The Saga of the Selfie

(Image credits : Google and other amazing people. Plz dnt sue me.)

I'm an old, old person. Being born in the 1990's is positively ancient now, and I've substantial evidence to prove this fact. Why, it seemed like it was just yesterday that we were clicking pictures the wrong way around! How silly! Of trees, birds, people, animals - and the sky - the list is endless. It's amusing to remember how primitive we used to be - kind of like discovering how to start fires all over again.

The saga of the selfie began way back in 2009, when people discovered that the I Phone camera had a front-facing lens. It was treated like a Van Gogh painting - rejected, and harshly, by the users themselves, for their galleries were filled with enlarged zits, crater-sized eyes, and a view of their nostrils that was enough to make a Sunny Leone movie look like an episode of Dora the Explorer. Selfies at the time were restricted to swivelling the phone around and smiling at the tiny lens, although the user had four tries before they got it right - the first three were engaging snaps of everything but themselves (N.B - these prehistoric samples are now used as internet memes).

 Things progressed quickly, though. The revolution began with the duck-face, easier to determine the size and angle of the pout thereof - which, if conducted the other way around, merely made the user look like they were madly in love with their phones (which they probably were). The duck-face was followed by the sparrow-face (eyes lowered, mouth barely opened - like a supermodel in a Mango ad. Or what your face looks like when you finally reach the toilet after too much pizza). Downward angles and Dutch-tilts highlighted the most interesting bits of their subjects, and suddenly, testosterone took a break from playing Assassin's Creed, and developed Snapchat.

The rest is history. The internet is awash with derp faces, elongated arms, and meme upon meme of increasing ridiculousness. Come 2014, and we look back at the selfie, which is now touted as the most used means of communication. Barack Obama joined in the trend, as did several celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, checkered lips, several misplaced tattoos and a very famous tongue (read: Kim, Jussy and a giant foam finger that used to be Hannah Montana). Ellen DeGeneres took it to an awesome level, when she posed with Liza Minnelli, and later, with several actors including Bradley Cooper, J-Law, Channing Tatum, Brangelina, a very swag Kevin Spacey and Jared Leto's eye (they pushed Homer Simpson out of the way, who later  posted on Snapchat with a 'D'oh!')

That being said, it's a fun trend to join - making it easier and faster to click pictures. Here's to another year of  *poses with pout and victory hand sign* Happy Selfieing, everyone!