Putting photos of yourself on the internet is a strange phenomenon born of the digital age in which we now find ourselves.
But cast your mind back only five years, then seven, then ten. It really wasn’t a normal, every day thing to do, in fact if anything it was frowned upon. ‘Oh my god Nicole is so self obsessed, all she does is put photos of herself on Facebook!’
‘Sarah is putting photos of herself up….AGAIN.’
While we cringe some days scrolling through Facebook at the proliferation of some friend’s over-sharing, it is now so commonplace that most pictures wouldn’t warrant a second glance.
I’ve been putting photos of myself online for seven years via a fashion blog I run fulltime. When I started, most of my photos were of a headless lady, because I simply could not bring myself to reveal my identity. And for almost two years, I didn’t have to. There was no real urge for readers to know, and the social climate around it was really the reverse of what it is today: putting your face online was for online dating or people looking for Russian brides.
I saw the tide change about two years into my blogging adventure. It was around 2009 when the following search terms started to appear in my Google analytics. ‘Who is Lady Melbourne,’ ‘What does Lady Melbourne look like?’ ‘Lady Melbourne face.’
I was truly alarmed by these urgings, as bemusing as it is to write this now. These days, putting myself up for scrutiny on the blog is my daily modus operandi. But it was only four years ago that society still allowed a modicum of privacy and wasn’t yet accustomed to the cold digital demand to fess up everything online; to see someone’s face or semi-clad body.
Now, in 2013 we have the phenomena of ‘selfies,’ and with that a growing trend for them to be taken while half naked and pouting. This is generally the domain of teenage girls, desperate for peer approval about everything from their looks to their dress sense.
In a recent article published on The Age, Olymia Nelson wrote: “seeing some of these images can feel too intimate. It’s almost as though we’re peering through a window. Some photos may be of girls showing skin, or girls lying on a bed. Just about all are seeking some sort of approval from their friends. The aim is not to communicate joy but to score a position.”
A lot has also been written of late, on the influence pornography is having on young people’s opinions of themselves, and in turn the effect it has on body image, their sex lives and personal grooming. This is a side effect of the fact that now more than ever, pornography is widely and easily available via the internet. You don’t even have to seek it out these days, if you happen to stumble upon a dubious website you can end up with ‘pop ups’ galore, simple advertising is more often than not overtly sexual and then there are Instagram and Facebook accounts dedicated solely to rating people’s uploaded, semi-nude selfies.
Whether we can blame the prevalence of pornography on this new social dimension is still undecided, but a more salient point, is where will this lead?
If things have changed so dramatically in the last four years, what will young women be uploading in another four?
In the not too distant future, there will be ten years worth of photos of my life on the blog. I see it as a social experiment that will one day produce a thesis. The photos are carefully arranged and portrayed and I have never sought the approval of readers, over the years experiencing crucifying insults that can only be flung from the anonymity that the online realm provides.
But I feel while my curation is still relevant and curious to some, it is part of an internet tide being washed out to sea, only to be replaced by something more sinister.
I’m still left wondering, what more do we want to see?
6 comments
Oh thank you Linn, and thank you for reading all this time!
Thanks Clare, so insightful. I think you are right in that it’s always an individual decision, perhaps the question should be why do we feel the need or want to share so much?
I can relate to your sentiments about blogs fitting into a bigger picture, I love to read them for ideas for everything from home wares, fashion and food but I want to hear what the person has to say. I always value a persons opinion over a press release. But maybe thats just because I’ve had years of conditioning as a blogger, who knows!
Yes it’s interesting, whenever I put photos of myself on Instagram they rate highly, unless it’s of flowers or food. I can’t work that out!
I find it interesting that the most likes I get on Instagram are the ‘selfies’. I rarely post them and spend time on photography, attempting to post interesting and fairly well composed photos yet I think we all just want to see a bit more of one another.
As someone who’s been on the internet since they were 14/15 (I’m almost 30 now), I grew up with it all probably around the same time that you did. It started with internet chatrooms when I was a teenager (a/s/l hahaha) progressed to internet forums like vogue during uni, and then blogs in my mid-20s til now. So I’ve been used to sharing bits and pieces of myself with strangers for a long time.
For me the fascination with seeing other people’s lives (in the context of fashion, beauty and (now) wedding blogs) is probably more aspirational and inspirational to me than anything else. So of course I want to see the person behind it. Maybe there’s a bit of jealousy? Like… I wish I had her wardrobe. I wish I could afford that wedding. I wish I could justify another five red lipsticks. I wish I could travel there.
Over time though, I think glimpses into other people’s lives has been more motivating than demotivating though. I’d probably have more money and less makeup, but I’m doubtful I would have packed up my whole life and moved to London if I didn’t know what was possible – blogs, the internet, the relationships I’ve made have formed an important part of that.
As for how much sharing is too much – I think it depends a lot on the individual, where your own lines are drawn, how comfortable you are, what your readers ask for and how much of that you are willing to respond to.
But I’ve always seen my blog and the blogs of others that I read regularly (like yours) as fitting into a much a bigger picture – and that the sum of the whole, to me, as part of my life and my regular blog reading habits, is much more important, has been much more valuable than the individual parts.
Hi LM.
Great article, and many VERY valid points.
Personally i think that a bit of mystery (right spelling?)is always more sexy than oversharing everything…
Not everything in once life belongs online…i do not need to see someone on the toilet, in bed having sex…and so one, I would be so scared hitting the publish button on content like that…what if your own mother/father saw them…i would die 🙂
There are many reasons why i digg your blogg girl…
And here are some of them, and in my head they can all be tied in well with your article..
1. You keep content classy
2. You are a one woman show – i respect that more then i can say…
3. Writing is really good
4. Photo quality is just awesome
5 You seem like a very cool girl.. who does her own thing without being afraid of what “everyone else thinks”.
6. I also love that you have kept it classy when it comes to your family/friends…
I have many times thought of putting photos of myself to online, but always been told “you have to be careful…you never know who will download them”
Do u ever think about that? And if so…what is your opinion on the subject?
I am trying the idea on for seize in my head a while longer, and it all comes down to being a bit scared..
Hope that was not to much rambling? ,and that you understand?
From a sunny Oslo have a great day LM:) (LM is my initials as well)
Linn