My perspective of self was altered after I got a smartphone six months ago and was swiftly thrust into the world of selfies. At university, I observed an entourage of young women brush their hair back, pout and pose. "Selfie!" they screamed. On vacation, I marvelled at someone equipped with a hand-held selfie monopod. Slowly, I found myself warming to snapping my own selfies. And by using the Instagram filter, I went from plain vanilla me to sexy. I looked good; better than in reality. The selfie phenomenon shows no signs of going away. But why the obsession? And why do most studies show women take more selfies than men? Social scientists have been grappling with the issue. Has the smartphone spawned a wave of narcissism? Like much of social media, the selfie is an idealised self-presentation; a version of what one wants others to see. Some researchers have found that the selfie boosts self-esteem. Perhaps there's also an innate curiosity about what we really look like. So selfies' popularity is not really surprising. What is surprising, however, according to University College London neuroscientist James Kilner, is that "people systematically choose images that have been digitally altered to make the person appear more attractive. In other words, we have an image of ourselves that tends to be younger and more attractive than we actually are." He made his comments during a talk, "The Curated Ego: What Makes a Good Selfie" at the National Portrait Gallery in London this year. It makes sense that most selfies are taken by women; selfies are simply an extension of the human need to present one's best side, as superficial as it may seem. Sociologist Erving Goffman argues that people adjust their behaviour depending on whether they are in front of an audience or backstage. On stage, "actors" (individuals) highlight their positives. Chinese people, in particular, have taken the selfie to another level of sophistication with homemade mobile apps. BeautyPlus, launched by China's CommSource Technology, exceeded a million downloads within two days of its release last year. Other popular rival apps include Perfect365, which lets users apply digital make-up after a photo is taken. Selfies may be a global trend, but many beauty-enhancing selfie apps are made in Asia. They emphasise the ideal, even though it is not reality. In Asia, the ideals of beauty often involve skin tone (the whiter the better) and face shape (a "V" shape is considered best). On one hand, the tools are degrading; a reminder that society still prioritises superficial physical beauty. My own doctored selfies received more likes and positive comments than ones where I am unfiltered. Admittedly it was an ego boost; who doesn't want to look amazing and get compliments? Ultimately my selfie fixation was fleeting; the novelty wore off. Maybe the audience got bored, too (after all, how many expressions and renditions of myself could I generate?). But now, when I snap the occasional selfie, there is the pure joy of being self-indulgent. I can transform into another person, someone silly or sexy. It is so simple and there's the thrill of saying "Hey, look at me", even if it's a filtered and heavily digitised version of me at my best. Amy Wu is an American-born Chinese writer and commentator
