The Global Selfie Project #1

On August 9, 2014 by Tim Newman

Just because ‘selfie‘ is a new word, doesn’t mean I like it. I think it’s a disgrace that such a ridiculous term could jimmy its way into the proud annals of English. Joking. I’m not really cross about it, but I’m sure a lot of people do feel upset about it, and fair enough. English is a constantly mutating creature and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. That’s language for you. Society changes and new words are needed. Young folk think old folk are stupid so each generation has to make its own dialect to set itself apart. Technology moves at a rapid rate of knots and new things need new words. Deal with it.

It’s not just the word ‘selfie‘ that sounds horrible, it’s also a pretty pretentious act. You’re taking a picture of yourself to show off, or to show others how pretty you (think) you are or whatever. So I’m not a massive fan. But I thought trying to find one selfie from every country in the world might be entertaining, and you know what? it was.

I’ve tried to avoid the easy ones of teen girls, because they’re everywhere and part of a teenage girl’s mandate is to try and look as similar to the next one as possible. So that would have been a boring collection, one pout is pretty much the same as another. And if I couldn’t find an interesting selfie for a country I just used a picture of some of the country’s people because I think that was my point in doing this any way. I just like gorping at people.