Defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website,” the selfie was named the Word of the Year for 2013 by Oxford Dictionaries. By October 2013, Oxford found that the word had not only established itself in our lingo but even spawned a number of variants such as helfie (a picture of one’s hair), belfie (a picture of one’s posterior) and even drelfie (drunken selfie). In celebration of the ‘year of the selfie’, Virgin Mobile Canada looked into this phenomenon a bit more closely. The results are interesting.
An online survey conducted with randomly selected Canadians found that 53% of Canadians have taken a selfie. The number jumps to 76% in the 18-34 age range. 44% of selfies are snapped to capture a memorable moment while another 31% are taken because no one else is around to take the picture. 31% are also taken so that people have a good photo of themselves to share.
“I am not ashamed to admit that I may have taken the odd selfie”, said Joseph Ottorino, managing director, Virgin Mobile Canada. “Like many Canadians, I care about instant access, getting the right angle and embodying the YOLO mantra. With our phones attached to us at all times, it makes sense to see people using them to capture moments as they happen.”
A few more interesting stats:
- 71 per cent of people who take selfies rarely or never share them, 29 per cent do share
- Men are less likely than women to share their selfie, 75 per cent rarely or never share
- 67 per cent of people familiar with selfies, don’t care about celebrity selfies
- Canadians want to see Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian take less selfies at 46 per cent , 41 per cent and 40 per cent respectively
What do you think of selfies? Let us know below.
Source : Virgin Mobile Canada