Motamed 1

Nicholas Motamed

Professor Herman

English 1 S

1/30/2020

Selfies Influenced How They Are Perceived?

Selfies have become very popular among teenagers and young adults: according to uKnowKids

“Selfie Safety Infographic” they say 18 to 24 years old have taken 30% of photos of themselves.

The main reason that Ogre Casselton states in “Instagram: Beware of The Toxic Culture Behind

it” is that the selfies heighten “feelings of attention and validation in the form of unlimited

scrolling and innocent tapping — almost harmless — heart-shaped likes”, for young people are

looking for ways that they can fit into society. Although selfies have some positive impacts I

believe they have the power to change the world in a negative way; selfies are a source for

addiction they affect how people perceive themselves, and push people to seek validation from

their peers.

First, selfies can cause young people and teens to misinterpret how they look with false

standards. Stevyn Colgan, author of “Self-obsessing in the age of selfies' ' states that a 22 year

old Junaid Ahmed, decided one day decided to go through cosmetic surgery, to get

improvements; for he did not like the way he looked. This was all a result of him obsessing

over his Selfie. Ahmed said that ”I used to be quite natural”, then he decided he needed

improvements. He claimed “ I had my teeth veneered, chin filler, cheek filler, jawline filler, lip

filler, and botox under the eyes and on the head, tattooed eyebrows and fat freezing! In addition,

Colgan, mentioned that 9 in 10 teenage girls hate themselves, because of how they look on
 Motamed 2

selfies! This obsession with selfies has led to people hating who they are: their looks,

personality, and every imperfection as a result of pressure to have to fit a fake standard that

young people make to get validation from strangers in the media. This restates my claim that

selfies can become destructive as a virus, at first it's a simple selfie that leads to people

criticizing who they are causing a lot to become depressed, lonely, and gain low self esteem!

Next teens and young adults take selfies and change their own photos to hide who they

are. According to Coglan, a lot of people, most likely women, fiddle with their own photos to

thin themselves. This is affirmed by someone named Rhiannon Cosslett who wrote in an article

in the Guardian, “It’s unbelievably easy to doctor a photo. I did it to a photo of myself taken in

the garden last month, and in under five minutes I am slimmer, browner, better.” This mostly

talks about men and women, but it indicates that anyone including young teens and adults can

make it a habit to fiddle with their image to fall into the virtual crowd. This shows my point

again: teens and young adults edit their beliefs causing them to lose their originality; they are

not true to themselves. Selfies can disillusion people to believe that editing your photo creates

beauty and perfection. This is not true since I totally believe that perfection and beauty is about

loving who you are instead of changing your image because that means you are not showing you

truly look like.

Then Selfies for teens and young adults can not only affect their view of themselves but

also how they see others. Tanzina Vega, writer of ”Shooting Spurs Hashtag Effort on

Stereotypes”, said “ the image of Mr. Brown that spurred the campaign on Twitter showed him

with the fingers of his right hand extended in what some considered a peace sign, but which

others called a gang sign.” This restates again that teens and young people can develop

stereotyped views whether or not they planned to or not, because of these false selfies
 Motamed 2

interpretations. This is a serious issue that can damage young minds that can grow like a weed

that spreads false views in your mind via selfies.

Even though selfies are a source of addiction and misperceptions of oneself and others we

should not get rid of them. In addition this is also shown when street artist JR made an

installation of a photo of a boy looking over the border wall between Mexico and U.S,

representing innocence of a child caught unknowingly at the center of a national debate”. The

installation Keiko, has helped draw people to an authentic representation to help the world.

Selfies can also be used to represent young teens and adults as well and teach them that they do

not use selfief to hide their true image. Should be used to educate teens and young adults about

the harmful effects of obsessing over their image, and teach them instead to love themselves the

way they are.