Apple of Seth Rogen’s eye and veritable Instagram royalty James Franco has taken to The New York Times with a carefully constructed applause to the 21st century’s vanity medium of choice, the (now certified Oxford dictionary official), selfie.
Titled ‘The Meanings Of The Selfie‘, Franco waxes lyrical much in the same way he did in his review of his own performance in Spring Breakers on Vice: a hefty serving of self-aware tongue in cheek, combined with a fleeting dash of unflinching seriousness. Oh Franco, you sexually ambiguous squinter, well-read, social media sceptic, excessively talented sweet prince, you.
Writing for The New York Times, Franco begins by establishing his status on the topic of selfies by saying, “…as I have become increasingly addicted to Instagram, I have been accused of posting too many of them [selfies]. I was called out on the “Today” show, and have even been called the selfie king.” Franco continues by elaborating and deconstructing the inherent power of the humble selfie, a truly multifaceted thing and not, simply, the vain work of an outstretched arm. “But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems to get attention. And attention seems to be the name of the game when it comes to social networking….Attention is power. And if you are someone people are interested in, then the selfie provides something very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible.”
Perhaps giving selfies more value than they are ostensibly worth, Franco considers the modern day, filtered self portrait as one of the ultimate tools of communicating and a means of self expression: “A texting conversation might fall short of communicating how you are feeling, but a selfie might make everything clear in an instant. Selfies are tools of communication more than marks of vanity (but yes, they can be a little vain).”
To celebrate James Franco’s admiration for selfies, and really for no particular reason other than the presence of a bb tiger, here is one of Franco’s greatest selfies from his curious and alarmingly incessant instagram feed. Read Franco’s ode to selfies on The New York Times here.
Via NYT.
