“A picture is worth a thousand words” is the perfect idiom to describe selfies. Selfies are the most current and instant way for people to communicate where they are, what they are doing, and who they are with to their friends, family, and/or the general public through social media. There are many tips and tricks to creating the ‘best’ selfie, including: bright lighting, filters, virtual stickers and emoticons, and angles. Nevertheless, to represent yourself “perfectly” in a selfie, you need to consider the proper use of your body language.

Your body language has great potential to communicate who you are to others, without you needing to say a word, similar to the contemporary selfie. Body language is a universal, non-verbal language. According to Amy Cuddy, a professor at Harvard Business School, “our non-verbals govern how other people think and feel about us”, meaning that people’s body language is how they are judged by others, especially when they first meet (Cuddy). In her TED Talk, “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are”, Cuddy states that if you are constantly looking down, crossing your arms and legs, or even have bad posture, people are more likely to view you as less competent, or closed minded. In contrast, if you look up, have good posture, are physically open, and “occupy space”, people will view you in a much more positive and powerful way (Cuddy). Yet, will you also view yourself in a more confident way if you create this open and positive body language? Cuddy explains that yes, in fact, we can create this confidence and empowerment in ourselves through our own body language.

Not only can people create power and confidence by being physically open, but Cuddy explains that people can also fake being confident and/or happy, and still gain a slight momentum of these feelings that they are attempting to feel (Cuddy). After researching this topic more, I came across an article that explains how the idiom “fake it ‘til you make it” works, and why our brain reacts in unique ways to specific forms of body language and facial expressions.

Selfies are a form of “self-representation”, where the subject of the selfie has an opportunity to control their own photograph and it’s outcomes (Douglas 3). Youth who take selfies in “sites of trauma” (for example: a funeral, Ground Zero, or a Holocaust memorial) sometimes have inappropriate body language and facial expressions (Douglas 2). Two examples of this are Eazy E and Katelyn Butler who took selfies in the Pearl Harbour Memorial in Oahu, Hawaii (Douglas 8-10). Perhaps people who act like this in traumatic locations have optimistic body language and smiles to lift their own cheerfulness and spirits?

Work Cited:

“A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.” Wikipedia, 14 Sept. 2017,

           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_words. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

Douglas, Kate. “Youth, trauma, and memorialization: The selfie as witnessing.” Memory Studies 2017,              pp. 1-16.

“Fake It ’Til You Make It.” Wikipedia, 8 Aug. 2017,

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_it_%27til_you_make_it. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

“Neuroscience: ‘Fake It Until You Make It’ Actually Works.” Forbes, 13 Apr. 2016,

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/04/13/neuroscience-fake-it-until-you-make-it-                       actually-works/#36e6d473397a

Van Edwards, Vanessa. “How to Take the Perfect Selfie.” Scienceofpeople,

            https://www.scienceofpeople.com/2015/01/take-perfect-selfie/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

“Your body language may shape who you are | Amy Cuddy.” Youtube, uploaded by TED, 1 Oct. 2012,                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc.