The Art of Self-Expression: Comparing Selfies and Written Communication

Abstract

A selfie is a photograph taken by self, using a camera, a smartphone, or a webcam for various reasons. A selfie could be taken for its use, like archive purposes or for sharing on social media. A selfie, therefore, could be termed as a form of communication. On the other hand, writing is a form of human communication that usually incorporates language and symbols. This essay aims at comparing selfies and writings in the essence of how the two share some common characteristics. Among the significant characteristics of concern would be communication, composition, and aperture of focus. When taking a selfie or writing about something, one of the major reasons for it is to convey or communicate a particular message to a particular audience (Friedlander, 2017). For this reason, when taking a selfie, the primary reason is for communicating something. For example, a selfie of one watching a favorite game in the stadia could be a more straightforward, unexplained way of telling those whom you intend to communicate to what one is up to. On the other hand, someone could write about the day's activities, including watching a game in the stadia. This means that communication is a similarity as far as selfie and writing are concerned. As far as communication is concerned, perception applies to both instances. Taking selfies and writing into consideration, both parties involved looking for various perspectives on the subject at hand. It is evident that the initial perspective that the selfie-taker or the author of any material may not be the absolute best perspective with the same intent portrayed to the subject in mind (Jarreau et al., 2019). On the other hand, just like in writing, taking a selfie requires the photographer to choose where their selfies' focus would be directed (Jarreau et al., 2019). In other words, the target audience would have to be chosen to draw the eye of the view to the subject. While taking a selfie, one must choose which part of the image to capture, blur, and choose the background (Friedlander, 2017). whoever taking the selfie must do all this systematically, and any effort to encapsulate everything creates a messy subject. Incorporating too many selfie elements would create a confused viewer whereby the intended subject would be easily distracted, thus straying away from the initially intended message. In the same context, writing involves the organization of thoughts and flow of context. The message conveyed could stand an opportunity to reach its audience in the most original form possible (Friedlander, 2017). It is, therefore, evident that aperture of focus is a significant similarity in writing and selfie. Another similarity between selfies and writing is the composition of both. A great selfie would draw attention because of what it would be composed of. It would not...