Jessica Spears
Did you know that June 21 is National Selfie Day? According to a 2018 study, 62% of adults in the US have taken a selfie (YouGov, 2018). While taking a picture is not bad, some studies indicate that selfies are bad for our emotional health and well-being (Zetlin, 2019). The effects of taking selfies are especially hard on those between the ages of 14 and 24. Young people often experience a fear of missing out and lower self-image after being" faced with a stream of (often enhanced) photographs" (Zetlin, 2017).
Want to change your selfie habit? Check out one of the recommended titles below:
The Qualified Self by
Call Number: General HM851 .H856 2018
ISBN: 9780262037853
Publication Date: 2018-04-13
How sharing the mundane details of daily life did not start with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube but with pocket diaries, photo albums, and baby books. Social critiques argue that social media have made us narcissistic, that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are all vehicles for me-promotion. In The Qualified Self, Lee Humphreys offers a different view. She shows that sharing the mundane details of our lives--what we ate for lunch, where we went on vacation, who dropped in for a visit--didn't begin with mobile devices and social media. People have used media to catalog and share their lives for several centuries. Pocket diaries, photo albums, and baby books are the predigital precursors of today's digital and mobile platforms for posting text and images. The ability to take selfies has not turned us into needy narcissists; it's part of a longer story about how people account for everyday life. Humphreys refers to diaries in which eighteenth-century daily life is documented with the brevity and precision of a tweet, and cites a nineteenth-century travel diary in which a young woman complains that her breakfast didn't agree with her. Diaries, Humphreys explains, were often written to be shared with family and friends. Pocket diaries were as mobile as smartphones, allowing the diarist to record life in real time. Humphreys calls this chronicling, in both digital and nondigital forms, media accounting. The sense of self that emerges from media accounting is not the purely statistics-driven "quantified self," but the more well-rounded qualified self. We come to understand ourselves in a new way through the representations of ourselves that we create to be consumed.
When Likes Aren't Enough by
Call Number: General BF637.S4 B657 2018
ISBN: 9781538743416
Publication Date: 2018-03-13
Are you as authentically happy as your social media profiles make it seem? When a group of researchers asked young adults around the globe what their number one priority was in life, the top answer was "happiness." Not success, fame, money, looks, or love...but happiness. For a rising generation of young adults raised as digital natives in a fast-paced, ultra-connected world, authentic happiness still seems just out of reach. While social media often shows well-lit selfies and flawless digital personas, today's 16- to 25-year-olds are struggling to find real meaning, connection, and satisfaction right alongside their overburdened parents. An Introduction to Happiness tackles the ever-popular subject of happiness and well-being, but reframes it for a younger reader struggling with Instagram envy and high-stakes testing, college rejections and helicopter parents. Professor of positive psychology Dr. Tim Bono distills his most popular college course on the science of happiness into creative, often counterintuitive, strategies for young adults to lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Filled with exciting research, practical exercises, honest advice, and quotes and stories from young adults themselves, An Introduction to Happiness is a master class for a generation looking for science-based, real world ways to feel just a little bit happier every day.
The Me, Me, Me Epidemic by
Call Number: General HQ755.8 .M416 2016
ISBN: 9780399184864
Publication Date: 2016-08-16
Cure your kids of the entitlement epidemic so they develop happier, more productive attitudes that will carry them into a successful adulthood. In today's 24/7, overstimulated, overindulged, can't-get-enough culture, even the best parents struggle to find the energy to say no to their kids - when they need to hear it most. In this wise and inspiring book, parenting expert Amy McCready offers proven strategies for empowering your kids without indulging them, and for fostering compassion and gratitude instead of an entitled "me, me, me" focus.
UnSelfie by
Call Number: General BF575 .E55 B67 2016
ISBN: 9781501110030
Publication Date: 2016-06-07
Bestselling author Michele Borba offers a 9-step program to help parents cultivate empathy in children, from birth to young adulthood--and explains why developing a healthy sense of empathy is a key predictor of which kids will thrive and succeed in the future. Is the Selfie Syndrome Undermining Our Kids' Future? Teens today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were thirty years ago. Why is a lack of empathy--which goes hand-in-hand with the self-absorption epidemic Dr. Michele Borba calls the Selfie Syndrome--so dangerous? First, it hurts kids' academic performance and leads to bullying behaviors. Also, it correlates with more cheating and less resilience. And once children grow up, a lack of empathy hampers their ability to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve--all must-have skills for the global economy. In UnSelfie Dr. Borba pinpoints the forces causing the empathy crisis and shares a revolutionary, researched-based, 9-step plan for reversing it. Readers will learn: -Why discipline approaches like spanking, yelling, and even time-out can squelch empathy -How lavish praise inflates kids' egos and keeps them locked in "selfie" mode -Why reading makes kids smarter and kinder -How to help kids be Upstanders--not bystanders--in the face of bullying -Why self-control is a better predictor of wealth, health, and happiness than grades or IQ -Why the right mix of structured extracurricular activities and free play is key for teaching collaboration -How to ignite a Kindness Revolution in your kids and community The good news? Empathy is a trait that can be taught and nurtured. Dr. Borba offers a framework for parenting that yields the results we all want: successful, happy kids who also are kind, moral, courageous, and resilient. UnSelfie is a blueprint for parents and educators who want to kids shift their focus from I, me, and mine...to we, us, and ours.
More Than Enough by
Call Number: General PN4874.W415 A3 2019
ISBN: 9780525561583
Publication Date: 2019-06-11
In her motivational memoir, groundbreaking magazine editor Elaine Welteroth unpacks the lessons in her liberation from limiting labels, relationships, and beliefs - from her life as a confident child in California to being the first in her interracial family to graduate from college, from transforming the Teen Vogue brand into a revolutionary political vehicle to interviewing luminaries like Michelle Obama and Oprah. As Welteroth learns to rely on herself by looking both inward and upward, we're ultimately reminded that we're not only just enough, but more than enough.
The Public Image by
Call Number: General TR183 .H375 2016
ISBN: 9780226342931
Publication Date: 2016-11-07
Even as the media environment has changed dramatically in recent years, one thing at least remains true: photographs are everywhere. From professional news photos to smartphone selfies, images have become part of the fabric of modern life. And that may be the problem. Even as photography bears witness, it provokes anxieties about fraudulent representation; even as it evokes compassion, it prompts anxieties about excessive exposure. Parents and pundits alike worry about the unprecedented media saturation that transforms society into an image world. And yet a great news photo can still stop us in our tracks, and the ever-expanding photographic archive documents an era of continuous change. By confronting these conflicted reactions to photography, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites make the case for a fundamental shift in understanding photography and public culture. In place of suspicions about the medium's capacity for distraction, deception, and manipulation, they suggest how it can provide resources for democratic communication and thoughtful reflection about contemporary social problems. The key to living well in the image world is to unlock photography from viewing habits that inhibit robust civic spectatorship. Through insightful interpretations of dozens of news images, The Public Image reveals how the artistry of the still image can inform, challenge, and guide reflection regarding endemic violence, environmental degradation, income inequity, and other chronic problems that will define the twenty-first century. By shifting from conventional suspicions to a renewed encounter with the image, we are challenged to see more deeply on behalf of a richer life for all, and to acknowledge our obligations as spectators who are, crucially, also citizens.
Sources:
YouGov. (August 21, 2018). Share of adults in the United States who have ever taken a selfie as of August 2018 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved May 20, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/683933/us-adults-shared-selfie/
Zetlin, M. (2019). Taking selfies destroys your confidence and raises anxiety, a study shows. Why are you still doing it? Inc. https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/taking-selfies-anxiety-confidence-loss-feeling-unattractive.html
Zetlin, M. (2017). Want to raise emotionally healthy kids? Try to keep them off these two social networks. Inc. https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/instagram-and-snapchat-are-the-worst-social-networks-for-your-childrens-mental-h.html
