The selfie was more a linguistic trend than a new kind of thing

Evidence

Canonizing the selfie as an official “thing,” Oxford defined this word as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” Selfies were products of social media and digital photography, an effect of the affordances of contemporary technology. This was true. But, if those writing about selfies after 2013 were perpetually referring to a dictionary definition, it follows that selfies were, more than anything, a linguistic trend. Giving primacy to the selfie as a thing—even a thing produced by technology—is, strangely, far too linguistically determinative. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 62

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is the ‘selfie as linguistic trend’ argument overstated? The material practice of arm’s-length photography genuinely did shift with smartphone cameras, even if the name is recent.