I hear so many negative comments throughout the week about how annoying, narcissistic, and ridiculous selfies are. During my last semester of college, I was required to do a research study over something I was passionate about.  With those critical comments in mind, I decided I wanted to find out why selfies were viewed negatively– yet people still chose to take them. After conducting 7 interviews and 100 surveys from a variety of people, I found some interesting things.

1. When people get “likes” on their selfies, they feel better about themselves. 

“I think it confirms that people like my outfit or my hair that day.”–Haleigh

2. Selfies aren’t discriminatory. 

All ages, all genders, and all nationalities take them. Whether you’re an important person in the community (the president of my university took one at the commencement ceremony and it was AWESOME), or just some regular joe it doesn’t matter. Selfies appeal to a wide range of people.

3. It’s a creative outlet.

I have a question for people who despise selfies– why? Don’t you get tired of instagramming your plate of food or your cat everyday? Everyone wants to see your beautiful face sometimes, too! There are so many ways that you can make selfies creative and even look like art. Honestly, it’s a fun pastime if you really get into it. (do your hair and make-up different ways, find cool scenery, wear a fun headband)

4. Memories 

I think selfies are awesome and I’ve been known to take a few (or many) and upload them to my instagram. I like to go back and look at how much I have changed over the past few years. It’s interesting, and seeing those changes wouldn’t be possible if I was too afraid of what people might think when I uploaded them.

Selfies have become a phenomenon. Think of all the hashtags created by people taking them: #selfiesunday #sweatyselfie, #nomakeupselfie etc. In May 2013, instagram said that the hashtag exceeded 20 million. Self-confidence is beautiful, so what’s wrong with sharing yours with the world? If getting likes on their picture makes someone feel better about themselves for even thirty minutes of their day, why be annoyed with that? My friend, Hallie, got a selfie stick for Christmas and we recently had a lot of fun with it:

See, selfies are awesome and don’t let people tell you otherwise.