Over the last couple weeks in my ASTU class, we have discussed genre quite thoroughly. I’ve been able to gain a deeper understanding of it because we have spent so much time on it – contrary to high school where you spend one class on a topic and you move on to something else the next day. Genre is something that I have picked up on over the course of my life but I don’t recall actually learning about the various types of genres in school. To me, genre just meant different types of media. However, it can be expanded upon immensely. Genre can be interpreted and responded to in so many different ways.

Many people do not realize how many genres we see or experience in only one day. Some of the most obvious genres I experience in a day are reading my school books to magazines to the menu at the dining hall and listening to different types of music. Throughout the course of a day you also see people taking photos, whether it be of the scenery, with their friends, or even selfies. Reading and discussing the essay by Kate Douglas about selfies has shown me how a selfie is its own genre in itself, albeit a much less obvious genre than simply a type of music. Selfies as a genre receive much more backlash than other types of photography. They are much more casual and considered  narcissistic and disrespectful in many settings. Many people take photos of things or scenes they admire, so putting yourself in front of whatever else may be in the photo is showing that you are more important than the rest of the scene. Douglas’ essay clearly describes the negative connotations associated with selfies and even modern technology such as phones in general – people who take selfies may be seen as conceited and we have become so attached to our phones that they have become a form of witnessing. While these may be true under certain circumstances, the essay was about more than selfies themselves.

After reading this essay, I am now able to see how thin the line is between something being socially acceptable and unacceptable, and how people can be very blind to this. This article focuses not only on selfies as a genre, but how they are not acceptable in certain situations such as memorial sites. People, specifically young people, may not realize this because taking a photo of the memorial itself would be appropriate – so they may not realize how a selfie would be any different. I now realize how big of a role genre plays in social norms and society – even though a selfie is just another genre of photography, it is one that is not seen as socially acceptable. This is one of the social norms that can be seen as common sense by some people, but others may be totally oblivious to.

Sources

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750698017714838