josef
it's weird that we didn't use to have a word for "selfie", even though people did them all the time, for years, maybe even multiple decades, before it suddenly became imperative to have word for it
Sep 21, 2018 at 11:32amWeb
Show threadDavid de Groot 𓆉Sep 21, 2018

@jk In my day we used TWO words for it. "Self Portrait".

Darn new fnagled single word generation.

Show threadNielsSep 21, 2018
@jk uh self portrait? So we had two words... but in Dutch it was always one word: "zelfportret".
Show threadjosefSep 21, 2018
@nielsim i think selfie is a more specific subset of a self-portrait though, e.g. a self-portrait could be a painting, or taken with a camera placed somewhere using the self-timer feature of a camera? whereas selfie is often pretty specific, generally a handheld camera facing the person taking the photo?
Show threadNielsSep 21, 2018
@jk Perhaps that's true... "Look at my new selfie, painted it myself in the span of the last three days" just doesn't sound right ;-)
Show threadGlennSep 21, 2018
@jk @nielsim I found an old photo of my dad when he was stationed in Hawaii during the Korean War. He was holding his camera with both hands. It's framed really well, too. B&W, natch. I love thinking of him 'doing a selfie' before it was a thing, even though there was no word for it then, particularly. I do agree that most people then would have referred to it as a self-portrait, because it was new to even *have* a camera you could do that with, and there was no social media.
Show threadGlennSep 22, 2018
@jk @nielsim OK, so I found the selfie. Not as great a photo as I had remembered, but still LOL - 1950-something
DadSelfie.jpg
Show threadpettter ✅Sep 21, 2018
@jk I mean there's a certain uptick in the amount of selfies with the advent of cameras on phones that sort of motivates the whole thing.
Show threadDeeSep 21, 2018
@jk I feel like the word existed, or otherwise was independently coined by different people before smartphones became popular, but with the rise of smartphones a whole lot more people started taking a lot more selfies, so the word became more popular, too.
Show threadTim Warren ✅Sep 21, 2018

@jk

The word was self-portrait.

Show threadBigBossSep 21, 2018
@jk There wasn't always a way to share them. Multiple decades ago the only way to show your friends
a nice picture was to physically let them see it
Show threadErikSep 21, 2018
@jk some of the earliest photos were self portraits. Which was the name for them.
Show threadabortretryfailSep 21, 2018
@jk We called them self-portraits for many years before. Somebody must have thought that was too long and complicated.
Show threadAcesabeSep 21, 2018
@jk @Gargron you can thank the Aussies for coining the term #selfie
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/08/12/4065062.htm
A brief history of the selfie

Ellen's Hollywood selfie may be famous, but the word itself has much humbler origins, if we don't say so ourselves, on an ABC Science forum hosted by Dr Karl.

Show threadSimon BrookeSep 21, 2018
@jk We did have a phrase for it, 'self portrait'. Maybe that came to seem too formal.
Show threadTheConstructor (he/him)Sep 21, 2018
@jk there was self-portrait…
Show threadCalico Kris RaichuSep 22, 2018
@jk I didn't even know what "selfie" meant until recently when someone explained to me that people who are too lazy to set a timer on their cameras use a "selfie stick" to push the button.
Show threadNate Cull (.social)Sep 22, 2018

@jk we had no word for 'self' before Millennials josef. Just didn't have the concept in our heads.

We all took plenty of selfies but we called them 'groupshots' or 'Marxies'' or 'global one-world socialistic state-o-graphs'

Show thread⦺ irick 🐁🐈⚩Sep 22, 2018
@natecull @jk
These puns instill in me a lack-of-class consciousness.
Show threadMs MothSep 22, 2018
@jk