Self Portraits on Social Media

This is a forum question that has been raised and argued over the past few weeks..

How do you think the role of photography in our culture is changing, when you think about how it is being used on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc? I'm particularly interested to hear your opinions on how you think photography, particularly self portrait photography, is being used to define an individual's identity. How is our 'identity' constructed through the choice of photographs we post online?

(Clockwise) Celeb selfies … Kelly Brook, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Chrissy Teigen, Madonna, Ian Somerhalder and Tyra Banks. Photograph: Instagram

I think that there were many good points raised within the forum on this topic. It is of course something that is widely talked about. The use of portraits or 'selfies' on social media especially on those such as Facebook and Instagram is being more apparent. On my news feeds in particular I have noticed the constant new additions of these photos. I am even beginning to notice people changing their profile photos to these 'selfies' more than once a day every day.  This leads me to believe like raised many times in the forum that people are only posting these photos to gain likes or comments which compliment them on the way they look etc. 
Naomi raised a point which I agree with completely:
"We live in a society that social hierarchy is solely based upon the importance of how good you look as opposed to how good you are."
When looking at most media productions in this day everything is judged upon what you look like and what you're wearing. Celebrity based magazines for example I feel fuel this ideology. 
I don't think that any of us are blameless in this new phenomenon to hit our screens. In most cases we have all participated in this idea of the 'selfie' or this form of portraits. The new craze to hit social media at the moment is snap chat. 

SnapChat home page.

I think that this image sums up completely the idea behind SnapChat. You simply take photos of yourself and send them to your friends in an instant. I feel that this new app has been targeted at this new found love for portraiture. 

I would also agree with another point raised within the forum that these photos on our media are less about the photography and more about people portraying themselves in a desired way. Of course this is only true of some social medias and is dependant on the audience the pages are being targeted at for example. Businesses etc I don't think would be categorised under than same form of portraits. Personal pages however use these photos with the intention of gaining in most cases and encouraging the arguments of who looks better than who. 

Photo: www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/apr/02/rise-and-rise-of-the-selfie
http://www.snapchat.com/
Quote: Mycourse Forum - mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=7991&parent=13700