I realized tonight that many of the people who are going to grow up to be significant in my kids’ adult lives (romantic partners, the other parents of their children, etc.) may already be born! And living their lives! Out there, totally unknown to us, and us totally unknown to them! NONE OF US HAVE ANY IDEA!
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I mentioned this on Twitter the other day and it got a satisfying reaction, but I am still agitating about it so I’ll mention it here too. I do believe that language has to be allowed to change to fit the needs of those using it (since it’s going to do so whether we allow it or not), but here is something that CROSSES THE LINE: the term “selfie” used to describe a photo that one did not take of oneself. I AM SEEING IT USED. This is like referring to any biography as an autobiography. It’s like referring to any homicide as a suicide. It’s like saying someone is self-appointed, when it was someone else who appointed them. Most parallelly, it’s like having an artist paint your picture and then referring to the painting as a self-portrait. There is a SPECIFIC REASON the culture came up with a word as silly as “selfie” instead of sticking to the word “photo.”
Yes! I occasionally think about the fact that I knew my brother’s wife when I was about 9. We were in Brownies together and she was unique because she was from a different school. …and also because she was to become my future SIL 16 years later.
So, you might already know some of the significant others, but still not know.
You may have taken selfies of them for all we know. :)
Thank you for that last sentence. I am having a very bad few days (a beloved ex-sister in law is in her last few hours of life) but you made me LOL. Thank you.
I have had a DAY today. This post made it less capitalized. Thank you.
My MIL asked if we’d seen her dog’s “selfie” on Facebook.
I used to work with the woman who became my daughter’s mother-in-law ten years later. I thought she was a very nice person – lots of fun to work with. Which is definitely a plus now that she is part of our family! But wow- if you had told me that her son would marry my daughter all those years back I would have been shocked! I guess that’s what makes life so interesting!
My husband is 17 years older than me, so I’ve had the thought that if 18 year old him had met me, he would have thought I was an adorable baby and it would never in a million years have crossed his mind that he’d marry me someday. While he was doing all his early adult things, I was learning to tie my shoes and he had no idea who/where I was.
So weird.
Ha! Well we’ve got a similar age split and when my DH followed his then-wife to our community, they rented the place that belonged to my piano teacher, who was away for the year and my mom was acting as landlord. So. We may have “met” (I’d have been about 12), but (as you’d expect) we have no recollection of each other from those times.
I see this complaint about “selfies” come up every so often and one thing always bothers me…cameras have timers! You can put them on tripods/shelfs! So just because a photo is not at arms-length does not mean that it is not a “selfie!” : ) (And yes, my phone’s camera has a timer for front facing photos…)
Yes, and of course if they DID use the timer to take a photo of themselves, they COULD call it a selfie (though I think of the selfie in its truest form as involving either a stretched-out arm or a mirror). But what I’m seeing is “My brother took this great selfie of me!”
Well now – I hadn’t actually ever thought of the fact that my son’s significant other is out there somewhere!
I’m with Wendy though – in that my husband is twelve years older. And when he tells a story where he includes his age at the time; I like to remind him of how old I was at the same time.
The word selfie is enough to aggravate me – but to have it used improperly makes me want to scream.
A few years before we started our family we moved to a small rural area. Most of the people here married in their late teens/very early twenties to their high school sweetheart or at least someone they grew up with.
And ever since preschool, whenever the boys mention some girl I can’t help but wonder “Is she my future daughter in law?”
YES. The most annoying misuse of selfie for me was that article going around last week about the kid in Omaha who took a “selfie” with Paul McCartney and Warren Buffet in the background…except his friend took the photo. I’m not even sure it was the kid who mislabeled it – I think it was whatever sites were picking it up.
I have not seen this. But I do not approve.
The only appropriate use of the word “selfie” when someone else took the picture is IF THAT SOMEONE IS IN THE PICTURE TOO.
And yes, the camera should be in the person’s hand, not on a tripod.
And then of course I will bring up that someone I know used selfie in proper context EXCEPT SHE CALLED IT A SELPHIE.
No.