Submitted by Dr Helen Clegg

The next psychology research seminar will be on Wednesday 24th February 2016 in F43. The speaker will be Dr Lisa Lazard from The Open University. Her talk and abstract are below:

#selfie: Explorations of feminine identity in social media

This paper discusses work in progress on the construction of young women’s identities online in and through the taking and posting of selfies to social media. The upload of photographic self-portraits to social media has become a routine social activity which is reflected in increased trends in the use of the term itself. The word ‘selfie’ has become so commonplace, it has earned a place in the online oxford dictionary in 2013. The taking and posting of selfies – alone or with others – is arguably one of the central components in the production and management of online identities. The widespread emphasis on the visual presentation of self is set against a cultural backdrop in which bodies, particularly women’s bodies, are understood as an on-going site of self-improvement and betterment (for example, diet, exercise, cosmetic ‘enhancement’). In this paper, I discuss our initial conceptualisations of how photographic technologies become bound up with technologies of self-improvement and how this translates into the understanding of self and others online.

Refreshments will be available from 3.15pm.