National Selfie Day

You might be surprised to hear that June 21st is the designated ‘National Selfie Day.’ Since 2014 we have celebrated the rise of the selfie, just a year after The Oxford English Dictionary made ‘selfie’ the word of the year.

In the UK alone, 30% of all photos now taken are classed as selfies, with a staggering 92 million taken daily, worldwide.

Whilst the majority of selfies are taken by women, men also get in on the action, and the most popular age group to succumb to selfie culture are those in the 18-34 year bracket.

Why do we love a selfie?

So, why has the selfie become such a recognised and accepted form of cataloguing the miracles and minutiae of life? Obviously we like to show off our holidays, weddings and important milestones in life, but the rise in selfies for selfies sake, is staggering.

Thanks, in no small part, to the insane popularity of Instagram and Snapchat, everyone gets the chance to have their moment in the limelight. Thanks also to filters and the like, we get to show ourselves as we would like to be seen, rather than the reality we wake up to every morning.

Serious selfie snappers

Some people take the selfie so seriously that they take measures to improve their appearance using more than just lighting and filters. Women who have undergone cosmetic procedures like breast augmentation, lip fillers and dermal injections are usually more than happy to display the results, and why not?

The boost we give our mental health when we post a perfect looking version of ourselves, and the positive affirmation we get from views, can be addictive. Who doesn’t want to hear how great they look? If you’ve had work done and you’re delighted with the results, tell the world! No-one needs to know that it took 75 attempts to get the perfect picture, do they?

And that’s the beauty of the selfie. The fact that you spent 2 hours achieving the ‘I woke up like this’ look, is your secret. No-one needs to know!

So if it’s your freshly coiffed ‘messy bun’ or your perfectly pert new 34DD’s that you want to share with the world, do it. Just be careful you don’t start believing the filters are the real you, because let’s face it, the real you is good enough, even if you do prefer a few tweaks here and there to make the most of what you’ve got.

So get snapping, and celebrate National Selfie Day 2022!