Blog post #6: Teens' selfies are for approval?

If we're just going to accept that selfie only teaches people how to be narcissistic, then we should also consider what will be the effect of it, specially to the teenagers, who got addicted to this trend if the community change the way how they look at the teenagers who do selfies.

In an article entitled "Dark Undercurrents of teenage girls' selfie post" theage.com.au by Olympia Nelson she stated that the reason why we see the mainstream pout-lips selfie and the ever famous mirror shots is because the girls who post these kinds of selfies is they over-think about how they are going to look sexy in the picture or is it enough to garner a thousand likes, for them it is like a Hunger Games style of competition wherein they have to beat others by having more likes than their opponent. Even the reserved girls are trying to strike a sexy pose, but they should be careful though, because they are not 'qualified' in this kind of competition because people who know this reserved girl will think that she is just making a trend or boasting her change of style in life, which can be painful for her if she fails to be like the 'pros' in this competition. It takes a lot of confidence to able to do this kind of selfies. These kind of selfies is like peering through a window because the girls who do these kind of selfies is almost naked, and they do this to seek approval from their peers but why they don't know is that they are not aiming for joy but to score a position.

This article interests me because it made sense to me why girls take mirror shots with just their underwear is
because they want to achieve what boys see and it's pornography. They post almost-naked photos of themselves to see that if their enough to fill the fantasies of boys, which for me is absolutely wrong and inappropriate because I think girls who do that don't know that they look like porn stars already because they are busy trying to achieve the boys' taste for girls.

Olympia Nelson said, "The real problem relates to conformity. Kids are compelled to act the stereotype, because those who opt out commit themselves to social leprosy. Social media doesn't need adult control. What we need is some good taste."

This quote practically tells us that many of us choose to do mainstream things in the internet but what we don't know is that what we're doing already disgusts the people who see it, and we're not aware of it because we pay too much attention on what we normally see and we don't do things that can benefit instead we do things that will destroy us.

From this point of view, girls overdo things just to get the approval of the society specially the boys. They want to be the one to fulfill the boys' taste on girls. But I think there is something that we don't see and we just think that's it's normal either.

I came across an article entitled "Modern Musings: Selfies - just a bit harmless fun?"  by Charl Laubscher and Rebecca Kamm in nzherald.co.nz, in this article the authors gave their own perspective on what selfie is.

Rebecca Kamm said, selfie is like a high-school popularity contest on steroids and as the selfie develop, there are now genres of selfie, the gym selfie, without-make-up selfie and so many more, but for her they are just wasting their time in scrutinizing their faces and check for an acceptance note from the social media. Whether we like it or not the teenage girls will always be self-absorbed and desperate for the approvals of the society and there is nothing we can do about what's happening in our society right all we can do is just, sit back and watch them.

Charl Laubscher said, he said according to a survey by Samsung, it showed that 30 percent of the photos
that were taken, I was surprised with this information, by men. They have the same problem with the women too - they want acceptance from their peers too. That's why most of the men post their pictures topless when their in the gym because they want to know inform the society that they have changed and now that they have gained a lot of confidence to face the society.

This article interests me because the ideas of the authors were different but when read thoroughly they come to one point - everyone is guilty of doing selfies and they all have one goal of why they do this trend, they want to be accepted because they have gone through a lot of changes and they've gained enough confidence to face them and be proud of who they are now.

Rebecca Kamm said, " It's probably not a trend that encourages them to spend hours every week scrutinising their own faces and bodies on a screen, then hungrily checking in for positive validation."

This quote tells us what was the point of the two authors in their article, everyone will always be seeking for approval from anyone. That's what we all want anyway, even the people who don't do selfies, they also want to be accepted by their peers but they do it differently and more discreet.

I think for me, the trend today is not selfie itself, but the attitude we have for seeking of approval from everyone. Selfie is just the tool we use to send everybody what we are today, how musch we have changed over the past past years of being in shell and not coming out because we are afraid to be judged, bullied and hated by everyone.