Selfie Love

Nowadays we younger folks are pretty much used to getting comments from older people about our relationship with the internet, with our phones, etc. Ya'll know the drill. "Today's teens!! Always on the facebooks and listening to sinful songs about having sexual intercourse, not respecting the sanctity of marriage!!!What happened to the good ol' days when we would get married at 20 just to get divorced 5 times after hm? Those were the days!!".

Okay I might've gone overboard, but to me that's how ridiculous they sound. Things are changing, get used to it. We're adapting, it's not our fault ya'll are still angry about not knowing how to send an e-mail. Point is, as millennials, the thing we are made fun of the most is for... loving ourselves? I'm talking about selfies. I'm talking about that day you went out with your friends and wanted to remember that because you had fun, and took a group pic. I'm talking about that day when your makeup looked bomb and you wanted to share your awesome skills with others. I'm talking about capturing moments with your significant other, or simply taking silly photos with those snapchat filters just for the heck of it. Sounds fun, right? So why are we so looked down at for doing these? Are we really that self-absorbed, selfish as they accuse us of? Are we vain, narcissistic? Is the selfie culture that awful as people make it seem?

My answer, as an avid selfie taker (not really avid, but I do love taking some every now and then) personal is no. Straight up no, nope, nicles, el zipo, nein, não. Selfies are an amazing thing that boost our self confidence! And we can't just pretend that we're the first generations that take self portraits like, we as a species have been doing that for centuries. Ugh, Van Gogh really was a dick for painting all those portraits of himself! How dare he! Can we talk about Frida Khalo? My god did she ever painted anything else except for her awesome face? That's how stupid people who criticize selfies sound. Selfie culture is a true revolution of self love. We can express ourselves, we can get compliments (don't pretend you don't like validation, come on. "she's so stupid, always getting complimented on her great looks, ugh!", that sounds like jealousy to me...), we can save small snippets of our life to remember later.

One may argue that things are getting a bit out of control, and to an extent I agree. Now, I'm not talking about the occasional selfie when you are truly feeling yourself, I'm talking about the #inthetoilet, #crossingtheroad, #takingthetrashout selfies, those are out of control. I mean who even takes selfies crossing the road, girl that's dangerous! Also, people who photoshop their faces to hell and back to try and come across as someone completely different, that's not what I'm about.
But all in all my last stand on this is that selfies, in their roots, are all about self acceptance and love. What's your stand on this issue?

● Inês ●