Where did the concept behind the selfie begin? The idea of ​​self-portraiture has been around for hundreds of years. Although the concept has been around for as long as art itself has existed, self-portraits did not become a major component of art until the Renaissance. In fact, Jan van Eyck is considered to have made the first true self-portrait in 1433. Why might this be important for understanding the selfie? Although the selfie's infamy only began with Apple's creation of the front-facing camera, the concept of the selfie began in the art world. Many may recognize the giants of self-portraiture, like Vincent van Gogh or Andy Warhol, but few know the reasoning behind creating these self-expressions. ThesesHumans are attracted to the idea of ​​instant gratification and to the human image; Selfies are the perfect fusion of the two concepts. In the modern age of social media, many people use the selfie to create their own personal representation of themselves and show it to the world, or at least to their followers. These followers can be family members, real friends, colleagues or even strangers. Posing, filtering, and editing are all a form of self-promotion and self-presentation of a person in a socially desirable image. In the article “What does your selfie say about you?” » Researchers believe that unlike other forms of photography, selfies “do not reflect [a person's] real personality” (Qiu et al., 444). If a photo is a live capture of yourself, how is that possible? In the Internet sphere of social media, people can display whatever attributes they want. Therefore, when people choose which traits they want or don't want to be seen, they are hiding their true personality from their followers. This form of managing one's personality in an image hindered the study of the aforementioned article. In this study, Qui and his fellow researchers sought to determine whether personality cues were present and accurate in selfies. Their results demonstrate that personality cannot be correctly analyzed using the same personality cues as a non-Selfie or real photograph. Although Selfie in social media has been around since 2004, very little data has been developed in Selfie research (Barry et al., 2). In Qui's study, researchers seek to correlate the selfie with the big five personalities: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and open-mindedness (445). As noted in the last paragraph, Qui's research failed to accurately link personality traits to the selfie. They did, however, draw conclusions from the results of their research. Positive emotions depicted in a selfie are linked to being outgoing, agreeable, and open; Direct eye contact with the camera is also a representation of pleasantness. Conscientiousness is positively correlated with public environments and positive emotions. Neuroticism is associated with duckface (a pursing of the lips in an attempt to create a sullen appearance) and lack of visibility of the face in the photo (446-447). However, these personality trait correlations relate to the viewer of the selfie; which is a great start in selfie research, but more research is needed for an accurate analysis. The second study to be discussed focuses on the relationship between selfies, narcissism, and self-esteem. Three types of narcissism have been analyzed in research, non-pathological, grandiose and vulnerable. Non-pathological narcissism is evident