There’s
one word I wish we could remove from our lexicon. No it’s not “twerking,” or “tweeting,”
though each is worthy of exclusion from the English language. It’s “selfie.”
Since
cameras have been invented (dates back to early mid-1800s), people have used
the camera to have pictures taken of themselves. Once cameras were small and
light enough, people would hold them up and snap pictures of themselves. Others
would place the camera on a table, put a five-second timer on, and take a
photo. Now people use cellphones to take pics of themselves, sometimes in
various stages of undress, for sexting purposes. The term, “selfie,” has come
into vogue the last year or two, but it seems to reveal little.
A lot
of art is a selfie. Creative types share their views of the world through their
medium, whether it’s art, dance, film, singing, or theater. They often feature
themselves as their subject matter. Look at newspaper columnists, poets, and
book authors. And bloggers. They are all selfies. We live in a selfie culture.
So
many books are ego or selfie driven. Memoirs, advice books, and philosophy stem
from ourselves. Further, most novels are based on our lives, select life
experiences or our own dreams and imiaginations. The “self” is never far
removed from the books we create.
Social
media is perfect for the selfie lifestyle. Throughout the day and night, via
words, sounds, and images, we can express ourselves about ourselves across the
globe. We Tweet, therefore we are. Eventually, technology will allow us to
taste, smell, and touch others, only to add to our selfie frenzy. Imagine if we
could preserve the smells or tastes of childhood? Imagine building up a
collection of self-centered, sense-oriented experiences and then forever
sharing with anyone willing to witness your ego-centric expressions.
Self-publishing
doesn’t just stand for one publishing their own book. It often stands for the
subject matter too. Everyone believes they have a story to tell – and they will
spare no resource or opportunity to tell it. I’m all for self-publishing, but
it does seem that self-published books skew heavily to the self.
Where
would we be if the words “I,” “my,” “me,” and “mine” were never used? Social
media, publishing, and art would not exist. My blog wouldn’t exist. Just admit
it – as a society we are a group of individuals shouting at each other about
ourselves, seeking meaning and definition in the metrics of our media. We may
have become meaningless in the process.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and
ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media
Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This
is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.
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