Do It Yourself(ie)

Beating out some real gems of our modern language like "twerking" and "bitcoin," the word "selfie" was named Oxford Dictionary's 2013 Word of the Year. For those of you not in the know, a "selfie" is simply a picture you take of yourself. Often taken with a smartphone (and promptly uploaded to some social media website), selfies have been all the rage this past year, with the term being used and abused by celebrities and teen girls left and right. Does a word with such a slang feel to it say something about our society and the ever diminishing quality of our shared vernacular? Well, seeing as last year's Word of the Year was "hashtag," no, probably not, but apparently some people believe it speaks to the narcissism that is sure to consume our interconnected societies and life as we know it.

And it's not just Dallas op-ed writers who seem dissatisfied with this years unanimously decided Word of the Year, and NPR poll shows that roughly one third of the general public would not describe "selfie" as a good choice for Word of the Year. With an unexpectedly large amount of people apparently dissatisfied with the rise of selfies, it makes it a little hard to determine exactly which devil I should advocate for. Because I think people who support selfies (again, this demographic is largely comprised of teenage girls) could use a strong defensive argument more than vindictive op-ed writers and cynics, I'll offer my sympathy to selfies, and try to see the positive attributes of the Word of the Year.

It's worth noting that the compulsive need for people to take pictures is nothing new. Selfies seem to be just another avenue for some people to fulfill this desire to be photographed, potentially replacing the old ways of going to a professional photographer and shelling of a lot of money for someone to snap some pics. Is it possible that people start sending out their selfies as Christmas cards? Absolutely. And I think this would be cause for celebration, if in fact people forego expensive studios and planning in favor of spontaneous pictures taken by themselves, of themselves. Any given selfie reflects at least a small amount of spontaneity, given that selfies are expected to not have the best quality or most thought out photographic features. It may be a slightly idealized concept of most people perceive selfies, but I'm personally in favor of the idea of simply taking a picture of yourself when the mood strikes you, rather than devoting more time and resources to what could very well be a less authentic, albeit "professional," photo.

Contributing to the DIY philosophy of selfies is the idea that they are largely universal; almost anyone (provided they have access to some sort of camera) can take a selfie, from the hundreds of high schoolers that flood my Facebook newsfeed, to my main man Snoop Dogg. The point being, the value of these self-taken pictures is directly related to the thought and effort the person put into the picture themselves, no one else contributes to the quality (or lack thereof). Most arguments blasting the rise of selfies call them (among other things) pretentious and self-abosorbed. While it may be true that not every selfie ever taken was fueled by some altruistic motive, there is nothing inherently harmful about pictures that come off as self-absorbed. I think a fact that most people fail to accept before judging the morals of selfies is that people simply take a lot of pictures these days. Like, an obscene amount of pictures. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad or harmful thing; obviously we have the ability to store an incredible amount of pictures with our constantly improving digital technology, and it seems like as there is a way, there will be a will to fill our empty storage drives with pictures (more and more of which will be selfies).

Considering the sheer amount of pictures people take nowadays, coupled with all the things that people could be taking pictures of, selfies, at the very least, emphasize the importance of the people taking the pictures over the pictures themselves. Maybe there is something inherently humanistic about selfies, shifting the focus from what could be a bland or generic photograph to the distinct individual taking the photograph. Scrolling through Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram for a few minutes will make it pretty obvious that some people post pictures purely to attract attention. If this is a trend that will inevitably continue, I'd have to say I agree with Ezra Koenig (lead singer of Vampire Weekend) when he says, "I don't need to see a picture of the sky, the trees, plants. There's only one you."So, while everyone wants to be a photographer, and accomplishing this seems to be increasingly easy every day, selfies should stay. At their core, selfies are humanistic. Take it yourself, take it just like anyone else, and make sure the subject is unique. All of these simply reflect a burgeoning respect for people, which doesn't sound like such a bad theme for the Word of the Year.

Early, Late, Who Cares?

I'm late. This post is a little late, I should say; allow me to get a little metacognizant with this blog for a second to explain. Technically, this blog post is due at 10:00am this morning, a due date set by my English teacher, as this is technically an assignment for my English class. Despite the fact that I'm starting this the morning of its due date, I'm not really concerned, not really feeling the pressure. For one thing, it's 8:48 and one hour and twelve minutes is more than enough time to write a quality post, but on a deeper level, dates really don't mean much anymore. The concept of being early, late, or right on time seems to be losing value by the day in our society.

A lot of what I observe with regard to dates and deadlines comes from the way I follow new music; I think it's very exciting to anticipate an album's release and look forward to the day of its release for weeks in advance. At least I did, until these predetermined release days became completely arbitrary and irrelevant. Take alternative rock giants Arcade Fire for example: they're 2010 release The Suburbs won a Grammy for Album of the Year, making it understandable that a considerable number of people would be looking forward to this year's follow up Reflektor. As a religious follower of Pitchfork (a music oriented internet publication), I kept myself pretty informed with when the album would be released, by what means, and how I'd be able to get my hands on it, as did many other music fans. But a few days before the highly anticipated October 29 release date, Pitchfork posts this little article, essentially offering the album to the public for a limited to time before its actual release. As much as I was excited to hear one of my favorite bands' new music, I was a little annoyed with the idea that a band (aided largely by the media) could build up so much hype around a particular release date only to casually undermine it a few days early.

This isn't a confined case either. Many other albums this year have foregone their predetermined release date, choosing to put their music out a few days early, regardless of the hype and anticipation surrounding their original date. Even the US government seems to be holding less and less of a regard for dates and deadlines. The most recent government shutdown fiasco was averted, but not until the very last minute, proving that the eleventh hour is becoming more and more popular as well. What do albums coming out early and governments passing legislature late have in common? They both show a blatant disregard for the concept of "on time."

Is this really all that bad though? As frustrating as it may be for time oriented people who put a lot of stock in dates, how negative are the effects of this emerging trend? While some people might take offense to the implications this may have on a person's character, it could be a trend that proves beneficial. If nothing else, it keeps people on their toes; when you can't trust dates and deadlines, you're forced into a greater sense of awareness for the unpredictable. The government shutdown really was as interesting as it should've been to people until the very last minute (when failure seemed tangible), and bands who put out music early might just be looking for fans devoted enough to latch onto their music at any time or place. Timeliness is dying. Maybe it's already dead, maybe it'll be dead by tomorrow, but the point is, it doesn't matter.