Thanks to social media and the smartphone, National Selfie Day on June 21 recognizes a form of self-portrait that couldn’t exist without that technology: selfies.
In 2014, DJ Rick McNeely from Fishbowl Radio Network founded National Selfie Day in Arlington, Texas. It started as an idea and has become an international event.
People are encouraged to take creative — appropriate — pictures and share them on social media. While taking a selfie predates social media, smartphones, and the word itself, the popularity of taking these self-portraits keeps increasing, while the ability to take them becomes easier all the time.
Research shows that 82 per cent of people under age 34 have shared a selfie online, while it’s estimated that people will post 25,000 selfies in their lifetime.
An Australian Flickr user was the first person to use the word “selfie,” and in 2004, a new name was born for this cultural phenomenon. It’s a little surprising, but the Oxford Dictionary didn’t add selfie to the dictionary until 2013.
Selfie sticks and multi-functional camera phones make it convenient to take these single-person photographs, as well as group selfies — or groupies.
Selfies have become so popular that the most common types are earning names for themselves. Most are about documenting a moment in time, while others merely capture a look. They usually feature the person taking the photo. However, not all of them are about the photographer.
Besides duck face selfies, other types include in cars, in bathrooms, with pets, with best friends, of food, glamour shots, in gyms, with celebrities, travel adventures, with babies, and tattoos.
Some tips to take the best selfies include acting naturally, smiling, practising shooting from different angles, having good lighting, looking slightly to the left or right of the screen, checking your background and taking multiple pictures to acquire the best one.
New area selfie business
If you find it difficult to locate interesting backgrounds for your selfies, then a new business aims to make it easier to acquire those special pictures: Self Image Boutique in Regina at 1217 Broad Street.
The business features more than 20 rooms — each with a different theme that co-owners Matina Assimakopoulos and Anna Tzortzis designed — ranging from sports teams to seasonal holidays. The rooms have plenty of props, which the owners hope encourage people to have fun and be creative.
The duo created the business because they thought it would be fun and a great opportunity for people to enjoy themselves with others, Tzortzis explained. Since social media is important to many people, this selfie boutique is a new place for them to create content.
“Families can get together, especially in Saskatchewan, when it’s freezing in the wintertime. They have somewhere nice inside to go to take pictures,” she said.
The rooms and the boutique will change monthly with the holidays, but others will change quarterly with the seasons. Some themed rooms relate to the province, the Regina Pats, the Roughriders, an interactive bathtub with bubbles, Barbie and 1950s-era telephones.
“The (1950s’ telephones) and bathtub room are probably my favourite,” said Tzortzis.
Both co-owners encourage everyone to visit the boutique. So far, grandparents have come with grandkids, parents have attended with their children, and groups of teens have visited the business.
“Come out and have fun. It’s a positive and fun place to hang out,” Tzortzis added.
For more information, visit selfimageboutique.ca or its social media pages.
