Word of the Year 2013: Many guesses Word of the Year 2013: Many guesses would unfortunately be words such as “twittersphere” or “hashtag” or God forbid… “twerk.”
Well according to Oxford Dictionaries, the 2013 Word of the Year is none of the above. It is SELFIE. You heard me, (figuratively) selfie.
Candidates for word of the year are nominated because they capture an idea, a movement, or a question, that has substantially occupied people over the past year. The reason selfie won? Because it has become a part of everyday life, everyday speech. We have without a doubt accepted it as a real word, and use it an unbelievable amount.
The thing about the word selfie is, it actually restricts its meaning: “A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website” (Oxford Dictionaries). Basically, they are saying that not just any self-portrait can be deemed a selfie, because selfie is a distinctive word for the digital, media-obsessed, share-myself-with-the-world moment.
Which brings us to the idea of a selfie. The trend seems to be either use it and adore it or avoid it and abhor it.
Selfies are often seen as a way to fish for compliments. Girls post a new profile pic that is a selfie, and expects her comment feed to over flow with appraisals and words such as “beautiful” or “gorgeous” or at the very least “cute.” It seems that most guys post selfies due to the fact that they are seeing results from that new workout, or they are making a goofy face to make fun of the selfies that all the girls seem to adore.
You love yourself, we get it! It doesn’t mean that we need to see proof of that self-love every day with a new picture. Even if your duck face is altered slightly in each picture.
Let’s break it down to things that qualify for a selfie: new haircut, new hair color, those braces finally gone, you received a black eye (you should see the other guy), your friends gave you a he-passed-out-with-his-shoes-on sharpie tattoo, or you got a new puppy and require a picture with him/her. Things that shouldn’t qualify for a selfie: it’s a new day! You curled your hair. (Again.) You took your make up off. (#nomakeup #nofilter.) Unnecessary. You got new makeup, heads up ladies, that new eyeliner looks the same as the old.
Whether we like it or not, this word is here to stay. Maybe it will fade in the next few decades, or maybe our generation will still be obsessed with how we look at the age of 70, all wrinkles and stretched out tattoos as we walk down the street and wirelessly jam to the “classics,” which, according to the Grammys will be Macklemore, Lorde, Imagine Dragons and Vampire Weekend.
