Debate topic #4 Selfies show an arrogant personality

I think its just a trend. I post selfies all the time. I dont know why. Sometimes cos i think I look alright, other times cos I look a state! Sometimes cos I have a new lipstick on?!

Its a 'thing' that has come with the rise of social media. In fact, its the people who get really uppity about selfies that have the problem, IMO!

What problems do you think they have?

I've posted the odd one here and there but tbh, i always feel like a bit of a div afterwards. A lot of the time, I remove them. Occasionally they stay.

People I know who post a lot of selfie's are people who I have previously thought of as attention seekers. Not just because of the selfies, but because of other factors and the selfies they post are always stunning and get lots of comments on how beautiful they look.

The selfies I have left on my social media profiles are ones where I look slightly better than normal and reflecting on that I can probably conclude that I too may have been fishing for compliments.

So in conlcusion, I am an attention seeker.

Thank you.

The odd few pictures, no. Those with an entire FB list of profile pictures which are selfies can come across as a little narcissistic, rather than arrogant, IMO.

In many cases, I'm thinking teenage girls, it's likely to just be an awareness of their flourishing beauty and confidence,

My niece is 15 and she has MILLIONs of them on her FB profile. Every one of them has the same ridiculous pout.

I think it depends on the context so using Rod's example of a new lipstick that is to either show it to people or to get opinions. When I have been travelling on my own if I wanted a second opinion on an outfit for example I would send one to my sister. I generally don't mind the odd one but the attention seeking ones do my head in. For example a small/avergae size girl on FB constantly posts them with captions like 'OOH must get back to the gym sooooooo fat today' or ' Urgh can't believe I look this rough' when they are dolled up and in full make-up for a night so 101 people reply with 'noooo you're so beautiful' 'wish I was as skinny as you' and so on and so forth.

I've posted one selfie of me in my new bowler hat. I thought I looked good and I wanted other people to tell me I looked good too. Attention seeking? Yes.

Yes perhaps canvassing opinion - there are varying reasons. Sometimes I will admit I think 'wow I look quite nice' so will post a picture. But its no different to posting a photo taken by someone else in which I think I look good?

I think they have too much time on their hands to worry whether I'm posting a selfie or not!

Someone commented on a photo I posted of me in some rollers (i captioned it, 'I think this is a good look for me' I thought it was funny) saying I was the vainest person on her facebook. Which I thought was REALLY rude and not true at all. I dont think I'm vain, if I were vain my selfies would all be in the most flattering poses, not me with rollers in or making a stupid face.

this annoys me too - not the selfie itself, but the caption that goes with it.

I do find it a bit showy offy when people upload selfies but I don't get upperty about it. I've got a friend who posts pics of herself when she's just opened her eyes after a night on the tiles, she looks hideous, make up smothered all over her face, mascara down her cheeks, gunk in her eye, hair all over the place, yes I think it's attention seeking but it's a breath of fresh air and hilarious to see compared to the pouts and the done up selfies, which IMO are pretty pointless. I can confess I have never posted a selfie, but I have changed my profile pic when somebody has tagged me, and I'm the only person in that picture and I admit I do it if I think I look good, so what's that other than attention seeking?

I normally just feel a teeny bit jealous that they look nice and I look awful on any selfie attempt!

I take selfies, and post them. If my H was around, i'd get him to take photos, but he isn't, so selfies it is.

Why? Because I can, so I do...

F*ck orffff, I don't believe for one minute you don't think you looked good in that roller photo There are bad hair roller photos out there (think Hilda Ogden) but that isn't one of them.

But just to pick up on this point, and not aimed at you specifically...

Do people genuinely post photos where they think they look awful? I mean, genuinely, not "ohh I was hammered and I look a bit of a mess but the dress still looks good so I'll just pretend I'm posting to show how hammered I am".

Might it be the act of posting a selfie - WHATEVER the content - that displays confidence, which might be mistaken for arrogance?

I think confidence and arrogance are very different things and I do agree that some people will automatically mistake someone who thinks they look good in a photo for an arrogant person.

EF - I didnt defriend her no, she's a frenemy! I cannot stand her and i'm pretty sure she has an issue with me for some reason, but we stay FB friends for some reason!

I think, like everything, it depends on the person. I never post selfies (even though I probably am quite vain, I like looking in the mirror ? ) as I don't think I photograph well, plus I would just feel like a tw*t. The majority of people who do it are just attention seeking, but a couple of my friends do it - they're really not arrogant or self-involved, they're just following the trend.

I've never posted a selfie in my life - unless you count photos I've taken of myself with a friend?

Most of the people I've seen posting selfies are usually all pouting, looking very made up and looking for compliments. I used to have a facebook friend who had an album entitled "me" and it was just several pictures of her from the same angle (so you could see her cleavage), always doing the same pout. It was ridiculous.

I don't think it's arrogant to think yourself as attractive. I love a good selfie. I take them all the time. 99% of them stay on my phone, but I still take them. I'm not arrogant about the way I look in them, I know there are a billion people out there hotter than me, but if my hair/make-up looks great, I want everyone to know it!

I have a fair few selfies on my phone, mainly because I'm fairly convinced that my mirror lies so I try to compare how my make-up looks in the mirror with how it looks on camera. I don't tend to post them on facebook though ?

I don't mind selfies nearly as much as I mind the hashtagging that seems to go with them. I know it's an instagram thing #but #it #drives #me #potty.

Does it look good? I worry with hats. I wore one the other day and sent a selfie to my hubby to see if it looked alright

I've been having a good think about this today and I came to an alternative conclusion. I am the photographer in my circle of friends and in my family. My H rarely takes photos. So unless I do selfies either on my own or in a group/with a friend/Husband, there would be very little photographic evidence of my existence. I actually really love having my photo taken. It seems unfair that just because I love taking photos, that I miss out on being in them.

Nice justification there, Panj.

However, it doesn't quite explain why you were taking photos of yourself striking a pose in the loos at an Indian restaurant at 2 am in the morning.

Yeah it does. I'd taken loads of photos that night and I was on 1 of them. No one else had taken any pics so i thought more pics of me were required. I also took these at the same time:

I thought so but then I love hats and have lots of different styles. TBH, I liked it so I dont really care whether other people like it or not!

I don't get them really. I will take one and send to H/Friends to ask if something looks nice, or I have been known to send Mr C a "blowing a kiss" one, but I wouldn't post them on Facebook for fear of looking like a twat/vain/whatever. My mates would take the pee if I did and vice versa. I suppose the odd one very occasionally is ok, but all the time, nah.

I think that selfies are attention seeking, and always cringe when I see one.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if people would just admit that they are attention seeking when they post them, perhaps it's the denying all knowledge of how vain it is that irks me?

I don't mind selfies if there is something to look at.

I think what would annoy me would be a steady stream of generic selfies and or being accompanied by ohhh I look like shite when clearly they don't but I don't have oodles of friends on FB or instagram so haven't had that problem.

I have put them on instagram of outfits and my face and me and boyo I would only post if I look okay or funny in my opinion and if I think someone might be interested

I don't mind the odd one but it's when people post 5/10 at the same time of almost exactly the same pose.

Again I don't mind when it's showing off any outfit/hair etc. but when it's just one with a really daft pout or pose just to get likes or say that they look terrible when really they don't. Then yes, it's attention seeking.

I frequently take selfies but never publish them on anything, in fact I delete them straight away (why am i taking selfies exactly - boredom?!). I don't have facebook or twitter so the temptation to make them public is not there. A lot of the pics of H and myself are selfies, but that's because I don't like asking random strangers to take our picture; and I kind of think they are more fun anyway.

The only time I would take a picture of myself is to send to my best friend to ask for her honest opinion on a new dress or a new hair style or something, I wouldn't post them on facebook etc. If people do it and post them to show a new look or new hat etc it doesn't bother me, if people do it regularly just with the same pouty look seemingly to attract comments on how gorgeous they are I tend to block them from my news feed.

Edit: I mean posey pics of myself, not pics of me with a friend or manfriend, didn't want to seem like a hypocrite as I just posted a pic in the other thread ?.

I've had friends take a few drunk selfies with me in them, I usually look a ridiculous mess and hide them if I get tagged in them haha.
I've taken a couple with M when he was born and a baby, couple of silly ones with OH in the past too when drunk.

I'm not saying everyone who takes them are arrogant but I do think they are attention seeking, constantly see some girls on my fb take like 5 a day. There's one in particular who takes photos in the mirror, of her sitting in her car pouting..anywhere she goes caked in make up and captions how to ignore how bad she looks when she's just had her hair done and going a night out etc...I know her relatively well and she is an arrogant person, but makes out when she posts them that she's shy and unconfident. I've told her many times she's full of sh1te and she just laughs cause she knows it's right.

I personally don't think selfies are arrogant as much as people who post a photo of them looking gorgeous with a comment such as 'I look so rough today.' No you don't. You know you don't. You know you look hot, that's why you posted it and that's why to untag yourself in those terrible drunken photos.

The obvious answer is it depends on how many....

Article in today's times all about it as it is the new OED word of the year.

I dislike selfies of couples kissing. I only have one fb friend that does it and also takes a million of herself. It's quite sad actually because she posts a lot of photos of her daughter pouting. She is 5 and obviously sees mum doing it. She's proper car crash fb friend which is why I could never bring myself to delete her.

I inwardly judge any selfies which look too try hard as well.

I'm one of these rare people who looks better in photos than I do in real life. It's really not great. I think people get disappointed.