Whether or not a person posts selfies can’t tell you much on its own. Some people will argue that those who post too many have low self-esteem, or crave likes and validation and see a constant flow of selfies as an easy way to get it. Or maybe they have high self-esteem, and think the world craves a constant stream of selfies. (The likes and comments may give them this impression.)Other people might take a lot of selfies, but only post a few. They might be equally lacking in self-esteem, but are aware of the meta-impression they make and know that too many might reflect badly on them. They may still crave approval, and possibly do it through other means, like humblebrags or references to wealth, power, and popularity.What is self-esteem, anyway? What is it important, and what is the optimum level for happiness and respect? I seriously wonder sometimes. I narrowly escaped the self-esteem movement in school, and in fact never even heard the term until I was in my mid-20s.Too low self-esteem, it seems,sets a person up to be taken advantage of, or accept themselves as “not enough,” or to give up too easily. It also can help increase compassion and understanding and powers of observation.Too high self-esteem can manifest in narrow-mindedness, selfishness, overconfidence, and at worst, willful ignorance. Some consider the self-esteem movement responsible for the worst stereotypes of millennials: an unhealthy level of entitlement, unwillingness to work hard without recognition, increased sensitivity to constructive criticism, and receptiveness to alternative facts that support their worldview.Please note that most millennials I know are not like this. Especially those on Quora.High self-esteem also can mean that a person won’t be easily pushed around, that they are comfortable in their own skin and don’t walk around with something to prove, that they have enough love in their heart to be accepting of others and their unique gifts and flaws.These are the pros and cons, as far as I can tell.But back to selfies and self-esteem: there is no way to know. Perhaps the selfie-less girls have bad vision which makes focusing and snapping them a problem. Maybe they’d rather post other stuff. Maybe they get their validation from other sources, and post pictures of their fabulous gardens or homemade meals or large group of beautiful and popular friends. It��s hard to tell, but then again, self-esteem isn’t always the best measure of a person.
I tried to get a high resolution image of this selfie on the internet and managed to get one. However, one at a higher resolution would have proved better. Let us look at this photograph very carefully. The main areas (I have marked them with red circles) to note are:The goggles: Observe the photo and you can obviously see the aero-bridge used by passengers to board or disembark from an air plane. It would be impossible for the pilot to take the selfie in air, in that case.The engine: The engine is not rotating. Look at the small white spiral at the centre of the engine. You will not see it when the engine is operating. So, the plane was not in mid-air when this photo was taken.Air drag: At around 800 km/h, the air drag on the pilot will throw him off the aircraft. His neatly brushed hair and perfectly positioned goggles are out of question. Look at his tie. At the speed of this aircraft, it is not expected that his tie will loosely float in air as in light breeze.So, how was this done?Photoshop or a similar program! This photo was most possibly taken while the aircraft was stationary at the airport. The photo was then placed on the background image. The background image was chosen very carefully to match sun angles and height to look realistic. Some Photoshop effects can be seen near the waist (red circle). A higher resolution image will definitely also show some more Photoshop effects at the boundary of the aircraft and the pilot’s right side.Additionally, I think it will be out question for the pilot to do this due to safety concerns.Edit 1:I noted that some people cannot “see” the camera in the pilot’s hand. First, the camera is required because the photo of the pilot was taken with the aircraft. This photo was overlaid on the background.What it can be is that it is a very small camera like the GoPro Hero4 (or Session) (GoPro) or similar. In fact I can notice the thumb and point finger or middle finger grabbing the camera. I have attached a sketch where I can decipher at least two fingers and the thumb (in black) and the camera (in red). The red dotted part is the portion of the camera that cannot be made out from the shadow.
Self portraits are older than cameras. People first painted them in caves. Artists painted them. Photographers took them with the first cameras. I took this long ago:Greg Pretending Caddie is MineAnd here is a more recent one:Photos copyright Gregory Scott, all rights reserved.Today, selfies are wildly popular because cell phone cameras have made them possible for almost everybody. If you don’t like them, it’s probably because most photographers are quite casual, and often are not that creative. But there is nothing wrong with taking a photo of yourself. A selfie can serve as a personal souvenir of some good time, for example, much more meaningful than a shot glass with the name of the place, which seems to be a common collectible. They’re easy to take, and easy to share. Yeah, they’re ubiquitous, but they’re not necessarily pernicious.
Why do I look so different in photos/videos than I do in the mirror?
The issue is complicated. Turns out, taking portraits is tricky and most of the photos we see are from amateurs with bad cell phone cameras. http://lifehacker.com/5932639/remember-t… There's also the fact that your self-image reference comes from a mirror, which is an unique view. Subtle variations in how a photo is lit, or angled or whatever will disagree with what you perceive your self image to be, and it will give you an adverse reaction in your mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUDxHB41d… It's a very similar effect to the phenomenon of people not liking to hear themselves recorded. Because your voice is distorted in your head as a result of the acoustics of your skull, a recording of your voice is necessarily different from your mental reference. This makes you think you sound bad on recordings. It's not that you sound, or look, bad. It's that you sound and look different from what your brain remembers you sound and look like. Consider photos you've seen of your friends and family, and audio recordings you've heard of your friends and family. Because you see and hear them the same way that a camera sees and a microphone hears them, your brain doesn't perceive a difference between the two and you tell them "you look fine!" "You don't sound weird!" It's true. They sound and look exactly (up to the limit of the quality of the camera/microphone) as you always remember them. I think this insecurity about cameras and microphones persist because we don't trust our friends and family to be honest and tell us that we do actually look badly or sound bad. We think we are the only ones who are capable of being honest judges Unfortunately, our perceptions are always distorted, so we're the least effective judges. The only thing you can do is to force yourself to not to avoid cameras and recordings. The more you watch yourself and listen to yourself, the more your mental processes will assimilate the difference between the two and you'll have less and less aversion over time.
These are called air quotes, just like we emphasis some words by putting them in double quotes ("). People while communicating verbally may put emphasis or highlight some words by "air quoting" them as a visible gesture. The 2 fingers are nothing but the double quotes which are said to surround the spoken word. Generally used in scarcasim. Don't know where it originated but it's used world wide. Since we have a lot of American cultural influences through media and other forms you might have observed more with the Americans or their media.On another note you can watch the episode of friends, where Ross teaches Joey about this same topic, it's hilarious I had the exact same question some years back. Hope this helps. Cheers.