Selfie

Digital Self-Portraits as Commodity Form and Consumption Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID2165985
AuthorsMehita Iqani (0000-0001-9746-8766, University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author), Jonathan E Schroeder (0000-0003-3337-1310, Rochester Institute of Technology)
Year2016
Volume19
Issue5
Pages405-415
Publication date2016-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueConsumption Markets & Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1025-3866 • E-ISSN: 1477-223X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10253866.2015.1116784
OpenAlexW2209062797
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited25

Although selfies may appear to be the latest fad, their popularity has had a transformational influence on contemporary culture. Selfies invoke important issues in communication, photography, psychology, self-expression, and digital media studies – as they bring up a host of concerns about identity, privacy, security, and surveillance. This article provides an interdisciplinary overview of the selfie as both an object and a practice, and offers theoretical reflections on how the selfie can be seen as an important commodity form and consumer behaviour. The selfie is connected to concepts of authenticity, consumption, and self-expression, as well as practices of art history, media forms, and self-portraiture. Strategic use of the selfie reveals shifts in the traditional functions of the advertising photograph, from sources of information, persuasion, and representation to emblems of social currency. We position the selfie not as a postmodern anomaly but as a type of image with a history

Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · Consumption (sociology · Identity (music · Media studies · Object (grammar · Political science · Popularity · Postmodernism · Selfie · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Law · Photography and Visual Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Artificial Intelligence

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub