The Role and Dangers of Selfie Culture from a Social-Psychological Perspective During the COVID-19 Pandemic Cover Image

A szelfikultúra szerepe és veszélyei szociálpszichológiai szemszögből a Covid19-világjárvány alatt
The Role and Dangers of Selfie Culture from a Social-Psychological Perspective During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author(s): Alexandra Valéria Sándor
Subject(s): Media studies, Psychology of Self, Behaviorism, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: UArtPress - Editura Universității de Arte din Tîrgu Mureş - A Marosvásárhelyi Művészeti Egyetem Kiadója
Keywords: COVID-19; selfie; social media; social psychology; sociology;

Summary/Abstract: In 2013, “selfie” was named the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary, implying a self-portrait photograph taken by oneself using a digital camera or a smartphone, mainly to post on social media. In the past decade, selfies have become a new medium for self-expression and self-representation (Qiu et al. 2015). On social media platforms, users publish virtual self-representations that are influenced by “real-life” individual and societal changes (Hogan & Quan-Haase 2010); which is also reflected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of social media and self-representation in social media posts increased during the first and the second wave of the pandemic, with selfies among the most popular types of content shared (Sándor 2022a; Sándor 2022b). The goal of the current paper is to provide a concise review of the selfie phenomenon from the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by the author's research results on self-representation and image modification on social media.

  • Issue Year: XXIII/2022
  • Issue No: 2 (43)
  • Page Range: 31-39
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Hungarian