Mediaboss Marketing

Details Published on Thursday, 26 December 2013 09:22 Written by Siti Nur Sarah Mohd Khir

Najib selfie pictures with Susilo Bambang uploaded in social networking sites, twitter hers. Pic: TwitterIS IT possible that someone in the planet has not yet heard of the word 'Selfie'? 2014 is just around the corner and the word has been hailed as the best word of 2013 by the Oxford Dictionary.

The popularity of 'selfie' is unparalled. Oxford claims that the word has seen usage of almost 150 million times a month. Last year alone, the word, which is a simplistic shortform of "self-potrait" has seen a growth of 17,000 percent.

Who would have thought a non-scientific, most casual reference to recreational photography can be that important of a word?

Selfie words that were hailed as the most popular word of 2013. Pic: blog.oxforddictionaries.comDo you know the story behind 'selfie'?

Interestingly, the word selfie was actually first used in 2002 - well, this was well before today's proliferation of cheap front-facing camera handphones - in an online forum in Australia.

Since then, the narcisstic tendency to document one's self at every opportunity had become rampant, growing almost in tandem with the exponential increase in global social network dependency.

The act of raising your smartphone camera and tilting it at an angle just above the eyeline has become as natural to the human body as walking.

Seeking for attention, teenagers armed with iPhones and Androids with zero regard for ideal camera angles started uploading their bathroom and bedroom poses, for the world to see.

What's more surprising and unexpected is that government dignitaries are also starting to get caught up in the phenomenon.

See the rest here:
Selfie: A Cool Global Trend?