New Trend of 90s: Selfies
By Katherine Ying

"He was continuously commenting on my photos, trying to flatter me with words like 'beautiful and attractive'," a complaint came from a Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) senior student, whose name shall remain anonymous. Having posted her headshots on Renren.com, a Chinese social media site, she often receives comments and messages from strangers. "He wrote that he could not help but asking me out on a date," she added, "This is ridiculous." She is not the only one receiving such harassment from posting selfies.

The word "selfie" or "selfy" has been added to the Oxford Online Dictionary in August 2013, specifically defined as "a kind of self-portrait photograph, typically taken by smart phones or webcams."

Selfies become popular by the increasing use of smartphones and online social media. They may be big traps for young people, despite that selfie fans firmly believe that it is a good channel to show and share their colorful lives with their friends and followers.

Indulged in selfies, this group of 90s could easily be attacked from other Internet users and face privacy disclosure, one of the traps on the Internet. "Your photos might be used by others easily. They download them, edit them and distribute them directly," said Ken Chan, a sophomore accounting major who refuses to do selfies. According to some media reports in 2011, 14 nude photos of 12 female high-school students in Guangdong Province were found on pornographic websites, as their online photo albums were hacked. These photos received around 180,000 hits. What's worse is that, on Oct. 18, 2013 when this story was written, their photos could still be found on the Internet.

"It is very risky to take nude selfies and upload them to the Internet, because these photos are hard to remove once they are shared by others," Jarvinia Zhao, a senior Global Business Management major from University of Macau (UM), commented. Sharing or distributing selfies has become a big concern. Xinhua news agency has reported a 13-year-old girl from Hainan snapped nude selfies supposedly just for her boyfriend, but the photos were soon leaked to the Internet. It is unimaginable the shame the girl will suffer, nevertheless the future psychological trauma caused by such scandal is unclear. What's more, whether this issue has brought on more psychological trauma for the girl in the future is not clear.

Another critic regarding the selfie mainly focuses on narcissism. "They want to get compliments so as to satisfy their vanity," Phoebe Feng, a senior English major said. Some people indicate selfies are related to vulgarity. Chan said that selfies are totally "useless with vulgar tastes by showing what they eat or wear." Ron Wong, a master student said, "It is said that posting selfies on the social media shows 90s confidence, but sometimes I just cannot understand it."

With all the concerns and critics, nevertheless, selfie fans still believe that it is a good way of self-assertion. "Posting on social media shows my confidence," Fish Yu said. "I don't care about criticism, and for those who criticize me, I would directly put them into a blacklist."

Some scholars suggested that the widespread of selfie phenomenon might be related to self-motivation. An article published in Editorial Friend, a professional journal in China, claimed that with the growing prevalence of individualism, people tend to seek attention and opportunities to show off. Dr. Aaron Balick, a psychotherapist, who conducted research on online social network behavior, stated that a selfie is "an expression of an active online identity", which people are able to control by themselves, he was quoted in the BBC News Magazine.

"He finally gave up and never visited my webpage again after I ignored all comments and requests from strangers," the MUST student said. However, she can still receive requests sometimes from people who are outside of her social circle.