In this CNN article titled Me, My Selfie and I by Roy Peter Clark, a writer, editor, teacher, and the founder of the National Writer Workshop, he attempts to explain why he believes “selfie” has been chosen as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) “Word of the Year”. He begins the article first by stating that he himself has never taken a single “selfie”, he then continues to provide the OED definition for it, and the statistic that the frequency of the word’s use has increased by 17,000% in the last year. Although he says he has never taken one himself, he does mention that they can be fun and amusing to be in when eager fans of his ask to take them with him, usually at book fairs. He also attempts to compare them to photo-booths, as that used to be the most popular method of having pictures taken of yourself, especially when out with friends. In this context, he says seflies are good in that they informally capture particular moments. However, when he compares taking selfies to when it was more popular to simply ask someone else to take a picture of you and your friends, he says that they are bad in that they eliminate the small bit of human connection that used to be necessary. After discussing the ultra-popular selfie in those perspectives, Clark comes to the conclusion that “selfie” was an appropriate choice for the OED’s “Word of the Year” because it accurately represents the time and society in which we live today: “Technologically forward looking and self-obsessed.” (Clark) Personally, I agree with Clark’s opinion after having seen them all over social-media sites such as twitter and facebook, day after day. However, I don’t believe he would be successful in convincing someone with an already differing opinion due to his lack of evidence.
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