21st.
And this is International Selfie Day originated in the USA, celebrated since 2014.
The first time celebration was started by DJ Rick McNeely to show creativity by taking own photography.
Selfie – What is it? Why is it?
Selfie, the word, got its entry in dictionaries worldwide in 2013.
According to the Oxford dictionary, Selfie is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.
With the advent of smartphones and with the advancement in information technology, the horizons of social media are now expanding beyond our imaginations.
Selfie taken from our own smartphone stacked in different memory cards or Google drives or even in the gallery of the phone itself are now an inevitable part of our lives.
History of selfie : World’s first selfie
The first ever selfie as per record was a daguerreotype image taken by an amateur chemist and photography lover Robert Cornelius in 1839.
Museum of the city of New York has a digital collection of about 23000 imprints of selfie type of photographs taken by the Byron company during 1920 in their Marceau studio founded in Manhattan in 1892.
In 1914,Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of the then USSR, took a picture of herself in front of a mirror using a Kodak Brownie Box Camera.
The first ever selfie taken in space was that of astronaut Buzz Aldrin who purportedly took a picture of himself during the Gemini 12 Mission of NASA in 1966.
Selfie : The Word
The word ‘Selfie’ was accidentally coined by an Australian man Nathan Hope in 2002 when he posted his own picture ( He was drunk at that time ) while celebrating his 21st birthday with a caption – “ And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”
The word ‘Selfie’ was declared as the ‘word of the year’ in 2013 by Oxford dictionary, the word saw a 17000% spike in usage since its first use.
First Smartphone with front camera –
Sony Ericsson Z 1010 in 2003 introduced the first front facing camera but it was not meant for selfie but for video conferencing.
Selfie – craze or just a fling
With evolution in technology and advanced cameras in smartphones and more to this, the increasing popularity of smartphones, many more people are laced with smartphones, carrying the same with them all the time, selfie is now a habit of a large number of people.
It has now become normal and everyone seems to be enjoying taking his/her own pictures.
Selfie and its habit has now taken the behavioral scientists, psychologists on their toes as the world is going gaga over this new found self-love.
Ironically, 16th of March is celebrated every year as National No-Selfie Day to raise awareness against Selfie addictions.
Over-indulgence of selfie : Danger uninvited
There are many incidents that are worrisome connected with the habit of taking selfies without thinking about the surroundings.
A seemingly harmless habit is now frightening many as this is now becoming one of the reasons for severe injuries and even death among the tourists who actually risk their lives to take a solo picture on the dangerous points of the tourist places.
Always take care of your life and any kind of callousness often becomes too costly.
Conclusion –
So guys, it’s Selfie day and Yoga day on 21st of June.
Enjoy and post your nicest Yoga Selfie on social media.