Selfie Bingo!

There was a talk about selfies at the National Portrait Gallery in London a few weeks ago (http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/panel-discussion-the-curated-ego-16012014.php), and when I was there I talked to Annebella Pollen who was chairing the session. As we were talking, anticipating the evening to come, I mentioned the fact that the same recurring themes seem to come up in discussions about the selfie. The predictability of some of these themes – ‘selfies are not photography’, ‘there are too many selfies’, and so on – interests me, as it demonstrates just how restricted the way of talking about this practice had often become. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, it’s not so much the photographs themselves, or what we even say about them, that I find important – it’s the social structures that support and are supported by such statements.

As a whimsical reaction to this, I have made a bingo card of (mostly critical) statements about selfies. Should you find yourself in a conversation with someone who has very definite ideas about selfies, you might wish to check off each statement, until you can call ‘House!’