Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/430739
DECEMBER 10-16, 2014 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM I came late to the world's great selfie party. The first time I even heard the word was just a year ago when President Obama and the lovely blond Prime Minister of Denmark snapped selfies together at Nelson Mandela's funeral while Mrs. Obama stared into the distance with a look that clearly said, "We're gonna talk about this later, big boy!" Before and since, bazillions of selfies have been taken worldwide generally with smart phones — selfies alone, selfies with friends, selfies with lunch and most of them seem to be posted on social media, embarrassing or not. Selfies, however, are nothing new. We have been taking pictures of ourselves since we have had cameras, the first known selfie being of an American photographer named Robert Cornelius in 1839. It is also one of the first known photographs of a human being and we have been snapping away ever since. Kodak's Brownie box camera debuted in 1900, the beginning of a long list of innovations that brought photography out of professional studios and into our own hot little hands. The word "selfie" can be traced to an Australian Internet post in 2002, and by 2012 Time magazine named it one of the top buzzwords of the year, even though it was late 2013 before I got that message. Unlike the average teenager, I can count on one hand the number of selfies I have taken, but the fact remains that even I am not brand new to the selfie rodeo. The great appeal of selfies seems to be what it has always been, images of ourselves which are all about — well — us! Our interest in ourselves is now magnified many times over by the ease and availability of smart phones and the stunning ability to share ourselves instantly with not only family and friends but with the entire world. We cannot seem to get enough of such images. A selfie taken by Ellen DeGeneres of herself with other celebrities at this year's Academy Award ceremonies is the most retweeted image of all time, although there is no doubt that someone will see that record as a challenge and shatter it. And just FYI, group images are generating their own names such as "usies" (Business Week) and "groufies," a term coined by a Chinese phone manufacturer. These group pics are made easier to take by putting the smart phone or camera on a selfie stick to get a wide angle shot. Such sticks are sold around the world wherever tourists are found. Most selfies, even the ones of us in silly Santa hats eating Christmas cookies, are harmless, but selfies can get us into big trouble too. Just ask former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who lost both his seat in Congress and a run for New York City Mayor after not one but two "sexting" scandals which involved sending selfies of his various parts to multiple women not his wife. Mr. Weiner is hardly alone. Other politicians have found themselves in such embarrassing situations of their own making, of course, as have movie stars, high school students, business executives, school teachers and ordinary Americans of all stripes. Astoundingly, at least to me, the Huffington Post reports that one in ten Baby Boomers, people 50 years old and over, admit to either sending or receiving sexually explicit photos, so it is probably safe to assume that the real number is actually higher. Sexting is so prevalent that no less than The New York Times calls it "the new lipstick on the collar." Whether you or I have ever texted, sexted, posted pics on social media, sent family photos by email or any other technology, it is clear to me that selfies of all sorts and for good or ill are here to stay. With apologies to Nixon-era political operative H. R. Haldeman, that toothpaste is long out of the tube. There are young people who do not remember a time before selfies. For a couple of months now, I have been dealing with a jammed pinkie toe on my left foot, an injury that occurred when I somehow walked into a chair leg in my own home. My doc, bless her heart, told me that such injuries can take up to six months to heal, and it seems she might be right. So I have memorialized my ailing tootsie with a selfie of that part of me atop one of the Dicksons' decorative Christmas pillows. I was wearing a silly Santa hat when I snapped the pic with my smart phone. Just thought you would like to know. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests Book Your Banquet & Holiday Parties Early! Family & Business Groups Welcome! Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. Say Cheese! BY MARGARET DICKSON Our interest in ourselves is now magnified many times over by the ease and availability of smart phones and the stunning ability to share ourselves instantly with not only family and friends but with the entire world.