How Selfie-sh Are You?

I have been reading a lot about Greek mythology lately, and I came across the most peculiar character, none other than Narcissus. For the uninitiated, Narcissus was a hunter, who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Sadly, he was so mesmerised with his image that he drowned and was no more. However, he left behind a legacy spawning centuries. He gave us a term to describe people who are often obsessed with their own selves—narcissistic.

Let’s come back to present day, and think about the most self-obsessed person you know. My definition of a self-obsessed person is someone who just can’t get enough of themselves, and the only person who I think fits the bill is media maven Kim Kardashian. Love her or hate her, you’ve heard about her. Her Instagram feed is filled with over 2000 images of her face, she has written a book about her selfies called Selfish and she very famously ‘broke the internet’ earlier this year by posing for a magazine cover in the buff.

But why am I referring to someone rich and famous? I decided to internalise this Instagram-fuelled self-obsession and went through the photographs on my phone to see how many selfies I have. The first photograph on my phone dates back to October 2014. I began counting. I didn’t think it was possible, but I ended up counting 369 selfies on my phone.

Does this make me a self-obsessed, narcissistic person? Maybe, but let me explain. Even though it’s been less than a year, I discovered how much my face, and I, are changing. I am growing up. Older, wiser? I began comparing my face from a few days back to what I looked like two months ago. There’s a definite change, and I see it. I’m going to preserve my selfies, not for anything else, but for posterity. When I look back at my selfies as an 80-year-old, they will remind me of how silly and narcissistic I really was.

This article originally appeared in the July 2015 issue of Better Photography.