I remember when selfies were at the dawn of their existence hearing all sorts of rumours about how they foster narcissism and vanity. I remember believing all they hype too. It made perfect sense to me that having a device built to let you look at yourself and store infinite images of you would come with consequences.
They frenzy has since died down and selfies are now as much a part of our lives as white bread. But when our Creative Writing for New Media class was assigned two readings on the matter, they reminded me of my past concern. The two articles each argued for and against selfies and our addiction to our mobile phones. This was my starting point for the Podcast Script I wrote for the class.
The assignment was to interview three people and include those clips in the script, weaving them together using narration, sound effects, and music. First I interviewed two of my friends who I thought landed at either end of the selfie spectrum; one flooding her feed with photos, the other only the occasional snap.
For my third interview I was fortunate enough to have somewhat of an expert at my disposal. I asked my psychology professor for her take on what selfies might mean for our behaviour and our biology, to answer the questions that had been festering in my mind for years.
I came away from these interviews with more material than I knew what to do with and more questions than I'd gone in with. My challenge became taking what I had, three stellar interviews over 15 minutes long each, and picking out the best parts to feature in my script to support my argument.
I was luck enough to speak to some very insightful people who did answer my burning question of whether or not Selfies are evil. You can read the finished product here.
This project presented me with a challenge that will continue to resurface over the course of my career: the interview. I prepared a lot for each interview, listened intently when my interviewees were talking, scribbled down notes to myself, and followed the course of the conversation when it deviated from my plan. Ellen makes it look so easy.