The rise of selfies is a rather peculiar cultural phenomenon: it is a form of communication, as well as a method of self-representation. The selfie has become a medium in and of itself, where “the self is the message”, as proposed by Kate Losse (Alang). The aggressive spread of this cultural phenomenon can be attributed to the global rise of camera phones, the development of forward-facing cameras, and the growing popularity of social networking and photo-sharing sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, among the others. The act of taking and sharing selfies is a modern application of Lacan's “Mirror Stage” as a result of a misrecognition between the realistic image of the selfie taker and the selfie posted on social media. I will argue that, rather than a symbol of narcissism, selfies are necessary tools of self-exploration and self-representation that are the result of technological advances and the rise of social networking sites. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The selfie phenomenon has become an art form, a science, to the point where people have developed guidelines for maximizing your selfies. Conventional wisdom is that the most flattering angle is to hold the phone just above eye line and tilt it 45 degrees. The pose is also important: it is essential to have the perfect inclination of the head, a casual smile, maybe a few messy hairs to make the photo more relaxed. Once you've taken about 57 photos, it's time to look at your options. If you don't find “the right one,” you may find yourself taking more, learning from your mistakes to take the perfect photo. After taking the perfect photo, it's time to apply the right filter, adjust the contrast, play with the brightness, smooth out any imperfections and with just one touch it's ready to be uploaded to Facebook or Instagram. Now the hard part: it's time to think about the caption. The inevitable click of the “share” button is unnerving: you keep reloading the page, waiting to see the likes increase. It is at this point in the sharing process that cultural anxieties are experienced. Once the image is posted, the poster will begin an endless process of critically examining the image itself, who liked the image, how many likes the image is receiving compared to the amount of time that has passed since it was posted, and so on. Cultural and social anxieties related to staying relevant and up-to-date among our peers are a necessary factor in creating our identities on social media. The meaning and meaning behind taking selfies is quite peculiar: how did it originate? What factors contributed to its popularity? Why is it still done today? Regardless of its past, it's undeniable that the selfie phenomenon has caught on and taken the world by storm – everyone from celebrities to politicians to our own friends and family is doing it. It even reached space, with the infamous selfie of Aki Hoshide conducting extravehicular activity (Day). The idea of ​​taking a photo of yourself has been around for nearly 200 years: Robert Cornelius, a pioneer of daguerreotype photography, took a self-portrait of himself outside his family's store in Philadelphia in 1839 (Day). Selfies were pioneered by Andy Warhol and others in the 1970s, when the Polaroid camera was invented and became popular (Day). Film was expensive; therefore, selfies didn't become popular until the digital age. Images with the hashtag #selfie started appearing on Flickr as early as 2004. The introduction of the iPhone 4 in 2010, with its camerafront, it pushed selfies to the next level: they could now be taken much more easily. Other advancements such as self-portraits and selfie sticks have pushed the selfie to a position of popularity that is unprecedented. The act of taking, posting, and sharing selfies has become an integral part of the lives of those born in Generation Y (Wickel 5). The nature of selfies is a widespread discussion, often debated to extremes: some see them as a symbol of youth, fun and enthusiasm, but for others it is seen as narcissistic and even psychotic. Selfies encourage superficiality and often inspire feelings of self-centeredness in the viewer. Selfies are seen by many as a way to record our lives and what we're doing - if this is true, then why do we feel the need to share them? According to John Paul Titlow, selfie takers “seek a kind of approval from their peers and the larger community, which thanks to the Internet is now effectively infinite” (Titlow). As humans, we are genetically programmed to be “driven by the need for approval and self-affirmation… The desire for a pictorial representation of self dates back to the first paintings of handprints on cave walls more than 4,000 years ago. In a fast-paced world of ever-evolving technology, one could argue that the selfie is simply a natural evolution of those hands dipped in paint” (Day). The act of taking and sharing selfies is not performed for the individual themselves, but rather for the public who will eventually see it once shared. We have little awareness of the audience on the other side of our selfies. We take the selfie to create a representation of ourselves, but why do we feel the need to share it for others to see? The selfies play into Mulvey's notion of voyeurism; most commonly, girls take and post selfies, seeking approval from males within their social circle. Berger talks about this in the four-part television series Ways of Seeing: “Men look at women. Women look at themselves as they are looked at” (qtd. in Elena, “Ways of Seeing and Ideal Women in Popular Culture”). We will always compare ourselves to others, so can we ever achieve self-satisfaction and self-gratification with the existence of social media? There is misrecognition of appearance involved in taking selfies. Lacan's notion of misrecognition can be applied to the act of taking a selfie. The “mirror phase,” as discussed by Lacan in “The Mirror Phase as Formative of Ego Function,” involves the child's misrecognition of a whole and coherent self seen in his reflection. Similarly, when we look at a selfie we have taken, there is a misunderstanding between the whole, coherent self in the photo and our assemblage of disconnected parts that make up our appearance in reality. We rarely look like we do in selfies. Similar to the “mirror phase,” the act of taking and sharing selfies “establishes a relationship between an organism and its reality” (Lacan 78). Our goal is to maintain our position in our social circle by maintaining our presence on social media. We are constantly searching for more followers, more likes, more shares, more retweets – this has provoked cultural and social anxieties of which we have become largely unaware, due to the ubiquitous nature of social media. Have we willfully chosen to ignore the anxieties surrounding it? According to Simon Foxall, "A selfie blurs the line between 'reality' and the performance of a fantasy self, so one collapses into the other" (Day). The misunderstanding that is evident between our "real" and "ideal" selves The self we have constructed is actually masked by narcissism.”