Selfie

There is a strange phenomenon called the selfie that has become very popular on social media and the mobile web. A selfie is a picture of yourself taken by you and usually shared on any social networking website.

In all my previous 53 years, I don't think that I ever took a picture of myself. For one thing it was really hard to do. How do you turn a camera on yourself? But now with the SmartPhones you simply touch a button on your camera to make it front-facing and snap!--you have a picture of yourself.

The younger generation seems to be especially fond of selfies. If you scroll through a young adult's Facebook page you will see plenty of them. Sometimes they are extreme close-ups, others show part of an arm held straight outward and a few even feature standing in front of a bathroom mirror so they can get a full body shot of their reflection. No longer do you have to ask someone to take your picture!

I decided to Google why people take selfies and here is what I learned from About.com.

• To get attention from as many people as possible
• To get a self-esteem boost
• To show off
• To get a specific person's attention
• Boredom
• Because social media is fun

None of those reasons seemed appropriate for a middle-aged woman to use, however, I was kind of intrigued with this whole selfie idea and my birthday seemed like a fitting day to try to take one. I must have taken 20 pictures and deleted 18 of them. So, here on my 54th birthday I am sharing with you two selfies. I do not believe that I will be doing this again! There are some things that are better left to the younger generation.