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The Year in Selfies 2016

For the third year in a row, we bring you an annual recap of selfies around the world. In this election year, “ballot” selfies and politician s...

For the third year in a row, we bring you an annual recap of selfies around the world. In this election year, “ballot” selfies and politician selfies were a dominant theme, and in a tragic non-surprise, the world saw an increase in selfie-related deaths. If the selfie represents the ultimate declaration of “pics or it didn’t happen,” here’s the proof that it’s “happening” in our crazy world.

JANUARY

It started like any other Instagram account. A smattering of photos that progressively became more opulent, narcissistic and sometimes troubling. But after acquiring nearly 90,000 followers, artist Amalia Ulman revealed that the account was an art project – part performance art, part social commentary – and we fell for it.

Manny isn’t actually triggering the shutter, but he does have a habit of reaching for the camera while posing with his friends. This wouldn’t be so unusual except that Manny is a cat and he takes pretty good selfies.

https://www.instagram.com/p/94HYLgp54B/

Convicted felons can’t own guns, but where there is a will, there is a way! Ex-con Malik First Born Allah Farrad decided that his Facebook account really needed a gun selfie, which promptly earned him another 15 years in jail.

Like many other hard-right, populist leaders that have emerged in the past few years, France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen has earned a large following of detractors. Case in point, Madonna’s ex-boyfriend Brahim Zaibat. On a flight, Zaibat snapped a selfie with the slumbering, mouth-breather Le Pen, who didn’t take so kindly to the intrusion. In the end, Zaibat was ordered to remove the photo from his social media account and fined 1 euro.

je-marie-le-pen-brahim-zaibat-selfie0112

FEBRUARY

The wisdom of crowds failed in Argentina when a group of beach-goers decided to pass around a baby dolphin for a photo op. The dolphin turned out to be of an endangered variety with fewer than 30,000 in the wild, and after the crowd had its way, they left it in the muddy shallows to die.

Photo by Hernan Coria

Photo by Hernan Coria

Gizmodo writer Matt Novak mused how the days of photos with politicians cutting ribbons was long passed. Now they must get in with the crowds and often become their own photographers. Some politicians are technologically-challenged, some are decidedly non-photogenic, which leads Novak to ask “Will History Be Kind to the Political Selfie?”

MARCH

It doesn’t quite qualify as fake news, but as far as non-news goes, Kim Kardashian posting a nude on Instagram is up there. Singer/actress Bette Midler had enough and criticized Kim Kardashian selfie, which of course, led to the backlash of the backlash.

Whatever possessed a man to load and unload his gun between taking selfies will never be revealed because said man forgot to unload before his final gun selfie. The results were predictably tragic.

On a hijacked EgyptAir flight, 26-year old Ben Innes decided to ask the hijacker for a selfie. Innes said, “I’m not sure why I did it, I just threw caution to the wind while trying to stay cheerful in the face of adversity. I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing to lose anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it.” Security experts were universal in not recommending this style of engagement.

innes

APRIL

Snapchat’s bread and butter is the selfie. Citing civic engagement, Snapchat filed an amicus brief in New Hampshire to overturn the state’s ban on voting booth selfies.

Taking selfies in real life can be so passé. That’s why the folks at Oculus coded selfie sticks into a virtual reality demo, and wowed the audience with their prototype at the F8 developer conference.

vr-selfie

MAY

Passwords are the bane of our online existence. Consumers have difficulty remembering secure passwords, which often leads to using the same password for multiple accounts. Like its biometric predecessors – the thumbprint and iris scan– the selfie is being considered for the next generation of security authentication.

Because killing a baby dolphin wasn’t enough, humanity sent in this bench warmer to destroy a 120 year old statue in Portugal of “child king” Dom Sebastian in the name of a selfie.  

sebastian-w710-h473-2x 

In the first year after its introduction, Google Photos proudly boasted that of the 13.7 petabytes of uploaded photos, 24 billion of them were selfies.

No selfie stick? Illustrator Liz Climo suggests asking a friend.

Canadians are usually nice people. But a group of Canucks called “High on Life” decided to ignore the obvious signage and break the law by walking over Yellowstone’s Grand Prismatic Springs for a photo op. They were charged with a litany of offenses and two have been banned from US Parks for five years.

America’s gun culture is alive and well, particularly in Hollywood where they are fetishized as a part of our collective Wild West past. This presents a perfect opportunity for parody. Exhibit A: Guns Replaced with Selfie Sticks.

true-grit

Focus group testing is infamous for potential inaccuracies (people often say what they think the interrogators want to hear). So you might not be shocked to find out that brands are studying selfies to understand consumer affinity.

JUNE

Residents of Sugar Land, TX were up in arms after a bronze statue depicting two women taking a selfie was installed outside of their City Hall. On Twitter, @GabbyVera3 wrote, “So is the city of Sugar Land expecting us to take pictures of that statue of 2 girls taking a selfie?”

selfiecrop

To make his point about the ridiculousness of his daughter’s selfies, Comedian-dad Chris “Burr” Martin decided to recreate them himself clad in the same outfits and donning the same duck-faced expressions. Daughter Cassie wasn’t amused and shouted “harassment” on social media, while the Internet chuckled all the way to 127,000 followers.

JULY

Duck-face is, like, so last year. Want your selfies to have a contemporary feel, you’d better learn to “fingermouth.”

We’ve known for years that using your phone in any capacity while driving leads to more accidents. While old people have been improbably using their phones to make calls, young people have resorted to #DrivingSelfies. Yes, there’s nothing like barreling down the highway in a ton of aluminum at 80mph while taking a selfie. The Auto Insurance Center wants to let you know that this is a bad idea.

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that Paul Ryan’s Congressional Republican intern selfie has a lot of white people. The Democrats responded with a photo of their own just to remind all Americans of how far a divide we have between left and right.

I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie. #SpeakerSelfie.

A photo posted by Speaker Paul Ryan (@speakerryan) on

Just when you think the drone has jumped the shark; just when you think the selfie has jumped the shark; along comes Mike Risser next to a 13th century castle in the Czech Republic.

Don’t body shame people. And don’t do it while taking a photo in the gym locker room and then posting it to your social media account. Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers’ asinine stunt got her a charge of invasion of privacy, a court date, and the ire of thousands of people on the Internet.

AUGUST

The Internet-famous have been leveraging the popularity of their social media accounts for years with both blatant and sneaky product placement. The FTC isn’t so fond of deceptive advertisements, and is looking to crack down on the practice.

Even with all the provocations of the brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, it turns out many of the people of South Korea just want to bring the band back together. Leave it to the feel-good nature of the Olympics to bring two gymnasts from the opposite sides of the peninsula to bring a little glimmer of hope.

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/761641203960086529/photo/1

You can’t help but chuckle at the ridiculous display of narcissism when fugitive-teen Amy Sharp asked the local TV station to use a more flattering photo of herself. The TV station declined her request, and Sharp was captured. Doesn’t help to ask, amirite?

SEPTEMBER

You really shouldn’t destroy other people’s property – especially if the only purpose is a viral video stunt. On the other hand, if you are gonna take a pair of garden shears to something other than your garden, a selfie stick isn’t a bad choice.

What do you do when you’re running for President and you don’t have time to walk the rope line for some selfies? Hillary Clinton stood at the back of a room filled with eager supporters as they turned their backs on her…for a selfie.

Photo by Barbara Kinney/Hillary for America

Photo by Barbara Kinney/Hillary for America

OCTOBER

Because the standard selfie isn’t enough, people keep creating variants from the bookshelfie to the donut selfie. But if taking a selfie has a good probability of damaging your phone, then we can’t get behind the High Five Selfie (also: it’s blurry).

All the way from Memphis, TN, musician Justin Timberlake broke the law and risked 30 days in jail for posting a ballot selfie to encourage young people to vote. Citing “limited resources” the district attorney decided not to pursue any charges.

NOVEMBER

You probably didn’t know (or care) that Kendall Jenner has a half-brother named Kirby (she doesn’t). But Kirby Jenner has been posting meticulously photoshopped images of the pair to the delight of fans and detractors of the Jenners alike.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BL_pBSLA00I/

Remember that Paul Ryan intern selfie? VP-elect Mike Pence has one too.

You might not agree with his politics, but that hasn’t stopped people from wanting to grab a selfie in front of Trump Tower.

Soda is bad for you, mmmkay? But if you’re gonna drink it, you might as well look good?

cocacola

Statistically speaking, we shouldn’t be surprised that the second most populous country has the highest rate of death by selfie. On the other hand, that shouldn’t be a fact that India takes any pride in.

Feeling bored? Strip naked and try to cover your naughty bits with a single finger, mirror and a well-positioned smartphone. Congratulations, you’ve completed the one finger nude selfie challenge.selbstportrait_02_imago-_susanna-kraus-500x318

Next time you’re in Berlin, you might want to step into the 3 ton Imago camera and trigger a life-size selfie taken directly on reversal photo paper. No negative and no digital. Just pure black-and-white selfie bliss.

DECEMBER

Actor Will Smith found himself in a pickle when he rolled up to a gas station with an empty tank, and then realized that he had forgotten his wallet. Fortunately, he was recognized, and traded a selfie for $10 in gas – which he promised to repay, but the star-struck fan declined.

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