Anatomy of a Selfie
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Welcome to Selfie Town
I’m back in Puerto Rico after nearly two months of being away. Norbert and I spent the weekend reconnecting with the island that has officially been our place of residence since May. On Saturday, we went straight from the airport to our favorite beachside restaurant for a meal of fresh fish, fried breadfruit and cold beer. From there, we headed to a deserted stretch of beaches that we have been wanting to explore for a while. It’s amazing how many deserted stretches of beaches there are around here, even during a holiday weekend. This island is just rich with gorgeous white sand beaches! And we want to experience them all.
While lazing around on our private beach, a trio of teenagers arrived to check out the scene. Or rather, their cell phones arrived with bodies in tow. I could barely see their faces from behind the screens as they captured the view on their camera phones. Then, I watched with interest as they started the strange ritual of taking selfies to commemorate the occasion.
Oh, selfies. We’ve all been there (almost all of us?): angling the phone every which way to get the best lighting, the best background, the best image of ourselves. One of the guys on the beach kept on posing for his selfies with one hand holding up his jersey so that his boxers showed. I couldn’t tell what the purpose was: to show off his (nonexistent) abs or to showcase the watch on his wrist. Either way, he had the same tough guy expression in all the selfies, while he swiveled around to snap the landscape behind him. This way, he could choose between a background of ocean waves, driftwood, or palm trees to share with his friends and followers.
Meanwhile, his friends were on the same trip, each of them putting their best self forward for their own selfies, always careful not to photograph each other accidentally as they posed for their phones.
It’s an intimate moment to eavesdrop on, because you’re watching someone trying to achieve their ideal image of themselves. But from where I was standing, the artifice of the operation was up close and personal. It's one thing to see the perfect selfies as you scroll through Instagram, and yet another to watch the sausage getting made.
A selfie is the universal, modern-day expression of Julius Caesar’s famous mantra: Veni, Vidi, Vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. Except that in our contemporary world of SnapChat and photo filters, conquering means taking a selfie to prove that we really did come and see that which we claim to have seen. Without said selfie, how could we prove that we were really there?
I could make a mountain out of all the selfies I’ve taken over the years. Instead, I’ll just leave you with this one that I took while riding on the back of a golf cart in Vieques this weekend.
Happy Labor Day!
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Thanks for reading,
Carmella