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Saturday, April 6, 2019

health too

A common practice that I find strange is people taking photos of themselves in a mirror and then posting the photos online.  Selfies are one thing, but, in general, I find the mirror selfies to be a bit off-putting unless there's some big story there.

Granted, this is something I see more from "young" people - teens and 20-somethings - so maybe it's just a generational gap thing.  It does seem to be uncommonly common among the young, so what do I know?

To add to my cringe, many take these mirror selfies in bathrooms or gym locker rooms - supposedly to show off  freshly worked-out bodies/ progress.  It's good to be proud of hard work paying off I suppose, but don't they realize there are often toilet stalls and urinals in the background?  Maybe they are so focused on the body, they don't think of their facial expression or the background of the photo.

The Illustration Friday prompt "health" has spilled into a second week.  Let me speak to a manager!

Well, it had me thinking about health again, but I didn't want to draw another body organ.

I wonder, is it healthy to feel a need to take and post mirror selfies?  Anthony Weiner aside, I guess it's not hurting anyone, and if it motivates to improve one's health, where's the harm?





As for me, I sat on my butt and did a drawing of a healthy, no faced, fully clothed mirror-selfie-taker.  I omitted the bathroom fixtures. 

I'm counting it as a healthy activity.

10 comments:

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

Selfies to me are just another narcissistic part of our society now. I find them obnoxious most of the time.
I am thankful I am not a teen at this time in the world.
We had Polaroid cameras and didn't take pictures of ourselves but of others or things. Wonder why it never was of ourselves?
Your art is so good. I envy talent.

Morgan Cartwright said...

The bathroom selfie thing drives me bananas! On the dating profile things, almost every guy has a bathroom/gym selfie! why?!? I don't want to see your dirty mirror or the toilet. And these guys aren't young folk, so it makes me think they are trying to appear younger to attract a mate.

Abby said...

Peggy, you're right. We had Polaroids, but selfies were not a thing. I mostly find them weird - "here I am sitting in my car again..." Am I supposed to care?

Morgan, yeesh, if I were perusing online dating profiles, the bathroom selfie would be an easy weed-out test!

John Holton said...

When I went to Hawai'i a few years ago, there as no one to take my picture, so I went into a public restroom at Pearl Harbor and snapped a picture of myself using one of those single-use cameras. I was wearing an aloha shirt and wanted it to get into the picture, and that's how I came up with it.

I think a lot of mirror selfies are the result of someone wantiung to show off what they're wearing (ormaybe NOT wearing)...

sandmoos said...

seeing too many of these bathroom selfies on facebook was one of my reasons for leaving there. yes, they can make one cringe. great drawing!

Abby said...

John, see - your mirror selfie has a story. Aloha!

sandmoss, this. So true for me too. I keep a facebook profile mainly because of my work, but I don't use it otherwise. So many selfies, and of people my age. "Here's my face that looks much like the selfie I posted a couple hours ago...and the one before that..."

Debabrata Neogi said...

Maybe they want to show that they have an expensive cell! like "apple" or anything else!

Abby said...

Debabrata, I hadn't thought of that, but could be. Spent so much $$ on that phone, better take and post multiple pics of it!

Linda Hensley said...

One of my current peeves is how-to tv shows where the camera shows people from weird angles talking to the audience. It's like young people are afraid of direct eye contact. A picture of a mirror seems about the same. Nice drawing :)

Lorraine said...

I don't post many photos of myself either on my blog or on Facebook and I do not/can not take selfie! Main reason...my arms are too short to get a decent photo of myself. I have a little sticky circle over my selfie camera on my phone so I don't accidentally scare myself when I see my extra chins. I admit that I have taken photos of myself in a mirror once or twice, but only so I could get far enough away from myself to look okay in the photo.