Is It Just Me Or Has The Pandemic Changed Our Obsession With Taking Grid-Worthy Selfies?

pandemic selfies shifted habits photo dump

A lot of things have changed over the last 18 months of the pandemic, but one thing I’ve recently noticed is that I don’t think I’ve taken a selfie that’s worthy for the grid in months. As someone who has over 3000 selfie-camera photos in their phone and always had the habit of finding the “good light” in every new rental, the fact I’ve taken maybe two selfies that I’d be happy to publish on Instagram this pandemic year feels a bit weird.

I didn’t even realise that my photo habits had shifted so much until my workmate asked me for a recent photo of myself to use in a story, and I found I had to scroll back a long way before I came across anything that I felt comfortable being published.

That’s not to say I haven’t taken photos – I’ve snapped plenty of shit over the last couple of pandemic years but it’s rarely selfies. Not any mirror shots, nor chunks of 20+ selfies to ~get the shot~ that I could put online. Of the rare photos I’d taken of myself, they were largely quick snaps I’d taken to share in the group chat or with my boyfriend.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CE3oOofhX_v/

That photo is one of the most recent photos of myself I’ve taken and posted, and it’s from September 2020.

I’m sure there’s some kind of deeper psychology to all of this, which I’m not sure I want ask my psych about. Perhaps lockdowns and living in the pandemic has made me re-evaluate my relationship with myself and my image. Maybe I’m shifting my attention outwards, to all the small nice things in life that’s been taken for granted for so long. Maybe the months without a haircut/brow wax/chin laser made me realise nobody needs to see that.

Or maybe there’s just not much happening that inspires me to take photos worthy of sharing beyond the confines of the group chat right now.

The photo dump has solidified its place as the way a lot of people tend to post now, especially on Instagram. Instead of a single, perfectly-lit, photo with and precision-cut pout, it’s now a batch drop of fleeting moments in time from life as it rolls on. It’s almost as if there’s been a serious shift away from the overall obsession with selfies and into a peek behind the curtain on the poster’s life.

But who knows, this shift in my selfie sabbatical might change the first day I see my mates at the pub and put away a few beers.


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