In early October, The Takeaway explored the possibility of doing a story about The National #Selfie Portrait Gallery. Suspecting that our host would be more than a bit skeptical about the premise of the segment, I spent some time reading up.
We ultimately scrapped the segment but on Tuesday when Oxford Dictionaries named “selfie” 2013’s Word of the Year, it was time to return to the topic. Writer Casey Cep gave Takeaway guest host Anna Sale a lot to chew on in her radio interview. To round things out I blogged about the selfie think-piece and my own relationship with the selfie for On the Media’s TLDR:
I fall into the selfie-averse crowd. I’ve tried, but I can’t figure out the right angle at which to position my camera or the best way to purse my lips. At selfie-range, I don’t recognize—or particularly like—my own features. I’d like to think my selfie-allergy is a symptom of humility but writer Brian Droitcour might interpret it differently. “The real narcissists are the ones who never take selfies,” Droitcour argues. “They imagine their self as autonomous, hermetic—too precious to be shared.”
Writing the post was fun; seeing the reaction to the piece on social media has been even more fun. Turns out people have strong feelings about selfies– and about my big cat shirt.
(This photo, by the way, was taken a few hours before my bachelorette party in response to inquiries about my level of excitement. I was very excited.)
Mythili G. Rao 