Where did the concept behind the Selfie begin? The idea of ​​the self-portrait has been around for hundreds of years. Although the concept has been around as long as art itself, self-portraits did not become a major component of art until the Renaissance. In fact, Jan van Eyck is believed to have made the very first self-portrait in 1433. Why might this be important to understanding the selfie? Although the Selfie's rise to infamy didn't begin until 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, such as Vincent van Gogh or Andy Warhol, but few may know the reasoning behind creating these self-expressions. ThesisHuman beings are attracted to the idea of ​​instant gratification and the human image; Selfies are the perfect fusion of both concepts. In the modern age of social media, many people use the selfie to create their own personal representation of themselves for the world to see, or at least their followers. These followers could consist of family members, real friends, colleagues, or even strangers. Posing, filtering and editing are all forms 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] actual personality” (Qiu et al., 444). If a photo is a live capture of yourself, how is this possible? In the internet sphere of social media, people are able to display desired attributes. As a result, when people choose which traits they want and don't want to be seen, they hide their true personality from their followers. This form of managing one's personality in an image hindered the study in the article cited above. In this study, Qui and other researchers sought to ascertain whether personality cues are present and accurate in selfies. Their results demonstrate that personality cannot be correctly analyzed in the same personality signals as a non-selfie or real photograph. Although the social media selfie has been around since 2004, very little background has been developed in selfie research (Barry et al., 2). In Qui's study, researchers try to correlate the selfie and the five main personalities: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness (445). As stated in the last paragraph, Qui's research was unable to accurately link personality traits to the Selfie. However, they made some inferences about the results of their research. The positive emotions portrayed in a selfie are related to being outgoing, agreeable and open; Direct eye contact with the camera is also a representation of pleasantness. Conscientiousness is positively related to public environments and positive emotions. Neuroticism is associated with duckface (a pursing of the lips in an attempt to create a pouting expression) and lack of facial visibility in the photo (446-447). However, these correlations between personality traits pertain to the selfie viewer; which is a great start in selfie research, but more research is needed for accurate analysis. The second study to discuss focuses on the relationship of selfies to narcissism and self-esteem. As part of the research, three types of narcissism were analyzed: non-pathological, grandiose and vulnerable. Non-pathological narcissism is obvious