Evolution of the selfie, from 1839 to AIA’s Avurudu groupie competition!

The ‘selfie’ fad is taking over Sri Lanka. And at AIA, we love selfies because it invariably means getting closer to the people that mean the most in your life.  That is why, we set out to track the evolution of this social phenomenon. 

Having established itself in contemporary linguistics, the term ‘selfie’ was added to the Merriam-Webster in 2014 and was the Oxford Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’ in 2013. Typically, it is a photo of yourself shot, using a camera device, including phones and tablets. At its inception, this was a tricky task which required much skill- as you had to hold the camera at a certain angle to capture the photo. However, this became much easier with the advent of the self-facing camera.

With the spread of the ‘selfie craze’ across the globe, people got even more innovative, and then was born the ‘groupie’. With the invention of the ‘selfie stick’ it was now not only possible to take a self-photo, but also for a group of people to take a photo without excluding the photographer! And so, the birth of the ‘groupie’ is one of contemporary society’s most notable social devices. 

But what do we know about the history of this social mania? The first known selfie was taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius, an American pioneer in photography, who produced a photo of himself. Because the process was slow, he was able to uncover the camera lens, run into the shot for a minute and then replace the lens cap.  The debut of the portable Kodak Brownie box camera in 1900 led to photographic self-portraits becoming a more widespread technique. Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna at the age of 13 was one of the first teenagers to take her own picture using a mirror to send to a friend in 1914.

Google (IO 2014) suggests that over 93 million selfies are shared each day and according to the latest ‘selfiegraphics’ (Tech infographics.com, 2014) there are over one million selfies taken each day with the most amount of selfies shared on facebook (48%).

So get on board this social trend and take a groupie this Avurudu with family or friends, inbox it to AIA Insurance’s Facebook page and stand a chance to win! For more information visit www.facebook.com/aiainsurancesrilankaplc.