>> ALEX: Hey guys!
I’m here, let’s get technical.
Did you know that the average millennial could take over 25,000 selfies in his or her life?
It’s one of the most popular... oh, one sec, let me just post this to my story.
But, in the midst of all these duck faces and Kardashians, have you ever thought to
yourself, what is the history of the selfie?
What was the first selfie, and how did it get to what it is today?
Well, today, we’ll answer that question by looking at... the evolution of the selfie.
So, a good place to start is “What is the First Selfie?”
Well, depends.
As you might have guessed, what constitutes a selfie is pretty loose, so depending on
your source, you might get a couple different things, so I’ll just go as far back as I
can.
The first self portrait was made by a guy named Parmigianino in 1524.
It was a oil painting of himself in a mirror in his studio
There are two types of mirrors: concave and convex mirrors.
Concave mirrors curve in, sorta like a bowl, and convex mirrors bulge out, sorta like a
ball.
In this painting, Parmigianino is looking into a convex mirror.
We can also see his hand near the outside of the frame, really adding to that selfie
vibe.
You know what, it kinda looks like a photo taken by those new Snapchat Spectacles.
Huh.
HUH!
It’s amazing the similarities between this photo and the modern day selfie.
For example, Parmigianino was 21 years old when took this selfie, a typical age for a
selfie taker, and, since it was made, the painting changed hands many times and many
people have seen it.
The og social media.
And with that, we are thrust into the age of the drawing selfie.
Leonardo Di Vinci sketched this lit selfie in the 1512.
It’s known as the Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk.
Leo was 60 when he made this selfie, which makes sense, because if you’re a selfie
taker over 40, you’re empirically more likely to male.
Next we have Rembrandt in 1630, whose etched selfie is particularly famous for being, well,
duck faced.
Rembrandt is famous for making tons of other pictures in this style, even other selfies,
but this one is famous because of that sweet, sweet duck face.
I guess we now know that Rembrandt isn’t Rembland.
AhhhhhI’m so sorry.
Everyone told me I should do that, but what is life you can’t make cringy puns?
>> BO BURNHAM: #Deep
The first photo selfie was taken in 1839 by a guy named Robert Cornelius, who is credited
on Wikipedia as, and I kid you not, “an American pioneer of photography...
and lamp manufacturer.”
To take this famous selfie, Cornelius had to set up his camera in his family’s store
in Philadelphia, take off the lens cap, run into frame, stand there for a minute, and
then put the cap back on.
Can you imagine having to stand still for a minute just to take a selfie?
I mean, that would be like
Sidenote, Robert Cornelius raised 8 children.
What have you done today?
*singing* Famous Vincent Van Gogh selfie from 1889 yea!
And with that, we enter what I like to call, the lowkey age of Selfies.
No big advancements, and we’re just kinda stalling until we get to the turn of the century.
It is important to note, though, that a lot of these selfies were taken with the help
of mirrors.
It’s kinda like a forced motif.
It’s a common thing that comes up in all of theses selfies, but because they kinda
have to be in them.
Sure, there were a couple handheld ones like selfies we know today, but those weren’t
common because, well, old cameras were big, and were heavy, and, as shown in this photo,
took two hands to hold.
auss
Also, I want to shout out to this JKF selfie.
Beachy vibes my man.
The first selfies on a lightweight, handheld mobile device was taken on gameboys like this
one.
They have a high quality 256×224 camera, so you know it’s team crispy approved.
The first camera phone was released in November of 2000.
It was the Sharp J-SH04, and granted, the camera wasn’t great, but it definitely pioneered
the technology.
It was also around this time when the world “selfie” was created.
Now, as Ben Zimmer for Slate explains “it's very likely that there was no single moment
when the word was created, no Ur-selfie.”
Right?
It’s not like someone was magically like...
SELFIE!!
While we don’t know exactly when it’s from, we do know where it’s from.
Australia!
In Australia around that time, it was popular to add the suffix -ie to things, like, someone
from Australia is an Aussie, or a barbeque is a barbie.
Thus, if you combine self with the suffix -ie, you get selfie.
The first phones with a front-facing camera were the Motorola A835 and Sony Ericsson Z1010,
man how phone names have changed.
These phone were released in the second half of 2003.
And, now that that was established, one thing led to another, and selfies blew up.
As this Google trend graph shows, between 2013 and early 2014 was the time when selfies
really blew up.
Selfies are, unsurprisingly, most popular in Australia, the birthplace of the word,
and America.
Selfies have been all over the place in recent years.
The most retweeted tweet of all time is Ellen Degeneres's Oscar selfie.
National Selfie Day is June 21st.
Yes, that’s actually a thing.
Apparently.
50% of male college students and 77% of female college students have shared selfies on Snapchat.
On the date this video was made, over 288 million pictures have been posted to hashtag
selfie on instagram.
14% of selfies have filters, and 36% of selfie photographers have confessed they’ve altered
or edited their selfie.
And, as you probably know, Selfie was Oxford’s infamous word of the year in 2013.
Currently, everyone from political figures to celebrities, to everyday people take selfies.
Selfies, whether you like ‘em or not, are part of popular culture, and for good reason.
Not only are we innately fascinated with ourselves, humans are also very social animals.
We have to share ourselves and our lives with other people, and other people have to do
the same with us.
So, the next time you hit that button at the bottom of your phone, remember the rich and
extensive history behind these digital self portraits.
Until next time, DFTBA, thanks for watching, and explore on.
Congrats to Sugar Slice & A Pizza Slice for winning the Bruce biography giveaway.
I think I sent you a DM, but if you didn’t get it, shoot me an email and I’ll get this
shipped out there right away.
Thanks!
Congrats!
This video is part of a massive collaboration between a ton of educational youtubers.
Together, we look at the evolution of amazing things in our world.
Draw Curiosity asks “Why did two sexes evolve?”, Conjecture asks “Why do facial expressions
evolve?”, Alliterative asks “Why do word meaning evolve?”, Art Explains asks “Why
would land animals evolve returning to the sea?”, Soliloquy asks “Why does homosexuality
evolve?”, and, of course, I look at how the selfie evolved.
If any or all of those video topics sound interesting to you, boom, there’s a link
on screen to a playlist for you to check out.
There’s also some other shenanigans and sub button and videos and see ya bye!