#SELFIE
by Reed JacksonOne of my duties as the GoComics intern is to keep track of patterns that occur in our 300+ comic strips, compile them into comic collections and use them as inspiration for blogging, amongst other things. That being said, when I started my "selfie" -themed collection, it was still more of a joke to myself-who thought of selfies as nothing more than a ridiculously hilarious trend-than anything else. However, as my collection grew larger, I finally decided that it was time to bring it to the blog.
Although it started out as a joke, as I started writing, I realized what a phenomenon the selfie has become. I was having major writer's block, unable to think of a good explanation of what the word meant, so, just for laughs, I went to Dictionary.com and typed it in. To my mind-boggled amazement, there it was: "Selfie: A photograph that one takes of oneself with a digital camera or a front-facing smartphone, tablet or webcam, especially for posting on a social-networking or photo-sharing website."
Once I finished processing the fact that "selfie" is an official word in the English language, I turned to the cartoonists of GoComics, in an attempt to find out what it is about the selfie that caused its rise to vocabulary stardom.
Are selfies just addicting?
Is it the fact that they allow everyone to squeeze into the same picture? No need to ask a stranger to take a shot of your group when you've got the ol' selfie arm ready.
Maybe it's their ability to capture our every waking moment at any given time?
Or perhaps it was the invention of the selfie stick that caused seemingly the entire world to jump on the selfie bandwagon?
Whatever you believe the reason to be, all I can say for certain is this: Selfies have taken over the outside world, infiltrated the GoComics world, and, from the looks of it, are here to stay.
Have you snapped a selfie lately?
- Amanda
