I'm thinking about how ubiquitous taking selfies is in our culture in general. Using myself as my own best guinea pig, because I take as many selfies as most people and to be clear, many of them I cherish and am happy I took them.

But I have always felt that there is a little something that is unnerving about the Selfie too. Since that very first person who decided to turn their camera back upon themselves, a whole new cultural behaviour was born. But perhaps we made an innocent mistake and missed some subtle things about the selfie photo or video.

Currently I am thinking about how the act of taking a selfie disrupts my relationship with both Time and Space......

Space:

The act of taking a selfie or focusing on a phone screen contracts our spatial experience. Where once our environment extended to the farthest point our eyes could see, it becomes confined to the few inches of a digital screen. This contraction of space is not just physical but also perceptual. Our awareness and attention, which could embrace a vast panorama, are now funneled into a small, pixelated window, leaving the richness of our surroundings less acknowledged and less appreciated.

Time:

Similarly, the use of phones to capture moments disrupts our temporal experience. In seeking to record the present, we inadvertently step out of it. This act transforms the present moment into something to be consumed in the future, paradoxically ensuring that we're never fully present in either. When these captured moments are shared, they invite others to also step out of their present, perpetuating a cycle where everyone is constantly shifting between past and future, rarely anchored in the now.