Work-Based Self-Portrayals

One degree out from an image “selfie” are text-based self-generated user profiles (self-portrayals) on social media platforms; these are self-depictions of the individual as he or she represents to the world. This work-based self-representation must be sufficiently convincing of professionalism and ethics to encourage other professionals to collaborate on shared work projects through co-creation, support, attention, or other work. While project-based track records may carry the force of fact, there are often more subtle messages that have high impact on distant collaborations. One such important dimension is “indirect reciprocity,” or whether the target individual treats collaborators with respect and care and returns altruistic acts with their own acts of altruism. This work describes some analyses of professional profiles on social media platforms (email, social networking, and microblogging) for indicators of indirect reciprocity.

Self-Objectification vs. African Conservative Features in the Selfies of Black African Women

Though popularly construed as a universal phenomenon, selfie taking is gendered and culturally determined. This could be evidenced by the fact that the two socio-cultural forces of conservatism and traditionalism continue to tremendously shape African women's style of taking and sharing selfies on social media. Based on a content analysis of 200 selfies generated and shared by Nigerian women on Facebook and Instagram, this chapter illustrates this reality. It argues that Nigerian women are generally more conservative than liberal in their use of selfies for self-presentation, self-imaging and self-expression in public spaces. Over 59% of their selfies have conservative features. However, despite the prevalence of conservative myths and gender related stereotypes in the Nigerian society, the phenomenon of nude or objectified selfies remains a clearly notable sub-culture among Nigerian women. Over 41% of Nigerian women's selfies contain such objectification features as suggestive postures; suggestive micro-expressions and fair/excessive nudity among others.

Selfies

In this study, digital culture emerging with new communication technologies after oral culture and the written culture will be examined in a critical perspective with the example of selfie. As expressed previously, many studies conducted with the same content has focused on the individual psychological effects of selfies. But study will be focusing on the social effects of selfies which are considered as a new visual culture of the new digital society in this study. The new cultural environment in Turkey created by the selfies in which the impacts of globalization can be observed is being discussed in this study and it will try to evaluate the sociological dimensions of selfies shared publicly by the most widely followed users in Instagram which is among the social media network based on visualization while highlighting the disappeared properties of oral and written culture

Creating an Instrument for the Manual Coding and Exploration of Group Selfies on the Social Web

A subgroup of the images shared as part of the “selfie” phenomenon is group selfies (aka “groupies” and “we-fies” or “us-ies”) or self-portraits of groups (three or more individuals of focal interest) that are shared on social media. These images have informational value that has thus far been only thinly explored. In this work, an instrument—Categorization and Exploration of Group Selfies Instrument (CEGSI), pronounced “segsy”—was constructed of three parts: (1) Group Selfie Content and Context, (2) Group Selfie Image Creation, and (3) Group Selfie Messaging. It was tested against two image sets: group selfies and dronies, which were scraped from Google Images. This chapter describes the work, the analytical findings, and the resulting instrument for the manual coding of group selfies, and other insights.

Motivations and Positive Effects of Taking, Viewing, and Posting Different Types of Selfies on Social Media

In this study, we explored the motivations and the effects of selfie taking, posting, and viewing. To understand the selfie phenomenon, we conducted in-depth interviews with 16 American and Chinese students. The findings suggest that the selfie phenomenon among American students is not necessarily related to narcissism and low self-esteem, as argued in many previous literatures. Contrarily, selfie usage among Chinese students is more associated with narcissism (self-indulgence in recreational selfie-taking) and impression management (selfie-editing to improve online self-image). In the general, selfie taking, viewing, and posting behaviors could be conceptualized as more than just a display of narcissism, but also as a new way of communication, life-recording, online impression management, and relationship management. Cultural differences between American and Chinese students' use of selfies are also discussed.

Senses of “Selfie” Around the World From Web Search Patterns Over Extended Time

When social phenomena and practices go viral, like “selfies,” they instantiate in different locations around the world in different ways based on cultural differences, technological affordances, and other factors. When people go to search for “selfie” on Google Search, they are thinking different things as well. On Google Correlate, it is possible to identify the top correlating search terms that pattern-match the time patterns for the seeding search term. Based in this big data, these search term correlates (associated over extended time) provide a sense of the “group mind” around a particular topic.

Shameless Selfie-Promotion

Taking selfies and sharing them on social media is a popular activity in the age of the smartphone. Why do people take selfies and post them for others to see? This chapter reviews the empirical literature on the association between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior. Narcissism is a multidimensional personality trait characterized by grandiose views of oneself, a sense of superiority and concomitant feelings of entitlement, and a lack of empathy toward others. Included in the chapter is a discussion of important conceptual and methodological considerations in the study of narcissism, as well as a qualitative review of studies examining the association between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior and what these investigations have revealed. Finally, theoretical models explaining the association between narcissism and selfie- posting behavior are presented.

Spontaneous Taking and Posting Selfie

On social media where people are struggling to attract others' attentions, posting selfies is the most convenient way to communicate their individuality. They do not need anyone's assistance to take their picture, and they can take it anytime and post it immediately on social media. Bodily appearance has always been an influence in how an individual is perceived and treated by her social environment. Fortunately, on social media this appearance has transformed into information, which, therefore, can be manipulated by computers or even smartphones. With the help of digital image processing software fulfilling the beauty standard of any virtual community is no longer a concern. However, this chapter argues that this technology destroys the realism of a photograph, makes its reliability almost like that of a statement, which depends on its human source not on itself. This creates the problem of trust, and many users seek to overcome it by spontaneous taking and posting a casual and inelegant selfie.